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Where can one study the teachings of the religious who wants to be free in an orderly manner?

שו”תCategory: generalWhere can one study the teachings of the religious who wants to be free in an orderly manner?
asked 2 years ago

I’ve been hanging around universities a lot lately and I’ve set my heart on an interesting phenomenon.
There are a lot of religions that are deteriorating and quite quickly throughout the university space. It seems that all their years of study in yeshiva and the path they tried to build fell apart within a year and did not hold water. I’m talking about people who studied in high yeshivahs, studied Torah, came from strong religious homes.
All the temptations, singleness, and the goal of “studying” that on the surface seems clear and real simply pull them toward secularism.
I think one of the ills of religious society is that over the years all sorts of voices and boycotts have been added, such as “keeping in touch”, legumes on Passover, complete separation between men and women, 3 prayers a day, meat and milk (I’m really laughing at everything related to this, people have simply been excessively harsh on themselves), etc., which simply do not suit the modern person, and for a large part of people are not implementable over time.

The problem is that there is no clear middle ground, there are few voices speaking out against prayers, against all sorts of strictures. And it’s easy for me, as a religious lite who wants to be truly religious, Orthodox, on the one hand to observe everything as it really should be observed, and on the other hand not to want to be strict about anything!
I want to be free and liberated from all these sick evils. As such a person, I have no guide, no arbiter, no such table.
All I have left to do is grope in the dark and check for myself.

My question is, where can one learn the teachings of the religious person who wants to be free in an organized manner?


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 2 years ago
You ask where the shackles of the free religious person are? Where do you learn what a person who doesn’t want to do what is right should do? Rani assumes you meant a religious person who wants to do what is right and not what is wrong. Free only from imaginary chains and not from real chains. This is what is learned in a yeshiva. There you learn Torah and halacha, and there you can see what is obligatory and what is not. Being “free” without knowing halacha is lite, that is, not religious. I am reminded of what Leah Shkadiel, who is well-known, once said to our students at Midreshet Be’er Yeruham. She said that the people of the religious kibbutz at the beginning of their journey did not want a rabbi for the kibbutz. The way to do this is not to be lite, but rather the opposite: to be a scholar so that they can rule for themselves.

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דן replied 2 years ago

Where will I be taught things like this from the foundation, for example:
They will teach me the tenets of faith and explain to me that there is no reason to pray if you don't believe in private providence, and that lack of belief in private providence does not contradict your being a believer.

I don't know such things except for the blog here and the rabbi's books?

In contrast, I remember that in the pre-military preparatory school I was taught all kinds of nonsense and nonsense, for example: "Arabs need to be corrected." I think that any Torah institution would simply waste my time for nothing.

What institution wouldn't waste my time on such nonsense?

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

You have unrealistic and incorrect expectations from a yeshiva and a Torah institution. They are supposed to teach you to study and make halakhic literature accessible to you, not to teach you the bottom lines. Of course, many do try to do this (especially in preparatory schools where you can't really study seriously), but you don't have to play their game. Learn the tools and the sources, and then formulate your own positions. I wouldn't go to classes that deal with the question of whether the Arabs should be corrected. In any case, a preparatory school is certainly not the right institution for this, but yeshiva certainly is. A preparatory school is a 13th grade high school that gives you nothing but preaching. You don't get abilities and skills there.

רק שאלה replied 2 years ago

To the questioner:
I didn't understand, in your opinion, there is no need to maintain contact, pray 3 prayers a day, and follow the halacha in separating meat and milk? And who said that there is no obligation to pray if you don't believe in private providence?

דן replied 2 years ago

Rabbi, you're telling me there's no way, except to go out and study again at a Torah institute.
This is something I've been thinking about:
The problem is that a guy my age, about 27, has no idea what to look for in a yeshiva, there are no organized Torah frameworks at all for people my age,
and I need something organized. Although I have a brain (with the help of Ezra, I'll probably get a doctorate in exact sciences next year), I haven't opened a page of Gemara in about 9 years, I'm not at all versed in Torah literature, and I don't know how to study and what to study, I can't just land in some Beit Midrash and study.

The only things I know are all kinds of institutes for those who are returning to Judaism (for example, the Meir Institute), I'm not returning to Judaism, and I'm also pretty sure that's where I'll return to Judaism. I'm a very practical person, I don't look for my mind to be confused by all kinds of inconsistent and illogical things.

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want to make informed decisions, you need to study first. You can't form strong positions like you've expressed here without having the tools to do so. It's not serious.
If it's not right for you to enter a yeshiva right away, do it in your free time and gradually, at a pace that suits you. But make sure to progress and acquire skills, not just knowledge. When you're older, you'll be able to form and express positions on these issues.
As I wrote to you, when you go to a yeshiva or another place to study Torah, you don't need to accept their confusion. Focus on your academic and halakhic skills.

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