her•e•sy (plural her•e•sies)
noun
1. religion unorthodox religious opinion: an opinion or belief that contradicts established religious teaching, especially one that is officially condemned by a religious authority
No doubt you have all heard of the FOG Index (a measure of how readable a given piece of text is).
Well now we have the Heresy Index, a measure of how heretical a given book is.
The index scores from 0 to 10
0: The Gedolim will have this on their bookshelf
1: The Gedolim won’t have it, but they would read it if you lent it to them2: The Gedolim won’t read it, but they won’t object to you reading it
3: The Gedolim will object to you reading it, but they won’t sign a ban
4: The Gedolim will sign a ban, but won’t call it actual kefirah
5: The Gedolim will call it actual kefirah, but the MO’s will say its fine
6: The MO’s will say its not normative Orthodox opinion but its okay to read it
7: The MO’s will say its heresy but the Conservatives will say its fine
8: The Conservatives will say its heresy, but the Reform will say its fine
9: The Reform will say its heresy, but the Atheists will say its fine
10: The Atheists declare it heretical
I am working on a comprehensive formula to automatically calculate the index based on the text itself, but that will take some time.
Of course you also have the divisions amongst LW, RW and Centrist UO, MO and Gedolim, and also differences between US, EU and Israel. So for example, Slifkin's 'The Science of Torah' rates a 4 amongst the EY Gedolim, but only a 3 with the American Gedolim. HaLivni's ‘Revelation Restored’ will rate a 7 amongst RW MO, but probably only a 6 amongst LW MO.
Coming Soon
Heretic Index: Rate your personal level of heresy by calculating the Combined Heresy Index of your entire bookcase!
