Q&A: The Rabbi’s Influence on the Hardal Public
The Rabbi’s Influence on the Hardal Public
Question
Hello Rabbi, a0 a0
I wanted to ask you something that has intrigued me for quite a while — a0 a0
How much influence do you think you have in the Hardal public? a0 a0
Once a friend told me that his yeshiva teacher in Beit Shemesh actually had a pretty high regard for you, and that surprised me. a0 a0
I’m curious whether you hear about cases like that, and whether in your opinion there is openness to the ideas you raise even among people identified with Merkaz HaRav or Har Hamor.
Answer
I don’t know.
Discussion on Answer
I’m a Har Hamor guy, and I doubt there’s a single post by the Rabbi that I haven’t read very carefully. And definitely, in my opinion, Two Wagons is the flagship book, and not only because it deals with postmodernism.
By the way, although the views don’t always overlap and the conclusions are usually different, anyone who studied in the yeshiva will feel that the Rabbi is an exact replica of the landscape there in so many parameters.
I ask the Rabbi’s forgiveness for that conclusion.
Forgiven, forgiven. I’ll just note that the book has two complementary aspects: there is truth (unlike the postmodernists), but it is not certain (unlike the Har Hamor folks).
https://www.inn.co.il/news/665993
In normal yeshivot (from Merkaz and to the left), there’s no doubt that many know the Rabbi. Many times I’ve heard students mention the Rabbi’s arguments in order to disagree with them, and from the negative you can infer the positive.
True, I also personally saw Two Wagons in someone’s room in Har Hamor (maybe because it’s against postmodernism), but in yeshivot of that type there really are quite a few people who are disconnected from the internet and from the world, so it’s very doubtful whether they’ve even heard of the Rabbi.