Q&A: Advice for a Time of Crisis
Advice for a Time of Crisis
Question
Hello Rabbi Michael,
Lately I’ve been more and more appalled by the conduct of the Haredi rabbis and by their insensitivity to the security situation of the Jewish people living in Zion. At a time when reserve call-up orders are being sent to men who have already done unbelievable reserve duty and are being required to keep going again and again, at enormous cost that they and their families are bearing. The manpower shortage in the IDF is causing people to search for and invent extreme ways to increase the number of combat troops on the roster (from extending service to a report I saw saying they are even considering bringing in those with profile 64, who are not trained for combat service, to fill the ranks of the fighters).
And at the same time, something ranging from obtuseness to outright contempt on the part of the leading rabbis; from shocking statements that are hard to connect with the reality the nation is living through, to cynical conduct and an extreme unwillingness to take part in the burden (not even the smallest part of it). And all this is seasoned with the notion that the institutions of the state and of security have, in their eyes, become something like the Amalek of this generation, sent by the Holy One, blessed be He, to test us and make them stumble—as if there were no war. And of course it ends with blunt and contemptuous self-persuasion regarding the fallen and the wounded—that they are the ones who are protecting all of us here in the first place. (Unfortunately there is no shortage of examples, and I believe the Rabbi can think of one.)
So far, that’s the criticism, but the real problem is not only national; it is also on the personal level: what is a servant of God supposed to take from this conduct? I have no doubt that those rabbis (and truly, this is quite a long line of them) studied in yeshivot almost all their lives and engaged in Torah study, so how can one expect such a level of conduct?
Now, I know that you think there is no connection between religion (or more precisely Jewish law) and morality, and that these are two independent systems, so there is not really any contradiction here—but forgive me, not to this extent! Sometimes I see reports from which it emerges not only as a sharpened point that there is nothing between morality and Jewish law—but that precisely immersion in the yoke of Torah is what creates this distortion.
From day to day, the lows of the rabbinic leadership really reach new cynical depths, and personally it is hard for me to bridge the gap between the Torah, which is supposed to guide us in our lives and teach us ways of living, and what this all looks like. As someone who does take Torah study as part of his life (or at least tries to), that gap deepens and widens every day.
That’s enough venting; now to the question: do you share this gap as I’m presenting it? How do you deal with it, or how would you advise dealing with it?
I truly cannot understand how someone who spends all day developing conceptual arguments in Choshen Mishpat and raising halakhic subtleties in Bava Batra about the laws of neighbors (just an example) can display such moral and value-based insensitivity.
I don’t know whether you address questions like these; in any case, if you do, I’d be glad to hear your response.
Answer
Many people share this distress. Here you have proof that engagement in Torah is no guarantee of morality, nor even of common sense. I have nothing more to say beyond that. These are not great Torah scholars but donkeys carrying books.
Discussion on Answer
I understand the distress, but I don’t understand the problem. Those rabbis are not great in Torah, but people who know Torah. To be truly great you need to be broad-minded, moral, to have a broad perspective, common sense, etc. Therefore, the fact that they are like this says nothing whatsoever about my own study of Torah. It does not even mean that I won’t study things they wrote. If I find good things there, I will study them, and if not, then not. The goal of study is not to become moral but to cleave to the Holy One, blessed be He, through Torah study. That is what we do, and I do not see any implication for the distortion and the terrible Haredi desecration of God’s name.
There is still some implication. I grew up on a harmonious picture of great Torah scholars in earlier generations who combined morality and Torah. Now I know that this picture involved some idealization of that reality. There were cantonists, there was exploitation, and there was not always compassion between one person and another. And still, great Torah figures were described as moral people. I understand that in our generation, as Rabbi Lichtenstein wrote, something in the perception of morality has been sharpened, and therefore the simple morality they expressed is no longer sufficient. The world has undergone a moral elevation, so Gemara alone is not enough. It is worthwhile to read good modern literature that sharpens one’s moral intuition. And still, the pious people of earlier generations, who did not have a penny they did not give to the poor, as Rabbi Kook is described (in a way that made things difficult for his wife and for the institutions of the communities in which he operated), or Rabbi Nahum Nahman of Horodenka and others, expressed some kind of ideal moral virtue. And even if not all great Torah scholars were like them, they still expressed basic morality.
The moral failure of today’s Torah scholars is difficult. Torah is perceived as immoral. And I wonder: maybe I missed something, whether in the past or in the present?
Anonymous, you’re writing about the Haredi rabbis, but the Religious Zionist rabbis can’t really be relied on either.
Look at the letter from the 200 rabbis about Feldstein from a few months ago, seasoned with conspiracies and unsubstantiated claims. A disgrace like no other.
Since then we’ve managed to “discover” that Feldstein does PR for Qatar, and who knows what else we’ll discover. And this leads to one of the hard problems—the rabbis are not plugged into public life. They don’t read journalists, they don’t consume news except here a little and there a little, and they hear what is supposedly true from wicked public representatives, and then this calf comes out.
So you’ve already managed to “discover” that Feldstein does PR for Qatar? Tell us how, exactly?? If Feldstein also had a grocery store, and you bought a bag of milk from him, would I also discover that you’re doing public relations for Qatar?
And the “Zionist rabbis” also support draft-dodging.
They are part of the government, giving money and backing to draft-dodging instead of drafting them and reducing the money flowing to evasion.
And they supposedly do understand something about reality and security.
Which teaches you that many rabbis, not only Haredi ones—if one is not worthy, it becomes for him a deadly poison in full force.
They are not bearers of the word of God in the world,
but just plain frauds.
Why is no one here capable of understanding that the Haredi rabbis truly and sincerely believe that the most moral thing they can do is preserve Judaism?
That doesn’t mean they are right. But they think this is the will of God and that this is what is good for the Jewish people. They are not acting this way out of a lack of moral concern, but precisely out of concern for the fate of Judaism.
The approach presented here, according to which whoever has the wrong opinion is necessarily immoral, is very puzzling, and suffers from narrow-mindedness. Rabbi Michi has already taught us that a person should be judged according to his own approach.
Indeed, I was afraid this would be the answer, and it’s also the answer I’ve been walking around with for some time.
But as someone who has studied Torah and still studies Torah, and has devoted many years to it—what is left now of the Torah? A collection of conceptual arguments and the construction of systems of prohibition and permission and law that have no connection to morality or to life itself?
What is the motivation that leads you to continue engaging in Torah, and even sometimes to study the Torah of rabbis who are the source of the problem I presented?