Q&A: The Question of the Majority
The Question of the Majority
Question
If I’ve come to the conclusion that most Orthodox rabbis in this country support דווקא the non-values-based and immoral side of the government, and spread hatred, destruction of the nation, and evil.
(True, there’s also Rabbi Sherlo and a few other upright people, but by a rough estimate they are the minority.)
What am I supposed to think?
That they are simply distorting the Orthodox conception of Judaism? (and that the minority in Rabbi Sherlo’s style is right)
Or that Orthodoxy itself is the counterfeit version of Judaism?
(on the assumption that the word of God is good and not evil)
Answer
Hello.
I’m in your “camp,” but they should be judged favorably. As they understand the values of the Torah and their application nowadays, in their view religious and traditional parties that impose Judaism are preferable to decent parties. So from their perspective this is “overridden,” not permitted. I don’t agree, but I can understand how they arrive at these outrageous decisions, unfortunately.
But this has nothing whatsoever to do with the question of what you think about Orthodoxy. That you should judge on its own merits, not by what people who share that position do or say. If I’m a capitalist, then even if all capitalists were wicked and mistaken, that still wouldn’t necessarily mean that capitalism is false. That has to be examined on its own merits.
The Torah is the word of God,
and if one merits it, it becomes for him an elixir of life.
And when you see that it isn’t, then naturally the whole conception comes into question.
Capitalism is not the word of God, and there isn’t that level of expectation from it at all.
And rightly so.