Everything is Assur - A Distorted View of Reality

However, to simply say that Rebbetzin Twerski was just following in the Twerski tradition would be a mistake. Rebbetzin Twerski was obviously not born a Twerski. She married one. Her father was a Vizhnitzer Chasid, a Rav and a Talmid Chacham raised in Romania;  eventually ending up in New York. She attended mainstream Charedi girls schools there. And neither her parents nor her schools had any problem with her reading the great American classics, which are now seen as unfit for Charedi eyes.

(As an aside, I found it a wonderful departure from the tradition of the Charedi - especially Chasidic world that her father actually taught his daughters Gemarah.)

There is definitely a new world out there that has become so insular, one wonders how anyone being raised in it will ever be able to function in the real world.

That said, I realize that there are many Charedim that do quite well in that world. It is not because they follow the ‘party line’ of increased isolationism, but in spite of it. Many of those that do well actually venture forth into that world despite the pressure to increasingly insulate themselves from it. Those that have, found it not to be as evil as many of their Mechanchim (educators) have led them to believe. 

This doesn’t mean that there is no evil out there. Of course there is. We live in a divided culture where about half the population subscribes to a philosophy where everything goes as long as you don’t force your views on others – or do anything that harms others. A world bereft of many of the values religious people cherish. 

But that leaves out the other half of the population that does have those values. I cannot tell you how often I find a Charedi professional expressing near surprise at how his non Jewish colleagues either share their values. And surprise - mutual respect between the often develops between them. 

The reason for that surprise is because of how the ‘world outside’ was always characterized by their Mechanchim as the antithesis of the Torah. This if of course only a half truth.  

Half truths are really lies if you think about it. Not that I blame those Mechanchim for imparting such attitudes on to their students. That is similar to the attitude imparted to them by their own Mechanchim. Which they have taken to a higher level based on the increased immorality and instant availability of it they see in our day. In some ways I can’t blame them. But insulation is not the answer. The fallout of that would be disastrous if that insulation weren’t ‘violated’ by the many that have chosen to venture into it - even if only for Parnassa reasons.

Of course Rebbetzin Twerski is ot the only one that has read the classics. So too did the man that many Charedim believe was the Gadol HaDor… a man who is considered to have transplanted the European Torah world that was destroyed in the Holocaust onto our own  American shores. An appellation with which I agree.  There is not a doubt in my mind that the ‘Lakewood’ culture is what dominates the non Chasidic Charedi world today. That is Rav Aharon Kotler’s doing - and his great legacy.

Rav Kotler had no issue reading Tolstoy. He still became the Gadol he was. But when that was revealed by R’ Nosson Kamenetsky in his book Making of a Gadol, all hell broke loose. As I understand it, his family objected strongly to that revelation saying that it detracted from his religious purity as a Torah leader. That eventually resulted in the infamous ban on his book. The message? Non Jewish literature is Treif.

The same thing is true about Rav Ahron Soloviechik’s grandfather, R’ Chaim . He was known to be a vehement opponent of college. So when his oldest son was ‘set up’ with; eventually got engaged and married to woman who also read the classics and freely quoted from them, the religious community wondered how their great leader, R’ Chaim could have allowed it? He explained that he was not against college because of the courses in great literature. He was against college because of their anti religious influences. As long as his future daughter in law was observant, he had no problem at all with her quoting from the great literary works she loved.

This is how things were then among the Gedolim. But today the Charedi world preaches that ‘eveything is assur’. The only way it survives is by Charedim treading into that world often with a fair  amount of guilt, and then finding out that things are not exactly as they were described.

The Charedi world will survive this trend and even thrive. But is hearing the constant refrain from their Mechanchim that the world outside  is entirely evil - and then venturing into it and finding out it isn’t -  the healthiest way for them to do it? Wouldn’t the common sense approach of Rebbetzin Twerski, be a far better approach?