'The Enemies of Reason' on Closures, Openness, and the Internet

With God’s help

2008

introduction

It is accepted today in the religious-Torah world that the Internet does more harm than good. Here I would like to emphasize a positive aspect of Internet use, and I am referring to intellectual forums, and in particular to the forum 'Stop Here, Thinkers' (hereinafter: Etzkach).

From these words, I will try to understand the significance of this forum, especially in relation to the Haredi world, and I will describe it mainly through some of my experiences there. These words are raised here to offer another angle for discussion on the subject of the harms of closures in the Haredi world and in general, and to point out the clearly positive value that exists in this aspect of the Internet. Although, due to brevity, I will concentrate more on description and reporting, and less on analysis.

I will begin with an important clarification. Everything that will be said here is a generalization. Sometimes I describe a phenomenon as if it characterizes the forum participants, when it is only a certain group of them. My goal here is not to give a scientific description, but to describe an atmosphere in general. It should also be noted that most of the descriptions refer to the ultra-Orthodox participants in the forum, and at least in recent years it is quite clear that this is a minority.

Israel[1]

The forum was founded about seven years ago by a group of Haredi avrechims, most of whom were students of the late Rabbi Gedaliah Nadel (whom I, too, had the privilege of hearing a little from). Later, many members were added to it, mainly men, but there are also women. Some of them are Haredi (Hasidim and Lithuanians), and some are secular, questioning, religious-national, and even Reform (at least two Reform women regularly participate in it). There are occasional participants, but most of them are regulars. The fields of occupation and education of the participants are quite diverse. Some are avrechims and yeshiva students, and some are engaged in liberal professions (lecturers at universities, lawyers, judges, etc.). There are also those with Torah positions. The age of most of the participants is quite young, but there are also older people (even after retirement).

The forum has set itself the goal of clarifying problems in the world of Torah and Judaism, Halacha and philosophy, with complete openness, and without any obligation to basic assumptions. It is permissible to raise any position and any opinion, no matter how extreme and heretical, but it must be justified, and expressed with respect for every person, position or topic, without slander or gossip (in cases where there are blatant exceptions, the messages are deleted by the management. This should be appreciated more against the background of the great anger and resentment that many there feel towards the society in which they live). In the terminology accepted there, the spirit of the 'angel Shaliel' stands in the background of the discussions. For this reason, political issues are prohibited from discussion there, unless they focus on their fundamental theoretical aspects, and in no way on political practice, or on the names of specific people.

This openness, which leads to the raising of several problematic positions from a Torah perspective, arouses quite a bit of criticism of the forum and participants (beyond the mere fact that they are wandering around the Internet) from within Haredi society. In the 'Behadrei Haredim' forum (which is less interested in intellectual clarifications, and more in Haredi news and gossip), this forum is referred to as 'a forum whose name is forbidden to be mentioned' (due to its 'pagan' nature). On the other hand, by way of joking and mocking, the participants of the EZKH call that forum - 'the forum whose name is permitted to be mentioned'. That forum arouses great disgust in some of the participants of the EZKH (because of its tendency and lack of openness, and even more so because of the low level and gossip that usually characterizes it).

Participating in the forum creates very interesting connections and fascinating acquaintances. At an event hosted by one of the forum members (an ultra-Orthodox avrechi who is doing a doctorate at the university), I sat at the table with a well-known international attorney (from an ultra-Orthodox background) and a young avrechi wearing a striped robe from 'Toldot Aharon' (and later another Haredi activist from the forum joined). The topics of conversation were philosophy and sociology, as well as jokes and various trivial matters. The common language flowed and bubbled, and I felt as if we all belonged to the same group and spoke a common language. At another meeting, held at my home, two Reform women participated, along with several knit kippah wearers, avrechi and working people, as well as Haredi avrechi. The connections were excellent, and different opinions were exchanged, with a willingness to listen to everyone (and certainly without giving up positions, but yes with a willingness to listen and learn from everyone, and certainly without the accepted stereotypes).

I will end here by describing a meeting of three of the forum participants, which was held in the apartment of a Lithuanian rabbi from Jerusalem. This is how the participant (who is a Reform rabbi) describes it: We stood at the entrance to the shared house – a woman in jeans (not something immodest, my God), a Lithuanian in a suit and hat, and a Hasid from the history of Aaron with a white-gold robe and shtreimel (this was on Saturday), smoking and laughing. From the balconies of the house opposite, children peered out, beaten until their father came to chase them into the house. I didn't get the point at all, I just realized that it was delusional. Later, a certain person (= the host) told us that he was sure that everyone knew which apartment we had left from and that he had no problem with it (although I had feelings of guilt).

Beginning, and first meeting

I became acquainted with the forum after a phone call from one of the participants, who told me that my book, 'Two Carts and a Hot Air Balloon,' was being discussed in the forum. He invited me to participate, and about three years ago, after I also read a newspaper article (in the Haaretz newspaper) about Rabbi Gedaliah Nadel and his students, the founders of the forum, I began to log in and participate in the discussions.

I should point out that participation in the forum is done through 'nicknames', that is, pseudonyms, and not under one's real name. This phenomenon exists in all Internet forums, but in Haredi forums, they are much more strict about it, for fear of 'spies' trying to locate and identify the participants, in order to threaten them and prevent them from participating in the forum, or to harass them in the 'real' world (as opposed to the virtual one). It is important to emphasize that these nicknames prevent participants from being identified by their colleagues, and sometimes a man can also hide under a woman's nickname, or an Orthodox man under the cover of a Reform man, or vice versa. There is no way (at least for me, as an Internet layman) to discover the truth behind these covers, but in my experience it is usually difficult to hide behind a nickname that is fundamentally different from the real person. In all the cases in which I have known the owners of the nicknames, there was no fundamental difference between the way he appeared in the nickname and the real person.

From the beginning, I appear there under my real name (only because I didn't feel the need to hide, or any threat), and I found that this also makes the participants trust me, and talk to me more freely, and sometimes even identify with me by my real name, and even meet with me. Some of them heard about me because of my books, and because of my yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and the Semitic identification confirms to them that I am not some hostile 'spy'.

The freer communication does not, of course, take place in the public channels where the discussions are conducted. This is done exclusively in personal communication channels, such as personal mailboxes, which exist in parallel with the public channel, or by telephone or regular email. These mailboxes play a very important role in freer communication between the participants, although many of them are concerned that even these channels are not immune to the intrusion of hostile 'spies'. I do not know to what extent these concerns are well-founded, and to the best of my estimation, some of the participants' concerns are quite exaggerated, although it is difficult to judge them for this. Several of them told me that they suffered quite a bit as a result of such revelations (to the point of actual physical violence, not to mention being deprived of a livelihood, or of their children's studies in the kollel, or of their children in the khaydar, and certainly of matchmaking).

Shortly after the start, I was invited via my personal channel, along with several other participants, to participate in an underground meeting with a group of forum participants, in which a rabbi who was accepted by some of them as a thinker and a very important guide was also supposed to participate (only later did I understand that this meeting was supposed to be a kind of confrontation, or dialogue, between me and him, in the presence of some of his students. And perhaps also for the purpose of getting to know each other). As mentioned, the invitation was sent via my personal inbox to several of the participants who were screened and found to be non-hostile. After an exchange of letters via personal channels, the date and time were agreed upon, and the organizer informed us that the location of the meeting would only be sent on the last evening (for fear of embarrassment and exposure). Indeed, on the last night, a summary message was sent containing the address where the meeting would be held. The address included a street and house number in Bnei Brak, and nothing more.

When I arrived at the meeting, I found the house, and went up to the floor where the aforementioned message was posted. I assumed that when I arrived, the door would be open, or that there would be a sign directing me to the place. However, I arrived at the floor in question, and found several closed doors, with names that were not familiar to me. I did not know which door to knock on, or what to ask (since I did not know the organizer's real name). Even as a novice on the Internet, it was clear to me that there was no way to knock on a door and ask where the IDF conference was being held, since that would be tantamount to causing serious harm to the organizer and the participants. I waited there, at a loss, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, I saw Avrech coming and knocking on one of the doors, and I dared to hint to him whether he knew where 'it' was being held. Since he did not ask me for further clarification, I understood that we were headed for the same place, and I followed him inside.

When I entered, I was invited to sit down, and I immediately turned to the participants and asked them who they were. I expected each of them to present their 'nick' and their real name and identity, so that we could get acquainted and talk. To my surprise, there was laughter and embarrassment, and it quickly became clear to me that I had again misunderstood the rules of the game. It was explained to me that even in meetings in the 'real' world, the participants' names are not identified, and each person addresses their interlocutors by their 'nick'.

At first it was embarrassing and very artificial, but I quickly got used to it, and tried to find out why they lived in such fear. When I asked, the organizer told me that once, after hearing some of his views expressed in the forum, they attacked him, and physically harassed him and his family. I will note that several of the founders of the forum and important participants are in no way willing to identify themselves to me, despite acquaintances and (virtual) soul-to-soul conversations, and without any real fear that I would reveal their identity, only out of fear of the wrath of God and the bird of the sky that might carry the voice.

During the conversation there, it became clear to me that most of the participants also know each other in the real world (and not just in the virtual forum), but nevertheless, communication between them continued to be done through nicknames.

'The Enemies of Reason'

In the conversation at that meeting, as in the forum in general, I find a rather frightened group who are in a difficult predicament. These are very intelligent people, some of them real scholars, shofara de shofara scholars, well-versed in Shas and poskim, and yet at least some of them have different and diverse views. We are certainly not talking about fringes, or 'shababniks', as the Haredi rebels of the past were defined. These are people from the mainstream, and some of them even take part in public teaching and writing in the Haredi world.

Conversations that address difficulties and problems, personal, intellectual, and spiritual, do not exist in their real world (as opposed to the virtual one). They have no one to talk to, and they cannot reveal doubts and difficulties. Again, these are not the troubles of a shabanik, but the questions of good, honest Jews with spiritual aspirations, which concern the worship of God, faith, outlook, and so on.

As a result of this predicament, many of the participants define themselves as 'religionists.' This may sound pathetic, but they insist that this is no exaggeration, and that it is a reliable description of their situation. They claim that the Haredi world is unwilling to allow any real thinking (except for questions about the meaning of 'Katzot'), and anyone who has additional questions, of other kinds, is supposed to repress them or deal with them underground, with themselves alone. At least on the experiential-conscious level, the association with the reign of terror of the KGB, or the Inquisition, is not so far from reality.

What is 'sacred'?

During the conversation that took place there (and in the forum), reference was often made to a community/city called 'Kedushit'. At first, I didn't understand what was being said, but it was clarified to me that it was an ideal city that represents the aspirations of many of the participants in the forum and the meeting. In this city, open discussions would be held, there would be a true and not fake fear of God as in the normal Haredi world (I say this in light of their own descriptions, without currently experiencing a position of my own), and people would be accepted as they are. In 'Kedushit', people would be careful between one another, no less than between a person and a place, and every opinion and every opinion holder would be respected, as it deserves. There would be no tyrants of reason there, as people would be able, and even required, to act as they understood, even if this was not necessarily the 'right' way. There would be study halls that would deal with Torah in the broadest sense (of course, this varies among the participants. Some want to deal with general philosophy, and some would talk about psychology or other areas of knowledge). The sources of knowledge will of course be much broader than the Pentateuch and Rashi. It involves drawing knowledge from all scientific and general sources, and sometimes, when necessary, the 'conversion' of this knowledge. And above all, most people of 'Kedushit' will learn and become educated, while at the same time also working for their livelihood.

From my impression, the newspaper in Kaddushit will probably not deal with politics (there will probably be no politicians there at all), but only with ideological clarifications, concerning G-d and man, history and its meaning, the principles of faith, various fields of knowledge, etc. I'm not even sure that the city is intended only for people of faith (the concepts of faith are very flexible in that society). The conditions of acceptance relate more to the method and approach than to the person's specific outlook.

The description may sound a little childish to the reader, but the people there are certainly aware of it. It is a form of discourse that aims to describe hopes and aspirations, although often there is also a desire to reduce things to practical application. They claim that it is no more childish than the haredi society as it actually is, which is neither practical nor disconnected from real reality, and lives on utopias and disconnected slogans, and ignores the serious problems it has. In their opinion, these are utopias, some of which are distorted and wrong, and sometimes even cruel and immoral.

Perspective lines: some generalizations

In an important group in the forum (mainly among the founders) there is a complete acceptance of scientific findings and academic claims (at least in relation to facts), to the point of challenging the tenets of faith. Others strongly criticize some of the academic approaches, but not because they are 'heretical' but because they are also captive to unjustified assumptions. In general, accepting something simply because of the identity of the person who said it (ad hominem) is one of the most serious 'offenses' in these groups. There is opposition to the academic approach that tends to categorize everything, and to tell someone 'you speak like 'Kant', or you have the approach of Freud, and so on.' Ideas are supposed to be discussed on their own merits, for fear that they will be judged by the speaker and not by the content of what is said.

Many principles are subjected to algorithmization to fit what is believed. This also concerns fundamental principles such as the Torah from Sinai, the image of God (some of them held a pantheistic view, in various shades, according to which God is called 'the present', since He is identical with the entirety of being), the image and reality of the forefathers of the nation, etc. The philosophical framework of a central group among the forum's founders is a combination of objectivism (belief in absolute truth that is accessible to us), mixed with existentialist subjectivity (truth is what I experience directly, and therefore it cannot be disputed).

The question that arises here is of course what many philosophers have asked Kant, on what basis he assumes that his subjective experiences are the same for all humans (and thus become objective). The details of this sub-section are complicated and detailed, and I am not well-versed in them either, but I would just like to give the reader a taste of the atmosphere that prevails there.

As a small person, I posted a thread (=a thread discussing some topic) that is unique (in terms of the discussion methodology) regarding the existence of demons, angels, and various spiritual entities. The basic approach of almost all participants was a sweeping denial of this possibility. The same is true for threads that deal with various supernatural phenomena. Rationalism (which is not necessarily rational, as I wrote there more than once) dominates the discussion, and sources that imply otherwise are rejected outright, or interpreted in various creative ways (through subjective experiences, or using the language of the masses, as was the custom of Rabbi Gedaliah Nadel). It is true that the attitude towards the sages is generally respectful, and there is a commitment (not always absolute) to what emerges from their words. A significant portion of the participants have no doubt that the sages could have been wrong, certainly in reality and science, but also perhaps in interpreting the Torah.

Debunking myths is a common practice on the forum. They are historical stories and descriptions, laws that have no real basis (especially if some refer to them as fixed laws from Sinai, and there are quite a few of these among the Tzvi), sayings that have an external origin, or linguistic expressions whose meaning has changed, and all the other haredi and religious dogmas and conventions. Although, unlike what is done on other forums, here this is usually done while providing reasoning and basing the claims on sources.

The collective thinking in their special language yields a coherent and detailed sub-section that answers all these questions (although, in my opinion, some of the answers I received are not satisfactory), and everyone knows how to distinguish between different nuances. They have already thought about almost everything, since they deal with it a lot, together and separately. This is a living, existing and vibrant Beit Midrash, which, as far as I know, also operates in the real world (although I have no practical part in it, since I do not accept its philosophical premises).

A discourse is developing there that is both Pinozist (they are aware of this) and Taoist (this identification is mine, and I have already received consent for this from the members of these groups), with a new terminology that is understandable only to the participants in this discourse. I will point out that all of this mainly characterizes a group of the forum founders, and today this discourse is almost completely absent from the forum itself. The group of founders can no longer continue to conduct discussions in esoteric terminology and discourse, and therefore many of them have reduced their participation in the forum, and have even left altogether. They continue their studies and discussions in their own meetings, both physical and virtual.

I would like to point out that despite the openness in principle, since things on the philosophical level have already been thoroughly researched and everything has been thought through, my feeling is that there is no willingness there to accept criticism or to change anything from the discourse or principles that have been formed. Regarding the interpretation of certain issues, there is certainly such a willingness, and one can even find very interesting suggestions among them for understanding laws that appear to the ordinary yeshiva eye as meaningless decrees of Scripture (in the manner of Rabbi Gedaliah Nadel, for those who know).

Autodidactyly and its prices

In that meeting described above, and in others (as well as in the forum itself), I met several autodidacts who had studied and mastered difficult philosophical material to a very impressive extent (one of them even wrote an entire and detailed book on a philosophical topic, in which he reviews the history of philosophy in a very impressive way, at least from the angle discussed in the book). I find an impressive intellectual interest there, which is difficult to compare to what I know in regions where philosophy is not found underground (such as in the religious Zionist or secular world). On the other hand, the fact that everything is done underground, and at most within the framework of a closed group that all comes from the same place, leads them to develop their own language, and principles of analysis and formulation, some of which, in my opinion, are immature. The criticism of people more skilled in dealing with such sources and areas of knowledge is sorely lacking. They do not have lecturers or teachers like in yeshivahs, nor do they have research supervisors like in the academic world, and as a result, some of them reach extreme and unbalanced conclusions, as can sometimes be found in teenagers who encounter philosophical questions for themselves. Add to this the fact that these are extreme rationalists, one of whose tenets of belief is that one should act as one understands and as the conclusion of studying the subject, and from this it will be understood that the lifestyle itself also expresses these innovative approaches.[2]

It is worth noting that in the meetings I attended, it became clear to me that in most cases these are very young people, and sometimes the surprise is very great. A person whose style of discourse on the forum gives the impression of being experienced, turns out to be a young man (and usually very intelligent). Even the most dominant figures are usually surprisingly young.

The internal discourse of this group is based on Ayn Rand (Rand has always been popular with young rebels, especially rationalist rebels, and even more so with those who refuse to accept direction and control and are captivated by the romantic-rationalist, but in my opinion superficial and immature, charm of her views).

At this point I will add that in recent years I have learned from many sources that the elite Haredi yeshivahs are full of various books that are circulating under the tables. This is not pornography, but books of philosophy and thought that are associated with outside the camp (including, among other things, my own books, which I am surprised to discover every time I discover how many people have come across, even though it is 'forbidden', and anyone caught with these books may pay a price). The guys exchange information among themselves about various libraries (not in Bnei Brak, of course) where one or another book can be found. The phenomenon of Volozin's 'underground' is returning (and perhaps it never disappeared?!), and on a fairly large scale. According to what various friends describe to me, this is a very broad phenomenon, and it naturally characterizes precisely the intellectual-academic elite, and the important yeshivahs.

I will note that I met some of these people in classes (mainly Torah) that I gave to young men and young women in Bnei Brak, which were also conducted almost underground (not really), and after a while I even heard of at least two cases of young men who, because of their participation in these classes, were forced to leave the yeshiva in which they studied. Others were forbidden from participating, and therefore they stopped coming. Members of the forum also expressed interest in these classes, but ultimately did not come for fear of exposure and identification. I get the impression that this is a phenomenon on a fairly wide scale, and certainly not just on the fringes.

Exposure: The Price of Rebellion

From the beginning of my participation in the forum, I kept asking people how they thought about establishing 'Kadoshit'? If everyone hides behind their 'nickname', and no one is willing to pay the price of exposure, then in the real world such a city will never be established. It is impossible to make a change without paying prices. There are no instant revolutions, I kept telling them. In total, the group consists of quite a few people (at least a few hundred, I estimate, although certainly not all of them participate in the forum), and if they were willing to be exposed and come to light, this could already be a respectable 'courtyard'.

The answers were that I am indeed right, but on a personal level it is very difficult to demand that they pay this price. Haredi society has built itself in such a way that it traps its members in such a way that it is almost impossible for some of it to rebel and at the same time remain within it. Of course, one can untie the yoke and leave, but these are people for whom the worship of God is at the center of their world, and it is very important to them. Such exposure means for them a separation from their family, the loss of the possibility of finding a match outside this group (which almost does not include women, and on the other hand, the people are mostly young, many of them before marriage).

A few months ago, there was an attempt (the first, to the best of my knowledge) to publicly convene a large group of such people, in order to establish an identifiable group in the 'real' world. They unsuccessfully sought rabbinical leadership to lead them and give them legitimacy (mainly on the issue of the legitimacy of working for a living, and less on philosophical questions). One of the organizers of the conference told me that his father (who is a prominent Haredi rabbi) threatened him that if he continued, their ties would be severed and he would 'sit down on him.' The information came to the father's attention through Haredi spies, who used this method to influence his son to abandon his initiative. Such attempts constantly suffer from harassment, and thus these initiatives are torpedoed while still in the pipeline.

'Ales is Saatsialagi'

When I ask them in what sense they define themselves as Haredi, a question that comes up quite a bit there (in the past, they dealt a lot with Harediism and its definitions, and today it is more prevalent in the satellite forum 'Aguda Echat', which also aims to address more practical questions), the answers are mainly sociological. "That's where we grew up," "That's our language," "That's where our families and our friends are." They are not interested in giving up any of this. This has nothing to do with the essential views regarding the state, or education, or all the other parameters that we are so accustomed to treating as sociological-ideological indicators. The people there do not see themselves as part of a religious-national society. Sometimes because of stereotypes, but for most of them this is not the reason (especially after the acquaintances that open up to them in the forum). It is a sociological identity that they do not want to give up. They want to fix the Haredi world from within, even though this fix would largely make it non-Haredi (in almost every objective sense).

In fact, in all accepted senses, many of the Haredi forum participants (sociologically speaking) have national and modern worldviews, sometimes even extremist. Some support the state with all their might, and some see it as the fulfillment of the prophetic vision. They acknowledge the army, modern medicine, and see them as important, as in carrying a burden in general. Paying taxes is an elementary duty of every decent person, and phenomena of tax evasion are corrupt in the eyes of many of them. Going to work is a duty, and certainly a legitimate way of life. The same is true for education. It seems to me that some of them say Hallel on Independence Day, either alone or in some distant minyan (wearing black and going to a distant place, and doing whatever their heart desires). The notions that the Sages were not scientifically wrong seem downright foolish to everyone, and they reject them with contempt. With regard to 'Da'at Torah', or 'Orthodoxy', you will hear quotes from the studies of Yaakov Katz and his friends regarding the innovation and distortion in this phenomenon. There is almost no trust there in the Haredi leadership, which is the mother of all sins. Beliefs, institutions, and Haredi leaders are treated with contempt there.

And despite all this, they do not see themselves moving to live as religious-nationalists. This is a fascinating phenomenon from a sociological-psychological-ideological perspective, and for me, as someone who tends toward rationality and ideological consistency, it is very difficult to understand.

This brings me to the school of thought known as 'AAS' - Ales iz Seitsielgi (Yiddish is slang, said with humor that is well aware of the contrasting combination between the use of old language and the innovative and modern approach), which grounds all views and disputes in sociological motives and trends. This school has members from the forum, but there are also those who vehemently oppose it (like me, for example). In a certain sense, the claims presented above are nothing more than the fulfillment of the assumption of this school - we are Haredi only from a sociological perspective (and according to some of them there is no other, essential Harediness).

Example case

This case concerns one of the important forum participants, who is already considered an authority there in almost all areas of knowledge and thought, and he has phenomenal knowledge in many fields, and original, systematic and profound thought. In the forum he expresses himself and is perceived as an older and experienced person with several academic degrees in various and diverse fields. In addition, he is also a scholar with impressive Torah knowledge. At first, I assumed that he was an ultra-Orthodox man who lived in the US, and studied and worked there. When we established a personal connection, and even met in the 'real' world, he told me about his two- or three-year-old daughters, and it became clear to me that he was a 24-year-old Irfan, who lives in the old settlement in Jerusalem. He told me that since the age of seven he has been reading various books (including professional literature in English in mathematics and physics, life sciences, and social sciences and the humanities), but that he has no formal education. His speech is with an accent typical of residents of the old settlement, while his writing, which I knew until then, was modern and uses professional and foreign terminology in abundance.

I asked him why he doesn't study formally and writes articles in various fields of interest, and he told me that he doesn't have the opportunity to do so. He doesn't know the procedures and can't be accepted into academic studies since he formally didn't finish second grade. After an examination, we managed (with the help of friends) to get him into university, and he graduated with honors, of course. Today he continues his studies, and I assume we'll hear a lot more about him. I don't know anyone with the self-study and understanding abilities of his.

On the other hand, although he knows the latest slang on the streets of New York, and all the rules of political correctness, he doesn't even know where some of the important Haredi yeshivas in Jerusalem are located. This is a result of the fact that all his knowledge is gleaned from books and the Internet, and he has no familiarity with the 'real' world.

I cannot tell you about his origin and affiliation, for obvious reasons, but if these details become known, they will certainly astonish many people.

 

Some initial conclusions

The assumption that the Internet is harmful and should be limited in its use is true in many contexts. On the other hand, the fear of Haredi society regarding this forum is unjustified. Ironically, this forum is one of the pillars on which Haredi society rests today. Without this window for the views, clarifications, and criticism of the diverse participants there, in my opinion, many in Haredi society would unburden themselves, and at least seek alternative companies for them. Many young people are walking around with serious problems in their faith and outlook (and who doesn't have these?), and the honest and wise among them are no longer willing to buy the "lukhas" that their rabbis sell them. The yeshiva heads and supervisors, most of them, are unable to deal with the problems raised by their students, and therefore they choose the simple solution: they forbid them from raising them. The students, most of them, understand this well, and a dangerous disdain for rabbinical leadership is developing. Many young men and women regard their Rosh Yeshiva as an automaton of the 'Katzot' arguments, incapable of thinking straight about fundamental questions in other contexts. In our time, young people are no longer willing to see 'Katzot' as the essence of everything, the basis for faith, thought, attitude towards life, and not even the Torah and God Almighty.

I can testify that while I was still in Yeruham, dozens of young men and women from the center of the country would come to me (physically, and even more so by phone) who were harassed with various questions. Surprisingly, these were not students of the more open yeshivahs, where I would have expected philosophical questions to be addressed. These were actually closed Haredi and national yeshivahs, where there was no real possibility of clarifying problems of faith and outlook (from the philosophical level, to questions of the beliefs of the sages and the meaning of our tradition).

Although I didn't have answers to everything, I think they at least felt that they were getting a listening ear, and that things could be brought up, clarified, and not frightened by difficulties. The first thing I bothered to refute in every such meeting was the faulty and distorted education, according to which faith must be 100 percent. This strange and unfounded assumption leads many of them to the feeling that they are hidden heretics, and to pangs of conscience for not being honest in that they are still studying Torah or members of their communities, and especially in this important matter. The second thing I clarified was that ideas should not be examined by asking whether they are 'heresy' or not, but by asking whether they are correct or not. What is correct is not heresy, and what is incorrect should be rejected even if there is no heresy in it. Therefore, this labeling category of 'heresy' and 'heresy' is unnecessary and harmful. At least tactically, it should be known that for many people it no longer really works today (and in my personal opinion, it is a good thing).

Ironically, it turns out that the forum is the place that fulfills the role of all of these. It guards the Torah and Haredi walls. There, anyone can raise their troubles, find friends and advisors, seek control and guidance, without fear of harming their friendship, their livelihood, or their children, and without fear of being labeled as such that it will bother them for the rest of their lives. The forum makes an effort to save a little of the dignity of those who sometimes do not truly deserve such dignity, by revealing to people that even important people are not supposed to know everything, and by teaching our tongue to say 'I do not know.' Surprisingly, the forum allows some of its members the option of being rationally observant without being (or feeling) stupid, and without ignoring the difficulties of themselves and others.

While there is a real concern that participating in such a discourse will lead to the adoption of problematic and renewed views, and perhaps even harmful and incorrect ones, the alternative to this is not rejection and labeling. This is not helpful at all. The only way to cope is through everyone's participation in the new discourse that is currently taking place under the table (I am referring here mainly to the Haredi world, but not only to it), through a willingness to talk at eye level, with evidence and reasoning, and not through arbitrary authority, nor through labeling as 'heretics' and the like. Only in this way can we truly confront the problems and try to formulate real solutions to them, not slogans that have already lost their appeal.

The methods of coping based on 'values' (that the Sages knew everything and were never wrong, and that science is completely consistent with the tradition we have, and that all others are wrong and misleading, wicked, or stupid, etc.) and other superficial preaching are not really helpful to those who are truly troubled by the problems, and who invest time and energy in them. In my experience, these techniques are mainly helpful to an audience that is already convinced, and do not solve any real problem (I am currently speaking mainly to the inner Haredi world, not the outer world). Is there anyone who is able to deal with a brawler like the one I described in the example above, using these techniques? Where would he be today without his participation in the forum?

Perhaps if our rabbis had done this during the Enlightenment, instead of automatically rejecting and labeling, our situation today would look different. Today, as in the Enlightenment, Haredi society (and part of the national-religious society), with its policy of ignoring and labeling, presents young people with an impossible choice: to be an honest and courageous infidel, or a foolish, cowardly, conservative and naive observant. The option to confront the questions, to offer answers to them, or even to say 'I don't know' when necessary and acknowledge their existence, does not really exist. This fig leaf of supposedly absolute knowledge no longer convinces anyone. I would emphasize that my words here are not an accusation, but only a call to learn from the failures of the past.

In a traditional world, there is a widespread feeling that openness is dangerous. But it is becoming increasingly clear to me that closure is just as dangerous, especially today when it is not really possible to confine people in one bubble or another. I think we need to reconsider the approach to such a forum, as well as the policy of closure and the way of dealing with problems and difficulties in general.

[1] There is an entry on Wikipedia called "Stop Thinking Here," although some of the details there are inaccurate (since the writers rely mainly on publicly available information). References to newspaper articles can also be found there.

[2] Although some of their leaders (who also don't have gray beards) balance this with the ideology of preserving customs and traditions, the reasoning is usually that these are intermediate stages that are important to maintain until rationality prevails and the truth comes to light, and the ignorant masses understand that there is no need for all of this.