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| Rav Moshe Feinstein, ZTL (Wikipedia) |
The terrible and tragic problem of our time for rational-minded Orthodox Jews, Is not that there are some “Orthodox” Jews that do bad things.
That will always be the case.
Religious or not, there will be non-observant wife beaters and Orthodox wife beaters. Non-observant white collar criminals and Orthodox white collar criminals etc.
The problem is that the Orthodox world and especially the Hareidi world consistently fails to take OWNERSHIP of individual or communal failings.
By that I mean, acknowledging PUBLICALLY when happens/when mistakes are made, and aggressively PUBLICALLY condemning and better still, directing actions to avoid in future.
When the Hareidi world fails to do this time and time again:
The secular media take ownership and turn the incident/event/issue into something even worse
Non-observant Jews feel even more alienation or worse hatred to Orthodox Judaism
Rational Orthodox Jews see the horrendous chillul hashem by terrible actions by “Orthodox Jews” that is not immediately admonished by the “leading Rabbonim” and throw their hands up in disbelief at best…
This is an fact the very issue I addressed yesterday in reaction to a violent attack against Bet Shemesh mayor, Aliza Bloch. As I said, words are cheap. What is needed is action. If Charedi leadership does not rise to that occasion nothing will change.
Those comments were followed by another email where he made the following points:
And while (this reality) reality is nothing new – it IS NEW in the sense that it is COMPOUNDED BY:
*A huge growth in the Orthodox community. (Good) At the same time, a natural outgrowth of this good – is a parallel increase in numbers of some doing bad things. (Not good)
*A social media and media animal that is far more aggressive today than ever before. Gone are days where can just ignore and believe story will pass
*The scale and magnitude of bad deeds has grown worse
*The Hareidi community has grown even MORE insular
*Hostility and worse between Hareidi and secular has grown even WORSE
My response (with a bit more elaboration) to him is worth sharing.
The following thought occurred to me about his first point. Compared to the shrinkage of other communities, population growth due to a high birth rate does not lend any credence to the idea that their ideology is truer than the ideology of shrinking population. External growth might lend credence to that argument. But not internal growth.
Why is that?
When one is indoctrinated from birth to believe in the truth of their ideology to the exclusion of all others, all that proves is that the parents are good at indoctrinating their children. Which in their case are in far greater number than the general public - which generally do not have anywhere near that many children. If internal growth proves the truth of religious doctrine, that Muslims would win that argument.
This of course has nothing to do with the actual truth of Judaism. It is only to say that our increasing numbers are no proof of that.
But that’s really a side issue, albeit an important one. The issue in question here is the failure of leadership as per yesterday’s post. And his points do indeed compound the issue.
The reality is that these are problems that will be difficult to overcome. They have long ago been entrenched into Charedi culture. However, I truly believe that if the Charedi leadership had the courage to address them without fearing any of the possible negative consequences to themselves, it would go a long way to change things for the better.
I have said the following in the past. But it bears repeating. The biggest impediment to successful change for the better is what Jonathan Rosenblum once wrote about an unidentified member of the Agudah Moetzes.
Upon presenting his controversial view on a matter significant to the Charedi public - that 'Gadol' told him that he agreed - but couldn't say so publicly because he would be accused of being a ‘Fake Gadol’!
Was that simply cowardice motivated by a fear of losing prestige? I don’t know but it sure seems that way. Be that as it may that is not leadership.
The Gemara in Sanhedrin (97a) says the following: B'Dor Shel Ben Dovid Bah - Pnei Hador K'Pnei HaKelev. In pre-messianic times, the face (leaderhip) of the generation will be like the face of a dog.
What this means is demonstrated by the following. To the world - when a dog runs ahead of its master, it seems like he is leading him. But in reality he is always looking back at his master to see where he is going and is really just following him.
This is where today’s Charedi leadership seems to be in many cases. Many of today’s leaders stick their fingers up into the air to see which way the wind is blowing. The ‘wind’ being what people, or perhaps more importantly, their colleagues will think of them. And thus make pronouncements based on that.
Leadership does not always mean doubling down on what other leaders have said. It means telling the truth as they see it regardless of what others think. That is the kind of courage R’ Moshe Feinstein had in his Teshuva (Halachic ruling) about using Chalav Stam - milk processed by the American dairies.. He held that one is permitted to drink such milk because of the strict government laws that prohibit dairies from using anything but cow’s milk in their product
Rav Moshe was severely criticized by a Gadol of similar stature, the Satmar Rebbe (R’Yoel Teitelbaum). He strictly forbade drinking Chalav Stam. His view was that only Chalav Yisroel - milk processed by observant Jews was permitted. But R’ Moshe stuck to his guns. He never backed off.
That is the mark of a Gadol. Contrast that with what is happening today. If this issue would have come up now, very few if any rabbinic leader would have dared to use the arguments made by R’ Moshe to permit drinking Chalav Stam - for fear of being called a fake Gadol. Pnei Hador K'Pnei HaKelev.