Q&A: How did the Rabbi once fall into Haredism?
How did the Rabbi once fall into Haredism?
Question
Hello and blessings,
I will open my mouth in the spirit of “And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey,” and ask his honored Torah this question, one that troubles many who do not ask out of shyness: how did the Rabbi, in his time, fall into Haredism?
I, unlike the Rabbi, experienced in the distant past an “IQ drop” in the crematoria of an unfaithful town, the “Kiryat Malakhi” yeshiva (Amit). The decline continued the more I “advanced” and “ascended” in holiness. But unlike the Rabbi, I fell into Haredism around age 16 (“judging myself favorably”). The Rabbi, with an “IQ” far higher than mine, fell when he was already a fully mature person—how is that possible?
This question troubles many, and I would be grateful if the Rabbi would forgive me for the question and kindly answer rather than censor it.
With blessings for a peaceful and blessed Sabbath,
Benjamin “the One Who Falls and Rises” Goralin
Answer
This is much too general a question. The issue is: which aspect of Haredism? I do not see myself as part of a package deal, and I was not like that in the past either.
Discussion on Answer
I changed positions on various issues, and generally I did not deal in total, sweeping identities (Haredi, Religious Zionist, and the like). If you have a specific question—ask. If not—I won’t answer further.
What did he think at first, and what did he think in the end?
That is indeed the painful point: how did the Rabbi manage to avoid the “package deal”? Haredism has felled many casualties on both right and left. Did the Rabbi from the outset not regard Haredism as the “royal road,” and was it in his eyes only a kind of “youthful prank,” a spiritual trip in the Bnei Brak jungle instead of the South American original? Did the Rabbi have some psychological payoff from it, such as the feeling of being the “complete Jew” in his religiosity and not like someone straddling two positions?