openness
Hello Rabbi Michi,
A point I wanted to share with you, and from the Facebook discussions (which you may know) I conclude that many share my thoughts.
In your interview on Besheva and in your articles, you offer an alternative to isolation. Simply open up.
At the time, many indeed rejoiced in the arrival of Two Carts, which is written with a Yeshiva flavor and combines words of reason and an anointed shield against secularism.
Indeed, from the non-representative sample I know, many educated dossimists were happy about the invention and saw it as a cure for the problem of sweeping questions under the rug.
And now, in recent years, people have become aware of the gap between what is written in the books (usually with a conservative tone) and the ‘old Rabbi Michai’ they knew, and what is being said by you today (mainly on the website, but also rumors in the press) – heresy in a significant part of the 13 principles, a call to shorten the prayer, and more.
[It is important for me to emphasize that I am not at all here to express personal criticism of your views on matters of faith, although I do not share them. My criticism is only of the proposed solution.]
The problem is that instead of an example of openness in Torah, we get the opposite example here – ‘Look what happened to Rabbi Michi, today he is an apostate in the principles of faith.’ I’ve heard this more than once or twice.
The problem is – the boys have questions that lead them to secularism. The solution you propose is – teach them everything and thus expose them to a high risk (this is how it is perceived, and ‘what happened’ to him is evidence of this) of apostasy in some of the principles,
Which is very bad for many, not far from secular.
It’s better to remain closed – these people say, and I think about it too – and open up the questions only in times of crisis.
With great respect,
anonymous.
A very strange claim. Not revealing the truth to people otherwise they may reveal the truth. Similarly, secular people do not allow themselves to learn lest they repent, God willing. It is possible to maintain faith and commitment if you worship the wrong God (as in Maimonides’ parable of the elephant), and therefore it is better not to worship Him correctly.
It's not “not revealing the truth to people”.
Opening people up to everything means that many people will believe the ’untruth’ for the wrong reasons. Because they are not smart enough or because things were not conveyed to them in the right way, or at least they were perceived in the wrong way.
We believe that we are educating for the right thing, what is the point of opening up everything to begin with?
If someone has questions, it is clear that the best arguments should be presented to them, and in this I of course agree with you that the situation on the ground is not good (the students are outnumbering their teachers), but for the sake of contentment with solving individual problems is preferable to a massive openness to philosophy that will cause quite a few dropouts.
The scenario of a good child who opens up to excessive analyticity on our initiative (assuming he would not open up to it on his own) and therefore becomes ‘too analytical’ in an uncontrollable way, is quite plausible.
And doubting what people see as the Torah from Sinai (even things that are wrong) causes people to throw away the whole package. And sometimes it's better for them to believe the nonsense (because what can we do, we have no control over what they are told at home or by ‘simple’ teachers) and truly repent of both.
Dear Anonymous,
Your words are interesting, but could you explain what you wrote and I couldn't understand: “We believe we are educating for the right thing, what's the point of opening everything up in the first place?”
Could the Honorable Rabbi please address the comments of Anonymous? Many thanks in advance.
I have written a reply here more than once. I will return briefly. As a rule, I do not judge a view by its results. Beyond that, in my opinion, ascertaining the truth is a duty and should not be hidden (see the last column, 576, and more). And if someone is harmed by this, it does not justify harming others in order to save him. Beyond that, there are many for whom this truth actually leaves them committed to the Torah, although there are indeed others as well. There is no value in preserving an incorrect belief. There is value in preserving a correct belief. Therefore, hiding the truth in order to preserve the belief is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
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