Respect For Rabbis
I'm absolutely comfortable taking the position that the ban of Rabbi Slifkin's books by a number of charedi rabbis is wrong and should be rejected. The process, in which Rabbi Slifkin was denigrated as a heretic with no chance to explain or respond, was an absolute disgrace. Furthermore, while Rabbi Slifkin's views are clearly outside the charedi mainstream, they are backed up by leading revered rabbis of previous generations and are therefore anything but heretical.
I'm troubled, however, by the manner in which the rabbis who signed the ban are being described on some other blogs. There seem to be few qualms by some about portraying all of these rabbis as crazed and corrupt fanatics.
Admittedly, to some extent, this is the inevitable result of the rabbis' decision to take such extreme and inappropriate action. As I have written previously, a major consequence of extreme decisions like these is that observant Jews will reject rabbinical authority and lose respect for that authority. Once that respect is lost, some don't place limits on what they'll write or say.
If the Slifkin ban had occurred even a few years ago, before any of these blogs existed, there would hardly have been any discussion of it on the Internet. Certainly, 15 years ago there would be much less awareness of, and communication about, the matter.
Conversely, if some of the decisions of
gedolim of previous generations were made in this era of Jewish blogs, I wonder what the consequences would have been. For example,
gedolim like Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Ahron Kotler were recognized as
gedolei hador by all observant Jews. No Orthodox Jew would, G-d forbid, have ever personally denigrated these holy leaders.
It is no secret, however, that Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote harshly (and certainly politically incorrectly, by today's standards) about issues like the non-Orthodox movements and homosexuality. If they were written today, would Rav Moshe's teshuvas have been instantaneously scrutinized and attacked by J-bloggers? Would the 1950's ban on Orthodox membership in rabbinical bodies with Reform and Conservative rabbis have been analyzed and ridiculed? How about Rav Soloveitchik's psak that one should stay home on Rosh Hashanah rather than listen to the shofar in a non-Orthodox synagogue with mixed seating?
To be sure, none of the leading charedi rabbis today is on the level of the gedolim of the 20th century, and Rabbi Slifkin is not Reform but a frum Jew who has devoted his life to Torah and Judaism.
Still, the rabbis in question include leading roshei yeshiva, poskim and leaders. They were very wrong in the manner in which they treated Rabbi Slifkin. We have a right to say that. But just as these rabbis should have criticized Rabbi Slifkin's books and expressed what they found so objectionable, instead of proclaiming an outright ban, we, the laity, should question and yes, even criticize, these rabbis without resorting to shameful attacks and insults on them.
posted on 2/02/2005
