Sunday, February 09, 2020

choose your battles

Something to think about -- from an article by R' Melamed posted on Arutz Sheva:
Unquestionably, a rabbi’s role is also to stand up against potentially harmful views and attitudes, even if they are voiced with good intentions, however, with two reservations: 1) The majority of effort should be directed to empowering a person to act according to his positive aspects, out of his natural tendency of emunah (faith) and achva (brotherhood) and ma’asim tovim (doing good deeds), and to elevate and perfect his good tendencies through the study of Torah. 2) Even when one has to fight, the correct wars must be chosen, and it is best not to fight against trends that are not so bad.
 
For example, I have heard from some rabbis that they are going to great lengths in the fight against the wishes of some women who want to dance on Simchat Torah with a Torah scroll, or to read the megillah on Purim by themselves. I asked: What’s so bad about that? After all, we’re not talking about profaning Shabbat, or something similar!? They replied: ‘This is a dangerous process stemming from ulterior motives that will eventually lead them to want to be called up to the Torah’. I asked: And what’s so terrible about that? After all, in principle, our Sages said that it’s possible, and only because of k’vode ha’tzibbur (respect for the congregation) we should not do so (Megillah 23a). They responded: ‘Because this leads to reform, and the Gedolei Yisrael (eminent rabbis) have already banned the Reform Jews’. However, in my opinion, this is an unnecessary war. From here until the reform movement, the road is very long, and in the meantime, there are countless important issues a rabbi can deal with.


2 comments:

  1. This might be perceived as a threshold issue, such as davening in languages other than Hebrew. It seems to me (no, I haven't done a meta-analysis) that some Orthodox Feminists feel a resentment toward Chazal's attitude about women and seek to change the cultural pattern and role of women in Jewish life. To me, that is very dangerous. I am reminded of the Chasam Sofer's diatribe against this attitude in his discussion of Michal bas Shaul in Parshas Nitzavim, which he ends by saying יזדרזו הנשים לגדל בניהם לתורה כי לא יזכו ע"י אינו מצווה ועושה כטעותה של מיכל בת שאול אלא ע"י גידול בניהם

    ReplyDelete
  2. >>>some Orthodox Feminists feel a resentment toward Chazal's attitude about women and seek to change the cultural pattern and role of women in Jewish life

    granting this assumption, the counterargument is that putting up a wall (where none exists on purely halachic grounds) only reinforces that perception of a negative attitude, thereby increasing the resentment and possibly leading to a further disengagement from orthodoxy.


    ReplyDelete