Q&A: Why is such a large part of the Haredi public so strongly opposed to the idea of "Accept the truth from whoever says it"?
Why is such a large part of the Haredi public so strongly opposed to the idea of "Accept the truth from whoever says it"?
Question
I’ve often encountered, in the Haredi public, the attitude that they are not open at all to critical thinking about subjects that are not necessarily connected to Torah and faith, and even so they were unwilling to listen.
Is Maimonides’ approach of “accept the truth from whoever says it” really meant about every subject? Because from what I understood, Maimonides says that if I look at a certain article, I’m not supposed to look at who wrote it, but at what is written. And in the Haredi public, it often feels like if there is a certain book but it has no approbations, it simply does not count. Is there some explanation for this phenomenon?
Answer
The problem is not that this goes against Maimonides, but that it is simply not correct to act that way. The essence of Haredism is fear of anything that is not accepted and familiar. One question is how Haredism developed, and another is why a Haredi person behaves this way. I answered the second; the first is connected to history and sociology.
Discussion on Answer
Well, you made life easy for yourself. Obviously arguments should be discussed on their merits. The suggestion to remove his books from the study hall is educational in purpose—not because there is nothing to learn from his words, but because people should be taught to keep their distance from him. And even so, in my opinion it is still not right to do that (assuming the books are worth something).
Why?
Maimonides himself said, “accept the truth from whoever says it,” regarding any person—whether it was a Muslim sage who said something wise or some Christian monk.
If we really reject anything whose author we do not know, then we would also have to consign to storage the “Commentary of Unknown Authorship” on the Talmud, since we do not know the identity of the author. Personally, it would not matter to me at all, and as far as I’m concerned even if a non-Jew wrote the “Commentary of Unknown Authorship,” it would not make any difference in how I view the commentary.