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| Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn on April 29, 2020 (Mosaic) |
The term Daas Torah means ‘the wisdom of the Torah’ as applied to issues of public concern to the Jewish people. Today it is mostly associated with The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the Agudath Israel. The term is heard repeatedly over the course of any of their public events. These rabbis are often referred to as ‘the Gedolim’
There is a legitimate reason for that. Although the membership of the Moetzes is somewhat political in the sense of seeking rabbis from all segments of the observant world (as they define it) the fact remains that the majority of its members are indeed among the most Torah knowledgeable rabbis in America – if not the world. It is therefore quite logical to seek their wisdom on issues of the day as Daas Torah. Provided that they are sufficiently educated about the issues upon which they comment. I share the views of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein quoted by Rabbi Zuckier:
My own teacher Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, ztz”l, defended the alternative view that one should follow experts in the relevant field rather than untrained rabbis, noting almost a decade ago that many rabbinic decision-makers today lack the basic fundamentals of worldly knowledge in order to be able to safely make decisions in this area.
When lacking such knowledge, Any rabbi worthy of the name ‘Gadol’ understands what he knows and what he doesn’t know. And seeks the counsel of experts in the field upon which they will issue their Torah based directive. The question is are they always talking to the ‘Gadol’ in that flied/? Or are they talking to someone not quite as qualified to inform them.
I don’t know. But in the case of the current pandemic, for example . I fear that the Agudah Gedolim are not conferring with the medical ‘Gedolim’ . Instead they are relying on doctors of lesser stature. Which in part explains their directives on how to practice mitigation efforts.
Their greater emphasis on the importance of communal institutions rather than on the health issues gives rise to a degree of skepticism among their public. While the Moetzes urges people to follow the guidelines issued by public health officials, they seem to be doing so as a matter of secondary importance. As noted by Rabbi Zuckier:
Their message before Rosh Hashanah barely mentioned social distancing or mask wearing, and spent more time insisting that there be no changes to the customary holiday prayers…
Making matters worse is the general skepticsm about the pandemic by many people that exists in this country. It doesn’t take much for a public uprising against mitigation rules to happen even among Orthodox Jews. And when it does, it brings out the worst in us.
It also brings out some of our worst people who see the approach of Daas Torah to the pandemic as secondary relative to their approach to participating in religious communal events. Which they take as a license to rabble rouse. As was the case with Heshy Tischler a while back. You would think that a stand alone unambiguous Agudah statement condemning it was warranted. But that is not how Agudah handled it:
Agudath Israel’s statement published October 16, days after Tischler led a series of protests culminating in a widely covered anti-mask riot in the Orthodox neighborhood of Borough Park, appears intent on not directly referencing those high-profile events. “The forced closure of our shuls and schools is undeniably a source of tremendous anguish for our community,” the statement says, “Further, Agudath Israel of America regards some of the rhetoric that has accompanied such closures as dangerous, with potential to foment those already too eager to hate us, chas v’sholom [God forbid].”
This is where Daas Torah seems to be failing in their public responsibility. Instead of calling that event the Chilul HaShem that it clearly was, they criticized it in apologetic tones. I suppose they want to appear as neutral and sympathetic as they can. But at what price? It took them a week until they finally said the following:
(I)n a statement also calling for prayer and spiritual resilience, that “Certainly we may not provoke through protests and unruliness against the government, something which has already caused an appalling desecration of Hashem’s Name, Rachmana litzlan [God help us].
It seems, therefore, that the (original) coordinated Moetzes-Agudath Israel strategy was basically to hope to ignore the headline-grabbing Tischler protests, until doing so became too difficult and they finally called out “some of the rhetoric” as “dangerous.”
Yes, it does seem that way. That the Agudah Moetzes has been silent or has given muted responses when their voices should have been immediate, loud, and clear - has created a void filled by two kinds of people.
Repsonsible lay people (like David Lichtenstein and Shlomo Rechnitz, the two mentioned by Rabbi Zuckier) with powerful voices have come out with immediate unequivocal condemnations of their own. But the void is also being filled by the Tischlers of the world.
In my view the reluctance of the Agudah Moetzes to quickly do what Lichtenstein and Rechnitz did, gives rise to the kinds of things Tischler does
Last week there was yet another Chilul HaShem related to the pandemic. This time it was by the Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Joel who illegally tried to hide the Novemebr 8th wedding of his grandson that was attended by 7000 invited, unmasked Satmar Chasidim - squashed together in a large room for many hours.
I expressed my outrage at that event a couple of days ago and called upon all Orthodox organizations to condemn it. To the best of my knowledge, none have done so. Yet. That is disappointing. In the case of the Agudah Moetzes, if they are to regain their status representing Daas Torah even among their own, they should be the first to do so.
My guess is that they won’t. Because they do not want to alienate Satmar. Even while Satmar has absolutely no connection to Agudah whatsoever. I hope I’m wrong. But we’ll see.
Some may ask, what will be gained by such a condemnation? They don’t care what anyone says about them. I’m not sure how accurate it is to say that they don’t care at all about being condemned by the Gedolim of the non Chasidic Charedi world. Be that as it may they won’t listen in any case. So why do it?
The answer should be obvious. The whole world is watching. Jews as well as non Jews. They see the most religious looking Jews among us defying the law, endangering themselves and possibly spreading the pandemic in a super-spreader event! And then get caught trying to hide it!
The Agudah Moetzes and every other Orthodox organization needs to make clear that the vast majority of Orthodox Jews do not condone it. That doing something like that is anything but Jewish. Instead they need to issue an unequivocal condemnation in no uncertain terms. Not the kind lukewarm apologetics they issued before. That is what is Daas Torah needs to do in the face of a Chilul Hashem of such magnitude. If it fails to dos so, the void will surely be filled by others like Tischler whose values anything but Daas Torah.