A highly imaginary, err … I meant to say highly intelligent, friend of mine recently sent me the following letter. I have faithfully written it, err … I mean reproduced it, word for word.
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Dear Rabbi Leatherkippa,
I wish to be Orthodox, but the two major groupings in Orthodoxy - the Modern Orthodox (MO) and the Ultra Orthodox (UO) both make me nauseous.
Let’s look at the UO first. The UO strike an occasional responsive chord within me.
But there are aspects of UO that give me pause. I find them too casual, and careless, about their ethics. They with their black hats, conspicuously UO, while still often presenting a Chilul Hashem with their behavior. All right, those are externals. But maybe the black hats are a statement: I am UO, the elite of the elite, and I don’t give a damn about the world outside.
More seriously, I find in the UO an emphasis on material trappings- just like in the majority culture. Have you ever been to Boro Park, Monsey, even Lakewood ? The houses, cars and sheitels are spectacular. While I agree that a Jew should have some gashmius, I think the UO tend to blur the narrow line between having some gashmius and yet resisting the vulgar values that permeate that world. Large homes, expensive clothes, vacations, with all their crassness, are all normal aspects of their daily lives.
Their inability to resist superstition and Rebbe worship shows itself, for example, in their flirtation with so-called “Kabalistic Segulas”, blind faith in aging and out of touch leaders, potential Messiah figures and frenetic attempts to imitate fundamentalist Christianity and radical Islam. With one eye cocked on the extremist fundamentalist religion du-jour, UO seems to be today’s precursors of tomorrow’s Taliban movement.
Yes, they are technically observant, but it’s an observance that to me seems superficial, robotic, without passion. In many UO day schools, Torah study is the only subject. Talmud first period, Talmud second period, Talmud third period, etc. This is reflected in some UO lives. Although obeisance is given to Torah as the supreme value, the lack of any training in the spirit of the law, and in ethics and general menshlechkite is evident.
I don’t want to be super-critical, but this obscurantism shows itself in what seems like an unending search for chumros. When was the last time you heard of a UO kulla ? Their only religious passion is directed against those who are less ritually machmir than they are.
I would like to identify with them, but I am uncomfortable with the noxious fumes of non-tolerance that they exude.
Where then is my spiritual home? With the MO world ? Not really.
For starters, there is simply too much freedom of thought there. It is not only that everyone studies a wide variety of topics. (After 120 years, will you be asked if your read Kant or Shakespeare ? Is admission to heaven denied to those who can’t quote Robert Burns ?)
But it is not only their colorful studious habits that get to me, but also their colorful world view. In the UO world, there is black and white - there are the Gedolim and there is everyone else - but for the MO this dichotomy does not exist. I fully realize that many individual MO’s are kind, generous, charitable, but the group as a group comes across as much too tolerant of many viewpoints, even beyond the parameters of Gedolim.
Lately, for example, they have been criticizing certain bans about heretical books. If a Godol hints that all science is bunk, or – basing himself on a narrow range of Jewish sources - that the science of the greatest scientists of the last few centuries, is not congruent with contemporary fundamentalist UO ideology, his ban is criticized across the world. (Which turns humdrum bans into major news stories.)
Such behavior tends to remove some of the beauty and holiness from MO life. MO Jews should be sensitive to others who desire to burn books, whether with real bonfires or symbolic ones.
In general, MO seem to want to close themselves off from the world of superstition, obscurantism, intolerance - and one cannot blame them. After all, it was these cultural undercurrents of the last few centuries which paved the way for the Holocaust and the Islamic jihad.
I fully appreciate the sacrifice that having demanding, full-time careers involves - many luxuries and comforts are surrendered. But within their world, is there also room for genuinely intolerant people who also learn a little ?
Despite all this, the MO have been most successful, and have really defeated the UO on the battlefield of ideas. They have a charismatic leadership, a dynamic ideology, they are intensely Jewish, they sacrifice. There is purpose in their lives, spiritual strength, sanctity, self assurance - and these have attracted many Jews under their umbrella. Unlike the UO, they have little difficulty is retaining their next generation – (UO’s are leaving their restrictive communities in droves – witness all the blogs of ex-yeshivah guys).
I am both attracted and repelled by this MO world - as I am by the UO world.
My friends and I are in despair. Orthodoxy is genuine and authentic, and we belong there. But is this all that Orthodoxy has to offer these days – either intellectual curiosity or big black hats perched on top of your head - plus a disdain for other Orthodox groups? Is this the way of holiness?
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My imaginary interlocutor finished his inquisition. For a change, I had no immediate response. Instead, I am turning it over to the blogosphere for reaction. What would you tell him?
