Thinking back, I think I always knew it and felt it, but until it was articulated to me, I never understood it.
A few years ago I was talking to the daughter of a Chassidic Rabbi with a very famous last name and I mentioned that there was word out that the Rabbis in some cities forbid their people from using the internet and also forbid the bais yaakov girls from going to Miami on vacation. I was commenting how absurd I thought it all was when she quoted her father and said that the misnagdim have created a religion of fear.
Religion of fear. I never thought about that even though I probably always knew it. I thought back and retraced some decisions in my life where I'd asked for Rabbinical guidance and even decisions I made with my yeshiva education as my foundation.
Here's one I didn't figure out until I was 39 years old. I was studying Mesechta Sanhedrian and came across the description of Sraiyfah-swallowing of hot lead- as punishment for an adulteress. I thought it was rather harsh to be sure, but then the Talmud enlightened me on why that is needed. Sraiyfah burns the insides of a body, but leaves the outsides intact.
All of Israel has a portion in the world to come. The talmud teaches that sraiyfah is needed so that the woman can cleanse her soul and RETAIN HER PORTION IN THE WORLD TO COME by atoning for this sin this way, thereby cleansing the neshoma-soul-which gets burned up by the process. The Talmud states very clearly that the reason we have capital punishment in Judaism is because all Jews have a portion in the world to come. Hmmm...how come no one ever told me that?
How does this tie into the religion of fear?
When I learned Talmud and even Chumash when I was younger, I was always told there is a punishment for your bad deeds. It was always about "you did something bad, therefore you need to be punished. If you don't want to be punished, don't do anything bad". so we learned Torah that way in our lives and made our decisions with that somewhere in mind.
How ridiculous is that? Is there punishment? Yes. Is the reason we get the punishment because we were bad? No. The reason we get the punishment is to retain our portion in the world to come. Hashem is a G-d that loves all his creations and wants the best for them. The charedi world has locked G-d in a box and made him this unmoving, unwavering, unyielding, dictator who demands obedience at any cost. The followers of this logic bend over backwards to make life as uncomfortable as possible under the guise of "this is what G-d wants from me so I will suffer no matter the cost." Does that make any sense?
I remember asking a Rabbi about a job opportunity. I was young and naive and didn't quite get it. I told him about this job that paid very well, but I was not sure if wearing my kippah was the smartest thing. His response was that I should pass on the job because would I really want to take a job where my wearing a kippah was in question? He didn't tell me that the Mishna Brurah and the Chay Adom were of the opinion that it was no problem. I think I even knew that myself, but wanted some guidance just the same. Based on his advice I turned the job down and regretted it for years.
This past Sunday a man collecting for himself asked me for money. He started a kollel and it fell through and now he's 200k in debt. I asked why he started the Kollel and he said in his city in Israel there were only 5 kollels (im). Only five?? I told him that if a person really wants to learn he should learn as a single guy but should not be allowed to marry and effect other lives that will get entangled with his fantasy. He told me a man has to learn because it's dangerous out in the world. I agreed but asked him what is the big deal to G-d if you lock yourself in the Study hall and keep away from any outside influences such as say, I dunno, a job? Do you think the reward is greater for you than the man who enters the jungle and retains his foundation? Are you afraid that all the years of Torah study cannot combat the mean old world? I told him it's not logical...then told him logic doesn't always prevail that's why we had World War 1. He missed that reference because he never studied history. What a surprise....
I could go on and on. I am frustrated by the sheep who just follow Bo peep because he said it's bad for you and you need to be afraid. I long for the days of Ivdu Es Hashem B'Simcha...whatever happened to serving G-d in love...we are lost in fear and it has spiraled into a dogma that cripples anyone who is a bit different and paralyzes them into thinking they don't measure up because they need to have their thirst for answers quenched instead of being satisfied with a morsel of food because it is just the way it has to be.
Enough already. We need to find a Pinchas or Mattisyahu who will fight the Jews who are strangling the Torah and making it's adherents zombies and cowering nerds in the corner.
I, for one, will continue looking for those who have the will to stand up and be counted.
18 comments:
A few responses come to mind.
1) In Avos, we are told we can't know the reason why the wicked sometimes prosper in this world and the righteous sometimes suffer. Many commentators explain, quite simply, that we can't understand why G-d set up a system where reward and punishment are spread out over two worlds, this one and the One to Come. A G-d of Justice rewards postivie behaviour and punishes the negative not just in this world but the next and in the end, everyone gets what they deserve, good or bad. And the purpose of punishment, it is very clear from the sources, is to cleanse our souls so that after we reach the Next World, we can come close to the Shechinah and the Divine Bliss that it implies. Therefore punishment is for our benefit which is why "Afflications of Lovingkindnes" is such a uniquely Jewish concept.
People are limited and they have defined G-d in limited ways. People who see punishment in a cruel fashion and can't imagine G-d being any other way describe Heavenly punishments in that fashion.
It is also easier to keep people in line that way. Selfless devotion and service of G-d is very difficult. There is a natural human impulse that asks "What's in it for me?" Hence the concepts of reward and punishment because selfless people are beyond that.
Koheles tells us that the words of the wise are heard when said pleasantly. Most "wise" people today either forgot that verse or ignore it when they try to browbeat Judaism into you.
Remember when you're deal with these kollel types that they will NOT understand what you're getting at. Their entire lives they've been told that their way is the only way, that others who are different (a) have no opinion worth listened to and (b) are only useful as a source of cash. You can't change their minds. There's an old saying that comes to mind: Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig. If someone can't see that 5 kollels in a city is more than enough and wants to start a 6th, your frame of reference will be totally alien to him.
There are those out there who are trying to change this from the outside in. Check out nishma.org for one very good example.
In Torah it said : Love God in your heart. Now if our smart rabbi think that to love God is to teach Torah by fear then he dissobey Torah.
Since most of our Rabbi today, insted to learn Torah they preach it. what you get is the following: the more the rabbi is more stupid then he cannot convince his students by wisdom. So the only way for him to keep his status in their eyes is to maintain fear.
"If someone wants to teach God way by fear all what he will find is fear and not God" (Papia, pearl of wisdom)
I, for one, will continue looking for those who have the will to stand up and be counted.
You, for one, are one of those who don't have the will to stand up and be counted...
Moshe Gluck,
I can only assume by your response, that you are one of the sheep that keeps following bo peep...trust me...I will continue to be and always have been one with the will to stand up and be counted...I will fight this fight exactly because of cowards like you who are afraid to hold accountable the ridiculous musings of some rosh ha'yeshiva, who has only been appointed as one because he had the financial backing of someone with money (who is working no less) so he could start a school, or he is living off someone else's hard work...
But thank you for your comment-just when I think it might be time to give up the cause, you show up and remind me why we need to save our children from the mindless drivle of assembly line judaism...
trust me...I will continue to be and always have been one with the will to stand up and be counted...
If that's the case, put your real name on your blog. Until then, your arguments are not worth responding to.
How silly. A guy who quotes everyone else's Torah and has no thoughts of his own, is a brave soul who adds his no masks symbol to his website...
My advice is before you opine on the value of naming names in a community that has shown it's true colors by blaming the messenger (ie Phil Jacobs) under the guise of suppossed das Torah, offer an opinion on life or on the terrible state that your community will be in within the next 10 years if not sooner.
Seems to me, if you want a Rabbi to act, you must make sure the pressure is cooked real high...the fear of the internet is such that rabbis are scurrying all about to get out fake mei culpas only to rescind them in short time because they are weak kneed reactionairies who are preying on the non tax paying members of the very own city you live in...
Sheep...
I certainly have no problem quoting other people's Torah, but you must not have looked very much at my site if you think I haven't written any of my own.
If you go back far enough in my archives, I've made predictions about where my community is heading.
Seems to me that you take every single criticism possible of any segment of my community, and paint the entire community with it.
Not at all...and to correct you and of course this is where I figured you'd be...I am not worried about "your community" I am worried about "our community"...I am addressing a problem with "our" community that is more problematic at this time and MUCH more dangerous than woman in college or kosher clothing-the issue of kollel for all and the shidduch process is so drastically in need of change, if we do not attack it head on we will regret the day we allowed even one person to learn full time and the Rabbis will write a letter that will say" we thought we were doing the right thing" and the sheep will still listen to them...forget the issue of abuse-thats a whole other mess that our gutless leadership has swept under the rug....
I am not generalizing at all-I am stating a fact and if you find it uncomfortable, call out these suppossed leaders and demand answers instead of worshiping at the altar of the agudah, BMG and all the rest of the enablers of poverty...
First you write: My advice is ...offer an opinion on life or on the terrible state that your community will be in within the next 10 years if not sooner.
Then you write: I am not worried about "your community" I am worried about "our community"...
Make up your mind.
The generalizations I was referring to were mostly in your post "Shidduch and the Gutless."
You are sidestepping the point - if you truly believe in what you are saying, and if you truly are willing to stand up and be counted, why not put your name on your website? Phil Jacobs, right or wrong, has more guts than you, who are so quick to call everyone else "gutless" and "sheep."
Ah, that should read, "who is so quick..."
Phil is a good friend and a brave man, but you should only know what he is dealing with from the pillars of Torah...I believe, unfortunately for our world, we will all soon find out, as will the entire general populace, what his story really is and I know plenty a Rabbi who will be in hiding when it all hits the fan...
By my comment your community I meant the lakewood disease I wrote about in an earlier post but did not, if you paid attention, single myself out from the Klall-just the opposite, I included myself and my family in it....
I stand firmly by my comments regarding the shidduch world and the gutless people who are driving it.
In regrads to why I have not posted my name on here as of yet it is because as I stated before, yours, mine and our community has shown all too obviously how they treat Jews like me. For you to demand that I reveal myself is the pinnacle of cowardice. You haven't taken a singular stand on anything meaningful so your bravado is laughable at best. You seem to be afraid of the consequences so you act tough while posting nothing....
Spare me your bravery...
Nu, nu... I see you are up to February '06 in my archives. Maybe, by the time you finish, you will stop saying that I have never taken a stand...
I, however, will still not respect someone who hides from taking responsibility for his words.
I have no problem with you being afraid of the way you will be treated should you reveal your true identity. But, at least have the decency of not calling other people "sheep" and "gutless" - when you are gutless, too.
Well no I can't say that.
After reading most of your "work" here is what I can attest to. You are brave when it comes to doing and saying nothing. Here is the stand you take...bloggers are cowards....only people like me who sign my name and say nothing other than berating bloggers-very brave I must add- and then you throw a bone out and say abuse is bad-how righteous of you- followed by excuses for the very men who sat quietly and gave Kavod to a store owner in Monsey who sold treif and rabbeim in New York and Baltimore who CONSTANTLY and without remorse abused children all the while claiming that those on the RIGHT SIDE of this issue are fulfilling Moshiachs destiny because of Chutzpah...You can't be serious can you??
Interestingly enough, I noticed how you forgot about the actions of Rabbis at the end of days who act like pigs with golden rings in their noses as if to say look at my Torah, see how great it is...
Where is your bravery or are you just as I suggest onw of many sheep who apologize for the grave mistakes of our leadership, who by the way, fall woefully short of the leaders of past generations?
Maybe it is that sugya that you should rally around and call into question the actions of some of the "revered and righteous" instead of banging the drum on the heads of people who are calling for action from those who have failed to lead.
Does this surprise me? Of course not-I read your "work" and see that taking a stand that would make you commit to justice, is just too much for a yid of your stature...
I have no problem with you being afraid of the way you will be treated should you reveal your true identity. But, at least have the decency of not calling other people "sheep" and "gutless" - when you are gutless, too.
You still have yet to respond to this point...
There is clearly a difference between being gutless sheep and being prudent. If I thought gutless sheep like yourself would listen and make the effort to improve the problem instead of attack, than you could be sure that I would post my name...the problem with your ilk is that you bait those who you try to intimidate with your proffessed wisdom and then when they take the bait you attack and disparage....all for your own ego while dressing it up as defending Torah. Of course you won't take a position on anything because that is what cowards do....or actually don't do.
I answered you, now here's your chance to show your bravery and that you are not the coward you seem to be on-line. Call out your local yeshiva for the embarassment they have become with THOUSANDS of Kollel who are sucking their parents dry...or you can call out particular rabbis who you know have been running cover for SEXUAL ABUSERS for years....don't try the shnayim aydim card b/c there are way too many people who do not know each other with the same stories....I have more opportunities for you if you ever get up the nerve...
Let's see how brave you really are oh yea of great righteousness...
Boys! Boys!
> Call out your local yeshiva for the embarassment they have become with THOUSANDS of Kollel who are sucking their parents dry...or you can call out particular rabbis who you know have been running cover for SEXUAL ABUSERS for years....
Shemarya's already got this angle covered at Failedmessiah.com.
Maybe you could get back onto the original topic and ignore Gluck's provocation?
By the way, back to the original topic of this thread. You might enjoy Marc Shapiro's biography of the Seridei Eish who started off as a true-black Litvisher but wound up in Germany through G'd's machinations. Once there and exposed to Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch's writings, he came to conclusion that Judaism was meant to be an all-encompassing worldly faith but that the ghetto had removed the worldly part from it, leaving only a religion ruled by a wrathful G-d who loved punishing the littlest infractions, which is how he wound up characterizing eastern Europe's Jewish identity. And this from a guy who came from that side of the street. It fits in perfectly with your original post.
I'll be back, Iy"H, after Shavuos...
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