[Parts I and II of this four-part essay can be read at http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=2628 and at http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=2661, respectively.]
Libertarian Implications of Contemporary Realia
Besides its topical nature, there is another reason that I chose to discuss the need to address censorship from a perspective that is in synch with changing realia. I see this issue as a symptom of an even greater problem. Even as I have hopefully approached the issue in a cogent and highly normative way, I do not expect my position to be articulated by our rabbinic leaders, much less to be accepted, by them.
Ironically, we are witnessing an ossification of halacha, davka in a time period characterized by the most dramatic and rapid changes in human history. I am not, G-d forbid, claiming the existence of a malicious conspiracy. In some quarters, halachic stagnation comes from lack of exposure to modern society; in other quarters, from fear of the instability that would be caused by the rapid change engendered by appropriate assessment of contemporary realia. Yet, such leadership is willy-nilly making the untenable myth that halacha doesn?t change into an unfortunate and unprecedented reality.
While not malicious, the trend I described is quite pernicious. When we move away from the recognition of reality and its natural impact on halite, we are not only moving away from reality. We are moving away from and, ultimately, denying, truth. To use one of the examples above, if Tosefot and others are correct in their evaluation of the uniformly low state of concentration in post-Talmudic times, for a chatan not to read Kriat Shema is denying the truth that he is not, in any way, effected in his ability to carry out this mitzvah. Not adapting the halacha would have resulted in a very destructive awareness that truth is not relevant to halacha. I think you will agree that having Judaism on one side of the equation and truth on the other is a very dangerous situation indeed.
In looking for recent models, one can look longingly to the Sridei Esh, Rabbi Yechiel Yakov Weinberg. In one of his most famous teshuvot (II,8), he develops a convincing thesis for the need to be lenient about mixed youth groups, including mixed singing in postwar Western Europe. I recommend everyone reading the teshuva in its entirety, as it is a masterful analysis of contemporary culture and the need to address such a culture in halacha. Among other important observations, Rabbi Weinberg lauds the Torah im Derech Eretz approach, which he laments was not present in Lithuania and Poland, as the rabbinic leadership there ?since they did not know how to organize Jewish education according to the conditions of the time.?
Not long ago, a debate appeared in the media over whether Rabbi Weinberg could be considered Modern Orthodox. Such a debate misses the point. Grading him on a scorecard with the various positions that are associated with Modern Orthodoxy is truly not helpful. Rather, in placing Rabbi Weinberg as a model, I am looking to someone who had the awareness and intellectual honesty to evaluate Modernity?s impact on halacha.
Don?t get me wrong. I am certainly not echoing the famous Orthodox feminist Blu Greenburg?s famous, or infamous, words, that when there is a rabbinic will, there is a halachic way. I don?t believe that?s true. I am simply concerned about the lack of rabbinic will today to even entertain the halachic way.
Libertarian Implications of Contemporary Realia
Besides its topical nature, there is another reason that I chose to discuss the need to address censorship from a perspective that is in synch with changing realia. I see this issue as a symptom of an even greater problem. Even as I have hopefully approached the issue in a cogent and highly normative way, I do not expect my position to be articulated by our rabbinic leaders, much less to be accepted, by them.
Ironically, we are witnessing an ossification of halacha, davka in a time period characterized by the most dramatic and rapid changes in human history. I am not, G-d forbid, claiming the existence of a malicious conspiracy. In some quarters, halachic stagnation comes from lack of exposure to modern society; in other quarters, from fear of the instability that would be caused by the rapid change engendered by appropriate assessment of contemporary realia. Yet, such leadership is willy-nilly making the untenable myth that halacha doesn?t change into an unfortunate and unprecedented reality.
While not malicious, the trend I described is quite pernicious. When we move away from the recognition of reality and its natural impact on halite, we are not only moving away from reality. We are moving away from and, ultimately, denying, truth. To use one of the examples above, if Tosefot and others are correct in their evaluation of the uniformly low state of concentration in post-Talmudic times, for a chatan not to read Kriat Shema is denying the truth that he is not, in any way, effected in his ability to carry out this mitzvah. Not adapting the halacha would have resulted in a very destructive awareness that truth is not relevant to halacha. I think you will agree that having Judaism on one side of the equation and truth on the other is a very dangerous situation indeed.
In looking for recent models, one can look longingly to the Sridei Esh, Rabbi Yechiel Yakov Weinberg. In one of his most famous teshuvot (II,8), he develops a convincing thesis for the need to be lenient about mixed youth groups, including mixed singing in postwar Western Europe. I recommend everyone reading the teshuva in its entirety, as it is a masterful analysis of contemporary culture and the need to address such a culture in halacha. Among other important observations, Rabbi Weinberg lauds the Torah im Derech Eretz approach, which he laments was not present in Lithuania and Poland, as the rabbinic leadership there ?since they did not know how to organize Jewish education according to the conditions of the time.?
Not long ago, a debate appeared in the media over whether Rabbi Weinberg could be considered Modern Orthodox. Such a debate misses the point. Grading him on a scorecard with the various positions that are associated with Modern Orthodoxy is truly not helpful. Rather, in placing Rabbi Weinberg as a model, I am looking to someone who had the awareness and intellectual honesty to evaluate Modernity?s impact on halacha.
Don?t get me wrong. I am certainly not echoing the famous Orthodox feminist Blu Greenburg?s famous, or infamous, words, that when there is a rabbinic will, there is a halachic way. I don?t believe that?s true. I am simply concerned about the lack of rabbinic will today to even entertain the halachic way.