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| R’ Baruch Ber Leibowitz |
Should Jews rejoice at the depiction of Christmas Eve? The answer might seem obvious. Absolutely not! How can a Jew rejoice at the celebration of a holiday that celebrates what we believe to be Avodah Zarah? It should be absolutely forbidden. Shouldn’t it?
It might surprise people to know that one of the greatest and celebrated rabbinic thinkers of the 19th century actually made that exact statement. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch made it. Here is the full quote from an article by Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein in Cross Currents:
Yes, the Jewish boy must even rejoice over the depiction of a Christmas Eve….Judaism is alive for him, in all the festivals and celebrations…. How many Christmas Eves does the year bring to Jewish boys and girls! Each week there is a Sabbath evening, and each season brings a festival evening. Parents and children are united around the table at home, lifted up again and again in alternating festive moods of remembrance and consecration….He bestows His blessings not through childish knickknacks. Rather, His nearness is palpable to the child’s heart by the gift-giving of His blessings in peace and rest, in exhilaration and in joy, and by filling the entire earthly existence with bliss!!
This is an excerpt from a Hakirah article (Vol. 27, Fall 2019) by Professor Marc Shapiro who recently translated one of Rav Hirsch’s essays. Which was actually a review of a textbook meant for use in Jewish schools. One which that tried to remove the Christian and humanistic biases from the textbooks of that era. And replace them with Jewish content along with general educational content.
While that might seem like censorship, Rav Hirsch was quick to explain that it wasn’t. For him it was about insuring that young Jewish minds would be fully informed of their own Jewish ideology and worldview. But that it as also in the best interests of the Jewish people to know what the culture in which they live was all about. And to compare and contrast it with our own. And perhaps just as importantly to educate our people to realize that there is a ‘the truth and goodness in Christianity’ and that it is sourced in Judaism.
Truth and goodness in Christianity?! Yes - Rav Hirsch actually said that. Which might be shocking to so many of us who know the persecution Jews have historically suffered at the hands of Christian tormentors. (Can anyone spell ‘Inquisition’?) Hirsch certainly knew Jewish history and yet understood that there is truth and goodness in Christianity. That’s because there is – if anyone cares to pay attention. And yet most observant Jews would probably be appalled at that statement. Especially now after the Holocaust.
One might argue and ask, ‘Of what value would is it to be aware about anything that happens outside of our own community?’ ‘Shouldn’t we just work on ourselves and ignore the rest of the world?’
That is increasingly the argument made by the Charedi world for pursuing an insular way of life. Chasidic enclaves like Kiryas Joel and New Square were established precisely for that purpose. But they are not alone in feeling that way. While the rest of the Charedi world is not as isolated, many of their rabbinic leaders believe it would be the ideal if it weren’t so impractical. And to the extent possible we should live that way. So as to insulate oneself from non Jewish influences – influences that are almost all characterized as evil.
Rav Hirsch disagrees. In the in real world this is not the healthiest way for a Jew to maintain his beliefs and the lifestyle based on it. He clearly believes that there is good in the world outside of our own circles and that we should appreciate it from our own perspective. He is not worried about ‘learning form their evil ways’.Here is how he puts it:
Based on our experience, such [exposure] has probably never affected anyone adversely. We do not think that students in middle and upper classes should remain unacquainted with this Christian worldview, its sensitivities and way of life, but instead should learn to look at it from a Jewish point of view. Eventually, they will lead their lives surrounded by a Christian world, and even as children they encounter Christian elements everywhere.
These are all ideas I have expressed here many times. I’m glad to see that someone of the stature of Rav Hirsch had the same ideas.
These ideas are a problem with the right wing. They do not believe in them and yet acknowledge that Rav Hirsch was a great thinker and actually saved German Jewry from fully assimilating out.
Which is where revisionism comes in. If they don’t like what an acknowledged hero of Orthodoxy has said, they simply modify it so it fits their worldview. That was famously demonstrated by Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz, one of the most respected Charedi Gedolim of the late 19th and early 20th century.
He was asked by a young Rav Shimon Schwab about Hirsch’s Torah Im Derech Eretz (TIDE) philosophy. Which encouraged higher education in service to God and respected non Jewish thinkers like Friedrich von Schiller. Rav Schwab was told that Rav Hirsch never really meant it as a primary outlook. He only meant it as a B’Dieved for the Jews of his generation and location.
Rav Schwab at first accepted that interpretation but later returned to his belief that Rav Hirsch actually did mean it as a primary outlook for Judaism. I’m sure that is because it is a careful study of Hirsch’s works made that clear.
And yet the right wing clings to the idea expressed by R’ Baruch Ber that TIDE is a B’Dieved that and no longer applies. As they are to any of Rav Hirsch’s views that are incompatible with their own.