Q&A: Intellectualism
Intellectualism
Question
To Rabbi Dr. Michael Abraham,
In practice, this is not really a question that it is your role or area to answer. In a number of similar questions I have seen you dismiss them on the grounds that you do not deal with psychology, and I understand that very well.
But nevertheless I would like to lay out this question, both because you probably have the necessary information and the appropriate understanding for it.
If this question bothers you, I will understand. My apologies in advance.
The question itself is quite simple: how is it that fairly intelligent people speak nonsense and empty folly, on a level beneath that of fools? And why speak in riddles? The great Haredi rabbis tend toward a very strange stupidity; I assume I do not need to spell this out for you. Nadav Shnerb, in his article "A Reader for Contemporary Haredism," compiled a nice collection of some of these cases.
For example: Rabbi Steinman’s view of the inhabitants of the earth as "murderers, thieves, and witless." Or his various claims about the earth being spherical versus the claim that it is square (does he distinguish between the view from above and the view from below?!). Rabbi Chaim Greineman’s view of medicine (there is no such thing, and statistics are studies of heresy—which is actually a bold consistency flowing from the principle of providence). Rabbi Mazuz on the reasons for the Holocaust: they did not pronounce the prayers correctly, and therefore God did not accept them. Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky’s view of Shmuel Auerbach: "a rebellious elder." On the question of what the difference is between his dispute with Rabbi Steinman and any other dispute among the Tannaim: "They were human beings; he is an animal." Rabbi Shach’s proofs against evolution—I would rather not mention them out of respect for him.
Statements in their name are characterized by shallowness and childishness, extreme apologetics, and lack of thought. And yet these are people of Jewish law and analysis, especially intelligent people, accustomed to analytical thinking. Where does all of that evaporate to when it comes to other matters? I am very puzzled by this, precisely because I value their honor.
I would be glad for an answer, if you have one.
Answer
I have written about this more than once. Indeed, these are people, some of whom have a high IQ, but application requires something more than IQ. For example, a willingness to use it. These people are trapped within a framework that does not allow them to use it, and they use it only in the narrow domain of Talmudic scholarship. In what lies outside that, they are sometimes at the level of kindergarten children.
I have column 629 on foolish Haredi arguments. I have dealt with this in other places as well.
Some of the quotations are meant to express a certain point and not a comprehensive worldview. For example, Rabbi Greineman was no small expert in medicine and invested a great deal of effort and thought in it, so it is clear that the things he wrote do not reflect his full way of thinking about the field of medicine, but only come to emphasize the faith-based side. And the same goes for other extreme expressions.
I agree that even so, such statements are not wise, but they are characteristic of people with a strong ideology, which sometimes causes them to speak (and think) in an illogical way. This behavior exists among many intellectuals of all peoples and all camps.