אינדרויסן פינעם באקס? אין כל חדש תחת השמש, זעלבע לוזער'ס

[דער (פינטעל) איד]

גיט וואך. אין ענגלישן יתד נאמן פון פרשת חיי איז ערשינען אן ארטיקל וואס כ'האלט אז אנדערע מוזן עס אויך ליינען. און מיט רשות פונעם יענעם צייטונג ארויסגעבער לייג איך עס דא ארויף . כפארשטיי אז מ'האט מער ליב צו ליינען אין יודיש איז עס אבער באמת ווערט אפצוליינען. כ'האב עס אביסל אפגעטיילט און מדגיש געווען אז ס'זאל זיין ירוץ הקורא בו. פון דער אנדערער זייט איז מעגליך בעסער אז ס'איז ענגליש ווייל דער ארטיקל איז דאך געצילט צום אויפגעקלערטן וואס איז אינדרויסן פון באקס, נו כ'בין זעכער אז יענע קענען דאך בעסער ענגליש... (יעה..] און אפשר גאר אפילו שוין פארגעסן יודיש,,,
קרעדיט פארן יתד נאמן, און א דאנק פארן רעדאקטער.

[center]?Open Orthodoxy or Empty Orthodoxy[/center]
[center]By Rabbi Yossi Rosenberg[/center]


[center]This past week, I found myself perusing a folder I have with copies of various newspaper articles printed in South American frum Jewish newspapers in the early 1940s. Among other interesting and fascinating items, one uncanny observation came across which brought chuckles to those sitting around at the time. Although we were looking through newspapers, and although the world is - and seems to have always been - somewhat obsessed with “what’s news,” the fact is that truly “Ain kol chodosh tachas hashomesh. There is nothing new under the sun” (Koheles 1:9)

News? Ach, it’s the same stuff being recycled this year, last year, a decade ago, five decades ago, and it seems almost since time immemorial. The same scandals, the same backroom deals, the same “breakthrough ideas,” the same storylines, only with different names, using different methods, and under differing guises. The royal intrigue we read about in our sifrei nevi’im, the dynastic struggles we study in medieval history, the upheavals in 18th-century Europe up until the Israeli and American politics of nowadays - it’s the same old, same old

An ad in one Yiddish-language newspaper from Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1943, proclaims “Special for the winter season! Ask about our large stock of beautiful suits. From the finest imported material, custom tailored at special prices!” One opens up this week’s local advertising circular and sees an ad with virtually the identical wordage and you can’t help but laugh! An article in another paper from that same era begs readers to bear in mind that it is the Jewish mother, rather than any educational method or institution, who will ultimately haves the most direct influence over her children’s upbringing. There are ads wishing mazel tov to a chosson and kallah, there are two articles written by the same person, one under his own name and one under the byline Ben Eliezer, who was that author’s father. In short, the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Sometimes it pays to look back a bit, if only just to keep things in context
When Reform Judaism began, its proponents pledged their sincere allegiance to Yiddishkeit. They sought merely to keep it “relevant,” they insisted, so the masses with be able to better relate to their religion. We know where that led to. It led to the wholesale abandonment of Judaism, to intermarriage and to shmad. Yet the Conservatives, acknowledging the error of the Reform, insisted that they will be the ones to “update” Judaism and give it a more stylish facelift

That experiment ended in virtually the same tragic way
Today we still read about ostensibly “Orthodox” Jews who pledge allegiance to their Judaism and seek “merely” to keep it “open,” “relevant” and “up-to-date”
Again, it’s the same old, same old

In the Collected Writings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (Vol. V), the reader is fascinated with how Rav Hirsch made mincemeat of the “Bible critics” of his day, showing not only the foolishness of their claims, but their utter ignorance of the basic texts they claimed to have studied and on which they opined. Each decade since, though, seems to bring new ignorant “geniuses” who believe that they alone are the first brilliant fellows to finally “figure it out” as no one in the thousands of years preceding their appearance on this world “got it.” Though each is subsequently shown to be not only wrong but practically illiterate in the very texts they profess knowledge, still today we read of new geniuses, graduates of “new yeshivos,” who fall for their own sheer brilliance and their “novel” interpretations which are as old and as disproved as are their disingenuous claims of sincerity
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To bolster their standing, these individuals and the movements they spawn seem quite fond of utilizing the term “open.” They are “open-minded,” they’re “open” to new ideas rather than stuck in old ones, and their very “Orthodoxy” is “open” as well[/center]

[center]The not-so-subtle inference is that we who disagree with them do so not out of superior intellectual or moral right, but simply because we are “closed” to “new” ideas and thus are simply unable to even properly evaluate those ideas[/center]

[center]We’ve established, though, how “new” their ideas really are. They’re the same regurgitated, reworded and recycled ideas that keep failing miserably
Let’s see how “open” they are[/center]

[center]Being open-minded is surely a good thing. Without being open-minded, we could never learn properly. Learning, by its very essence, is a process of asking and answering, of discarding a disproved idea and replacing it with one that answers to all the attributes of truth. One who sticks with his old opinions and closes his mind to even considering an opposing idea can never properly learn or reach the truth

So we Torah Jews are strong proponents of keeping an open mind

To be closed-minded, on the other hand, is to close off our minds from the ability to honestly evaluate data. Why would someone be closed-minded
When faced with data, the human mind is not the only part of our body with an opinion. Our emotions, our feelings and our corporeal desires have a “mind” of their own. Suppose one is overweight and must watch their diet. When faced with an excess of delicious but unhealthy food choices, the mind tells the individual to steer clear. The body, however, says, “Dig in.” Whether we listen to our mind or our body depends on how much control one has over the other

The same goes for virtually every other aspect of our lives. We were created so that our desires can blind us at times to even the simplest logic. Any honest, intelligent person admits that. A cursory glance at a world and a civilization self-destructing with drugs, immorality, inane power struggles, etc. proves this. The most intelligent people are too often blinded by their desires to heed the logic of their own minds

When this happens, when desire overpowers the thinking of our minds, we have effectively closed our minds to any other possibility but for the one our desire, our body or our emotions demand[/center]
[center]This is how one becomes closed-minded[/center]
[center]The Mishnah (Avos 6:2) teaches us, "Ain lecha ben chorin ela mi she’oseik b’talmud Torah". There is no free man save for one who toils in Torah study
Now, we can understand that Torah study is of utmost importance, and we accept as well that one must study Torah because it is the truth even if it’s burdensome, but to say that it frees us? Are not the “frei’ers,” those who throw off the yoke of any religion or responsibility, free men, free to act as they please? Does not the Torah place responsibilities upon us, rather than leave us free?[/center]
[center]The truth that the Mishnah is teaching us, however, is that those who lack any Torah and whose minds have not been strengthened over their desires through intense toil in Torah are in fact slaves. They are slaves to their desires, to their whims, and, even worse, to the fleeting whims of others to whom their minds are helplessly leashed. They may think themselves as free, but they cannot even think for themselves. We see this, time and again, every time the “progressive” movements theorize and cogitate and come to the conclusion - each and every time - that the texts tell them to do exactly what is currently in vogue and to behave in whatever way the current whim happens to dictate!

If they are truly using their minds freely, why does it never happen - not even once - that their minds tell them differently than the outcome they sought? The answer is that their minds are completely controlled by their desires and are closed to any other outcome. They thus embrace every newfangled idea and fad not because they are “open-minded,” but rather because their minds cannot even entertain any other option. They are as closed-minded as one can become

One whose decisions are based on truth and are independent of whatever outcome he personally may think most expedient has an open mind. At times he finds that we may behave a certain way we’d enjoy; at times he finds it proscribed. Whatever any specific outcome may be, he will forever be a free man, because his mind is free to discover the truth and is not enslaved to every passing personal or societal whim

To use an example we’ve mentioned in the past, say someone has dug an underground tunnel connecting his house to some secret hideaway. This passageway is of utmost importance, and it is of prime concern that it remains open. A fool will say, “Do not place anything in the tunnel. Leave it devoid of any obstacles that can restrict or limit its perimeter”

A thinking person, however, understands otherwise. Left alone, the dirt walls are bound to crumble and eventually collapse, effectively stopping up this lifeline. Thus, he advises placing beams and supports at critical junctions along the way, assuring that the passageway remains constantly open. True, it is now somewhat narrower and more restricted than had it remained empty, but only in this manner will it always remain open

It’s the same with the human brain. Only when our minds are rigidly trained and supported by objective truths can they truly remain free and open. Those who seek no restrictions are left not with an open mind, but with an empty mind. An empty mind crumbles and becomes closed very quickly. It becomes a slave to fad and whim, and closed to even the simplest exercises in truth or logic. The lives and the “religion” of such men are not “open” either, but rather empty and pitifully closed[/center]
[center]While we understand the folly of the Empty Orthodox, it’s worthwhile keeping in mind that we, too, can fall prey to the false allure of being “open” to “new” things. In our rush to prove that we’re not backwards or old-fashioned, we, too, sometimes tell ourselves that various “new” ideas regarding chinuch, human behavior, social savvy, entertainment, leisure and the like are developments to which we must be “open.” We forget that so many of these “new” ideas are actually nothing more than old and failed ideas, recycled, repackaged and reworded in the current vernacular. If we’d be honest, we’d recognize that all too often it’s our emotions that are open to these ideas rather than our minds

A true open mind recognizes that only through the eternal wisdom of Torah can other ideas be evaluated. Those which are indeed positive developments can be wholeheartedly embraced. Those which are misguided, mistaken or failed can be rejected, regardless of whether or not they are in vogue. A truly open-minded individual is never enslaved to follow societal whims. His mind is open and he is free to choose what is best and what is true[/center]