Q&A: The Advantage of Coercion
The Advantage of Coercion
Question
I’m asking on behalf of a close friend.
My friend grew up in a Haredi home, was educated in the top institutions, was one of the stars in yeshiva, and after getting married he devoted himself to his Talmud study with enormous diligence in kollel. His home is Haredi in every respect, and his teenage children receive top-tier Haredi education.
In a moment of candor during one of our conversations about Jewish philosophy, he told me that for several years already he has been a complete atheist and does not believe in God, or even that there is any Creator at all, and of course not in the Torah either. The reason he continues to live as Haredi is because of his family and children; he does not want to shake things up and hurt them. In other words, what is nowadays called the Haredi coerced ones.
In one of our conversations I told him that he needn’t worry if he is committing transgressions, because Rabbi Abraham holds that he is under coercion because he does not believe in the Holy One, blessed be He. Not that it changed much for him…
Then we got into a discussion about whether, as a heretic, he is entitled to reward for fulfilling commandments (not that he cares, since he doesn’t believe there is any reward at all…). And I argued that his being under coercion only exempts him from transgressions, because “the Merciful One exempts one who is under coercion,” but he would still receive reward for the commandments he fulfills, because in fact he did fulfill them. Since he lives as Haredi, he fulfills very many commandments even though he thinks they are acts of nonsense.
Could it be that this is indeed the case? If so, his place in Heaven will be ahead of the greatest righteous people: he will arrive at the heavenly court free of transgressions and loaded down with sacks of commandments!
Answer
I’ve explained my view more than once: commandments are subject to the same rule as transgressions. But perhaps for being Haredi he will be punished, because there what matters is what you did, not why. Actually, the opposite: if you understand that this is a distorted way of life and nevertheless lived that way, your punishment from Heaven is doubled.
Discussion on Answer
Morally speaking, it seems that such a person should refrain from performing any commandment through which others fulfill their obligation, such as kiddush, reading the Megillah, lighting Hanukkah candles, Torah reading, and so on. And certainly he cannot work in a job like ritual slaughter or writing Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot, where he is actually causing others to sin.
Y.D. — why? If in his view there’s nothing real to it, then in his view he isn’t causing others to sin and from his perspective he isn’t harming anything. The fact that in their view he caused them damage doesn’t mean anything. What determines it is his own perception of reality.
Y.D., that’s obvious. I’ve written that more than once.
The punishment is for educating children toward dependence and harm, and for reinforcing a distorted society.
It seems to me just simple moral reasoning: a person’s will is his dignity, “what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow,” the moral duty to tell the truth, and so on.
I have no interest at all in an atheist doing things that are meaningless from his perspective. I have an atheist friend at work whose mother died, and the religious guys pressured him to say Kaddish as a way of honoring his mother even if he doesn’t believe. I told him that in my opinion there is no issue of honoring his mother here. He doesn’t believe, so it is meaningless from his point of view. On the other hand, if there is some religious matter in which I, as a believer, depend on someone else for technical reasons—I don’t do ritual slaughter, one person recites kiddush for everyone, and so on—if that person is an atheist and doesn’t tell me, that is really a breach of trust. This is not a religious issue. It’s a moral issue. Tell me that you’re not into it, and I’ll have to manage on my own.
As an aside, this is one of the severe problems in Haredi society: because the social and personal price of coming out of the closet is so high, people prefer to remain secret atheists and go on doing the things they used to do. The whole society will suffer from this: it will eat non-kosher meat and carcasses, put on invalid tefillin, fail to fulfill the obligation of kiddush, and so on.
So in principle, if the enlistment issue and the reliance on the welfare system were solved, would you stop seeing them as wicked?
If all the moral problems are solved, then there won’t be moral problems. Surprising, but apparently true. Except that the moral problems are not exhausted by enlistment and reliance on welfare. There are many more such problems there.
Maybe to note another point and get Rabbi Abraham’s opinion. He was under coercion because he was born into Haredi society; that’s really like a child captured among gentiles. When he reached a different conclusion, it was already too late, so once again he is under coercion, this time of a different kind.
If he changes his way of life and comes out of the closet, there is a high probability that he will break up the whole package and the family, which from his perspective is not a moral thing to do; it would harm his children and wife for the rest of their lives, especially in a society like the Haredi one. So what is his crime?
Could I get a reference to where Rabbi Abraham wrote and explained why the commandments he fulfills do not count? Exemption in the case of coercion is understandable, but why shouldn’t his commandments count, at least in the category of one who acts without being commanded?
Thank you.
I wrote a joking remark whose intent was serious. I said that his being Haredi requires atonement, not his transgressions. I did not mean to give practical instructions or to determine that this transgression overrides considerations of breaking up the family. That will be decided by whoever knows the situation.
As for the article, search here for “Causing a Secular Person to Sin.”
Do you think every Haredi person needs atonement in a categorical sense? Even righteous people like Rabbi Shach and Rabbi Kanievsky?
Them more than others. They led the masses astray.
I don’t know that Haredi man mentioned above, but I think it’s very likely that he works for a living. So maybe his only sin is the army issue. Other than that, I’d be glad to know what else is distorted on a level that deserves punishment. I agree that the clothing issue, for example, is foolish, but not on the level of punishment by Heaven; same with general education—I don’t think one can be punished for that.
I’d be glad if you would enlighten me as to what one can be punished for.