Return to The Jewish Week   
Friday, March 07, 2008

Rabbis Out Of Touch With the Power of their Words

Posted By James Besser

Behind the Headlines:  Rabbis Out Of Touch With The Power Of Their Words

 


Pronouncements from prominent, sometimes revered rabbis, should uplift us spiritually, not embarrass us ethically. And I'm tired of trying to explain their behavior to those not prone to sympathize with Orthodox leaders. Take two remarkable incidents that took place here most recently.


Just yesterday we learned that Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University's rabbinical school, advocated shooting the Prime Minister of Israel if the government "gave away Jerusalem."(Read the story here)


He made the statement in a discussion with American students learning at Yeshivat HaKotel in Jerusalem, though it is not clear when. He also said that if the Israeli army was "going to give away Jerusalem," he would tell all Israeli soldiers to resign, and that it is a sin to "destroy" Gush Katif.


Rabbi Schachter, who was just appointed one of the two American rabbis to oversee the conversion process in an agreement reached between the Rabbinical Council of America and the Chief Rabbinate in Israel, is beloved by his many students and highly respected as a Talmudic scholar throughout the Modern Orthodox world.


But he is no stranger to controversy, sometimes speaking out in blunt, politically incorrect terms, be it about women – he once compared them to monkeys and parrots in describing who could read the ketubah at a wedding – or non-Jews, having noted that Jews have "different genes and instincts" than other people.


The rabbi, confronted with his remarks, issued an apology today, saying "they were not meant seriously" and did not represent his feelings.


His defenders say he is naïve, not mean-spirited, and that his words are taken out of the context of his yeshiva environment. But Rabbi Schachter should know by now that his statements are recorded and repeated, and that his words have weight outside the halls of the Beit Midrash.


Would we make excuses for non-Jews who spoke of when it might be proper to kill the Prime Minister of Israel?

 

And then there were the 33 ultra-Orthodox rabbinic luminaries who banned a chasidic music concert set for a venue at Madison Square Garden Sunday night. Titled "The Big Event," the fund-raiser for a charity providing free weddings for orphans in Israel, would have had separate seating for men and women – even separate entrances. Yet the rabbis said the event would cause "ribaldry and lightheadedness" and "strip the youth of every shred of Fear of Heaven and [lower] them into a pit of destruction."

 

Some say the rabbis didn't realize what they were signing onto, duped by a prominent member of the community who has it in for Lipa Schmeltzer, the singer and headliner of the show. (The other possibility is that the rabbis are so fearful of secular culture creeping into their communities that they decry a healthy outlet for families and teens.)

 

How can responsible religious leaders prohibit attending an event they apparently knew little about, causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the producer and performers – not to mention the charity?

 


Is the best explanation for these rabbis and Rabbi Schachter that they are naïve and not attuned to the world around them, making statements they don't realize will have ripples of repercussions?

 


If so, perhaps the walls surrounding our houses of learning have grown too high. Beware of a backlash among disillusioned followers.



PermaLink

Posted In Behind the Headlines | 2 Comments

Immoral Silence

03/17/08 @ 08:47 PM | Posted By Joe S., Teaneck, NJ

 

What should shock the reader is that aside some a few luminaries of the liberal modern orthodox wing, there have been no condemnations of this outrage from the so-called center or right wing of the modern orthodox camp.  (Sadly, it is becoming apparent to me that we are no longer one camp.)

Would we be hearing something more substantial from YU if R. Schachter had, G-d forbid, suggested assassinating the President of the United States?  After all, doesn't the President advocate territorial compromise?  I thank G-d that the Jewish Week remains in the hands of the sane.

Journalists,not Rabbis out of Toucjh

03/07/08 @ 01:46 PM | Posted By Steve Brizel

The Jewish Week has lost all pretenses of objectivity with its continued negative coverage of one of the leading Torah scholars of our time Rav Herschel Schachter. One could fill entire books with the off the cuff and caustic comments of the Tannaim, Amoraim , Rishonim and Acharonim and presumably with annotated footnotes if one knew that such comments would be used as cannon fodder by both those ignorant and hostile to Torah Judaism and the Mesorah. Perhaps, instead of seeking an apology, President Joel should have asked why the current Israeli government has abdicated its basic responsibility of defending the residents of Jerusalem, Sderot and Ashkelon. 

However, given the fact that the Jewish Week and its editor supports a left wing watered down version of Modern Orthodoxy, one should expect comments of this sort from an editor who previously falsely accused Rav Schachter of supporting Prime Minister Rabin's assassination and apologized one week later in an apology the size of a woman's piece of lingery.

Given the fact that the Jewish Week has all but telegraphed its support for the dissenters from the RCA-Chief Rabbinate conversion agreement, we can expect more scurilous articles from the Jewish Week against Rav Schachter and his colleague and promoting the idea that all Orthodox rabbis are equally capable of deciding questions of Halacha, despite their vast differences in Torah knowledge-a point that Rav Soloveutchik ZTL sharply disagreed with and dismissed as wrong.

Perhaps, what really bothers the Jewish Week is that there is noone within the Torah world who is more dedicated to teaching and learning Torah and the defense of the Jewish People in Israel and the US than Rav Schachter. One cannot seriously contend that Rav Schachter's detractors are in the same league as a Talmid Chacham who spends his free time teaching and learning with laymen and teens who know not even a fraction of Rav Schachter's vast Torah knowledge and who is sought as a Posek on issues of Halacha-even by those who claim to have a "right" to disagree with Rav Schachter. One wonders when the Jewish Week will apologize for its infamous campaign of calumny against the Talmidei Chachamim who are the Roshei Yeshiva of RIETS.



Title: