[Be-Ahavah U-Be-Emunah – Yitro 5773
– translated by R. Blumberg]
Many hold
that in our world, which suffers from media overload, all aspects of life must
be managed by those who are popular, the populists, the politically correct,
etc., and if someone conducts himself with innocent integrity he will just make
a mess of things.
This has
resulted in the creation of a popular/populist Rabbi, who believes that only by
doing what the people want can he bring them closer to our Father in Heaven.
Nonetheless,
the populist Rabbi does not like being labeled as such, for the connotation is
that he has low self-esteem, and that he therefore positions himself at the
representative center.
Following
are the characteristics of the populist Rabbi. Obviously, one populism is not the
same as the next. All the same, we can distinguish several general
characteristics that apply, more or less, in most cases.
1. Enlists
support and admiration amongst a broad spectrum of the public, especially the
secular and the liberal religious.
2. Gains
this support by emphasizing frustration, adapting prejudices against certain
Jewish laws, and promising overnight miracle solutions.
3.
Emphasizes and focuses upon topics that are dear to the hearts of those
populations, such as: democracy, academics and the status of women, and shows
lenience regarding conversion, sexual modesty, and other matters
4. Wages a
stubborn battle against Charedi Rabbis who possess political power due to their
spiritual greatness or their genius in Jewish law, and seeks constantly to
undermine them by sabotaging that power.
5. At the
same time, makes selective use of isolated, lenient Charedi rulings, fleshing out
those rulings, extending them and establishing them as representative examples.
6.
Systematically blames Torah scholars, and the whole Charedi public, for
numerous troubles in society and presents themselves as the bearers of light
for the generation.
7.
Repeatedly presents Torah scholars as extremists, far removed and cut off from
the public, who distance the public from the Torah, while they themselves have a
monopoly on the mainstream approach, and are connected to, friendly with and in
touch with the people. By such means they claim glory for themselves at the
cost of shaming others.
8. Renders
moral messages shallow, glossing over them with their personal charisma. These Rabbis
are not like Moshe, who testified about his own speech impediments. See Maran
Ha-Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-Cohain Kook’s letter in this regard to his son, Rabbenu
Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah in his youth.
9. Attempts
to bring secular Jews closer to religion and liberal Jews to Torah by issuing
less-demanding rulings. They gauge their rulings by asking themselves: Will the
public be pleased when less demanding rulings are issued?
10. Without
openly taking a stand against Halachah, but having learned Torah and speaking
in the Torah’s name, avails himself of three magic formulas to neutralize
Jewish laws that people find inconvenient.
11. ruse
#1: claiming irrelevance. The Talmud and Rambam are not always
relevant to our life circumstances. Rav Kook and the Chief Rabbinate are
irrelevant.
If they
lived in our midst, they would not say what they said then. Moreover, The Chief
Rabbinate, itself, is no longer relevant. It goes without saying that the
rulings of most Torah scholars and Torah luminaries, especially those who are Charedi, are irrelevant since those authorities
are accused of being cut off from the people. The Torah, originally considered
the truth, is henceforth to be violated, the way a vow may be annulled. Such an
approach jeopardizes the whole eternity of Torah.
It's like
the story of the wagon driver who refused to obey the Rabbi’s ruling obligating
him to pay for damage caused when he slipped on the ice. "The Torah was
given in the summer” he argued, “Had it been given in the winter, it would
exempt me."
12. The
realm that merits the most sweeping stamp of "irrelevance" is the
laws of sexual modesty, most of which disturb both the secular and liberal
religious. This includes branding as irrelevant our Sages’ dictum that
"there is no guardian against unchastity" (Ketubot 13b).
13. ruse
#2: misusing our Sages’ ruling "Better they should err in ignorance than
brazenly” (Beitza 30a). To their mind, this requires our contradicting or neutralizing
anything that will be the least bit displeasing to the secular or
half/third/quarter of religious Jews. This frees them from the heavy
responsibility of giving rebuke, it crowns public opinion as a major factor in
determining Jewish law, and renders the populist Rabbi a captive of the media.
14. ruse
#3: spiritual pragmatism. If something is important, but not easy for the
public to accept, then better not to teach it than to drive the “straddlers” to
the side of the secular/Reform side or alienate the secular. That is: there are
laws we do not teach because we need a Torah that one can communicate with and
attach oneself to. The facts on the ground determine the “Truth” that is
conveyed.
15. Due to
this, the populist Rabbi is considered by great Torah scholars like a driver who
drives on the white line and even commonly crosses over it. The populist Rabbi unrelentingly
seeks to receive the legitimacy of the great Torah luminaries -- and he does
not succeed. Yet since those great luminaries relate to him with love and
brotherhood and peace and friendship, he very often interprets that position as
agreement.
16. And in
conclusion, his external appearance is that of "just plain folks". He
dresses in a non-Rabbinic fashion, has a small yarmulke, and sometimes no
beard, and if he has a beard, it is small and carefully trimmed. And he
certainly does not have a beard like that of Ha-Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin, which
was not symmetric, but was longer on one side than the other.
*
Our Father
our King, for the sake of Your Great Name, and for the sake of our ancestors
who trusted in You, and to whom You taught the living Torah so that they might fulfill
your wishes wholeheartedly, so shall You have mercy on us and teach us as well.
