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| Rabbi Yehuda Greenwald (Tzarich Iyun) |
What makes this so remarkable is what the Gemarah attributes to Yiftach. When he was at war with the nation of Amon he made a serious blunder. In his attempt to gain God’s favor in securing victory he foolishly vowed to sacrifice the first thing to come out of the door of his house if he won.
As it turned out, he won. And the first thing to come out of the door was his beloved daughter. There are different interpretations about he fulfilled that vow. But one of them is that since he made that vow, he had no choice but to actually sacrifice her.
And yet as outrageous as this was, the Gemarah tells us that he is granted the same degree of leadership as was the great Shmuel.
I mention this because I have often said that today’s rabbinic leadership is nowhere near the leadership of a generation ago. That generation of leaders consisted of names like R’ Moshe Feinstein, R’ Yaakov Kaminetsky, R' Yitzchok Hutner, R’Ahaon Kotler, R’ Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, and R’ Ahron Soloviechik (just to name a few).
They were giants in Torah knowledge; kindness, they knew how to lead, and yet contained a level of humility uncommon in our day. They were venerated by all, myself included
This is not to cast any aspersions on the Torah knowledge of today’s leadership. For the most part they live up to their billing as great Talmidei Chachamim. But they are not leaders anywhere near the caliber of their predecessors – if they are leaders at all.
Whenever I have articulated those views, I have gotten the retort that: Yiftach B'Doro K'Shmuel B'Doro. Just like Yiftach in his day - we are required to listen to the leaders of our day. In other words you play the hand you are dealt. The Charedi world calls this Daas Torah.
On the other hand it seems like a lot of the lip service paid to this ideal is honored in the breach by that very same community. I have heard that lack of confidence in those leaders in private conversations with many of the Charedim I know.
Why is that? Perhaps Today’s leaders do not even rise to the level of Yiftach. (Please do not misconstrue. I do not mean to minimize their Torah knowledge, integrity or ethics. Nor do I think they would ever do anything nearly as foolish as Yiftach did. But the one thing Yiftach had was leadership ability. Which meant that he was accepted as a leader by the entire nation of Israel in his time.
That there is no leadership today is exactly the lament of Rabbi Yehuda Greenwald, who has written a thoughtful but audacious article on the subject in Tzarich Iyun.
Rabbi Greenwald is firmly implanted in the Charedi camp. This can be gleaned from his article. And yet he dares to ‘swim against the tide’ by criticizing the Charedi rabbinic leadership as failing in 3 critical events. (His criticism is similar to the criticism I have made myself. Many times):
Charedi society has experienced three major tragedies in two years: our disorderly (to put it very mildly) response to Covid-19, the Meron disaster, and the Walder affair…
Taken together, the three tragedies falsify the oft-repeated claim that Charedi society is led by Gedolim—Torah luminaries who guide us on all matters of public policy and behavior. The silence of our putative leaders and their clear lack of public guidance cry out to the heavens. The vacuum of leadership is embarrassing, to me and to many other peers, colleagues, and friends…
Coming from a Charedi Rav, this is quite a shocking statement! But he goes on to explain why he feels that way in a somewhat lengthy article. It should be read in its entirety. I think he makes his case quite effectively. If only his peers and colleagues that feel as he does would have the courage to come out of the closet and admit their embarrsament publicly!
But I fear that mainstream Charedi rabbis in the trenches of Shuls and Yeshivos are not willing to admit those obvious truths and publicly join their colleague Rabbi Greenwald for fear of being ostracized.
Sadly I don’t see any kind of groundswell of rabbis anywhere willing to do that publicly. I assume they fear it being seen by their peers in some kind of rebellion against the social order of the Charedi world.
What does that mean for the future? Who knows... But as things stand now, I imagine there will be more of the same and more attrition from Daas Torah by the rank and file. Some of whom may go OTD altogether.
I’m not sure anything can be done about it. If this is how the current leadership is now, where are legitimate new leaders of the future going to come from?
HT: Manya Shochet