Communica Tions

COMMUNICA TIONS To THE EDITOR OF TRADITION In reference to the article written by deeply into our Shulehan Aruch and Prof. Lawrence Kaplan, whercin he Responsa and thus resolving a question gives a critical analysis of a discourse of law. written by Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner of It is undeniable that when a Rosh blessed memory, I would like to offer Yeshiva delivers a Shiur based on his some comments. In doing so, some of logic and reasoning, it is obviously not the remarks may be favorable to Prof. wrong to question the logic or ask Kaplan but others wil show that Prof. questions concerning the basic foun- Kaplan was wrong for his unwarranted dation of the Shiur. Great Roshe attack on Daas Torah. Yeshiva of the past have even en- Agudas Israel was founded on the couraged their students to question. premise to be governed by Daas Torah, Does this constitute violating the con- namely Moatzei Gedolei Hatorah. To cept of Daas Torah? When one attempts its credit, it has faithfully adhered to to answer a question of Rabbi Akiva this premise and consequently when a Eiger can one classify this as not ac- halachic question arose whether the cepting Daas Torah? Agudas Israel should participate or Based on this premise, when a Rosh refrain from joining the Israeli govern- Yeshiva writes an article, using his logic ment, the decision was made by Moatzei and reasoning to interpret historical Gedolei Hatorah. facts thereby attempting to understand This complying with Daas Torah is how and why the holocaust occurred, one of the basic axioms of Judaism. must one accept this as Daas Torah, as Every organized community in pre-war Psak Halacha? This is especially true Europe, as small as it may have been, when most of our Gedolim feel that elected a Rabbi and it was his decisions such a horrendous episode of history that governed the community. Every G- cannot be fathomed by a mere mortal. d fearing Jew sought the Rabbi to solve Isn't one justified to classify the his halachik problems. It is recorded type of reasoning written by Rabbi that even in the most tragic of times, a Hunter as being no different than the problem arose in the Kovno ghetto whether to accept the offer of the Ger- logic of a svoro in the Shiur of a Rosh man regime to hand over a number of Yeshiva. Jewish men to their ultimate deaths and To classify an article by a Rosh thereby saving the entire community. Yeshiva as being Daas Torah, in my The cry went out that the Kovner Rav. view distorts the basic comprehension Rabbi Shapiro, of blessed memory must of Daas Torah. We have been con- decide, for such a decision can only be stantly taught in our yeshiva days that made on the basis of halacha. we must always reach out to our Roshei However, one must truly un- Yeshiva and Rabbeim for guidance in derstand what is meant by adhering to halacha and mussar and then mold our Daas Torah. When Daas Torah decides lives in accordance with these teachings. by halacha in answer to a pressing This constitutes complying with Daas problem, it is accomplished by delving Torah. 180 Communications To TIlE EDITOR OF TRADITION: and '30's was that one of the most "enlightened" countries could stoop to Professor Lawrence Kaplan's such moral depths in the in- criticisms (Tradition, Fall, i 980) of the stitutionalized name of ultimate moder- late Rabbi Yitsohak Hutner's views on nity. the holoeaust and Zionism, and the Kaplan attempts to repudiate all six traditional yeshiva world's views on points by which he breaks down Rabbi "daat Torah," partieularly as ar- Hutner's discussion of the second new ticulated by Agudath Isracl, require direction-the collaboration of the responses seriatim. Muslim nations of the East with the First on a personal level-in- Christian nations of the West. All six of troduced in the article by Kaplan-the Kaplan's analyses unwittingly raise in- professor, now of McGil University in ternal problems of their own. Canada, writes of the "hostility" of Rcgarding the first point, Kaplan Rabbi Hutner and the yeshiva world, to presumptously states that "Rabbi Hut- Zionism. Aetually, Rabbi Hutner ner obviously forgot about the climaxed his commitment to Zionism's Damascus affair of 1840." What principal religious justification, by set- Kaplan forgot, however, was that the tling in Israel and founding a yeshiva reference on thc previous page of his there. own article was to two cultures More significantly, even as far back collaborating to destroy a third, as in the early years of this century, the whereas Kaplan's example was of a second purpose of the Agudah, which relatively local blood libcl of a type all was already identified with settlements too common in Jewish history. in Palestine, was presented, in Europe, Kaplan denigrates thc sccond point as the "Furtheranco of Torah by callng the Mufti's influence on the educational institutions, especially in Nazis minimaL. However, even ac- the Holy Land . " and the Zionist cepting a narrow interpretation of "the chief rabbi praised Agudist educational Mufti" as an individual rather than a efforts there. The Agudah has now been representative of the Arab people, even part of Israel's ruling coalition (bereft Kaplan had to concede that the Mufti's of the "Zionist" founding parties) for biographer told of "abundant first- the past two administrations. hand cvidcnce on the part the Mufti Rabbi Hutner had discussed two played in making foolproof the ban on "new" directions in gentile persecutions emigration' of an admittedly (by of Jews. One was the shift from eras of Kaplan) non-negligible number of expected perseeution, to eras of unan- European Jews to Palestine, The Mufti ticipated persecution following prom- thus hclped to render the German at- ises of equal rights and benevolence. temped annihilation of the Jews morc Kaplan unjustifiedly calls Rabbi Hutner eomplete than it might otherwise have "seriously misleading" for only been. (The Jews could have of course referring to events in the i 920's and been sent elsewhere, but now we known '30's when giving examples of how limited their options were.) "promises rescinded, rights revoked Kaplan disputes the third point by and anticipations aborted." Kaplan saying that even before the pressure for says that the first such reversal oceurred a Zionist state had intensified, thc Mufti four decades earlier, in Russia, Jewish was an enemy of the Jews-"from the history, however, has reverberated for start." Kaplan, however, presented no milenia with pendulums swinging be- such evidence, and even, to his crcdit, tween anti-Semitism and philo- prcscnted some evidence to the con- Semitism. What stood out in the '20's trary. He failed to show "anti- 181 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought Semitism" on the Mufti's part before him toward thc Gcrman camp, even the Balfour Declaration, in 1917, and without considering "anti-Scmitism. before the Mufti was appointcd to his Most importantly, Kaplan misrep- religious and secular positions of leader- resents the purpose of formulating a ship. Rather, indications of pattern of daat Torah to be supposedly to supress hate to which Kaplan could point didn't intellectual freedom by letting even one occur until i 92 I, and the next occasion person dictate a pesak, for thc world to to which Kaplan pointed occurred no follow, "brooking no disseni." No fewer than eight years later (not that responsible Orthodox spokesperson will there weren't others in between). dispute the traditional view that shiveem Regarding the fourth point, Kaplan paneem laTorah. The Agudah guides it- says Moses' negotiations with Pharaoh self by the consensus rcaehed by the made further "proof" unnecessary that Moetzet Gedolai HaTorah, which con- when confronted with resistance, op- sists of the leaders of a wide range of pressors wil intensify their oppression. distinguished schools of thought, who The negotiations prove nothing of the issue decisions only aftcr dcbatc sort, particulary since toward the end, following presentations by counsel who according to the Bible, Pharaoh would articulate all sides and perspectivcs of have capitulated were it not for Divine issues. Only questions that involve the intervention. Even had Kaplan not Jewish people as a whole-with broad known or accepted this, the Pharaonic political and social ramifications-lend confrontations eould at most only show thcmsclves to a united daat Torah the reaction of a single ancient op- stand, voluntarily acccptcd by the pressor. heterogeneous traditional community. The fifth point is that the extent of Pure halakhic questions, however, call the Mufti's relationship with the Fuhrer for decisions by thc morah d'atrah, has been suppressed. Here Kaplan sud- local community rabbis, influenced by a denly sees fit to highlight it-when it wide range of traditions and customs. suits him (On page 240, the Mufti's role May Kaplan and othcrs who write was "minimal"). comparably, henceforth self-monitor The sixth point is that decisions more carefully their pcrsonal and in- made by some of Israel's founders intellectual broadsides aimed even at directly cost additional Jewish lives. lesser people than onc they themselves True the founders could not have consider "perhaps thc leading thinker in predicted the \1ufti's reactions to the the traditional yeshiva world" (p.235) "T," but Kaplan's use of the Mosaic "whose profound Torah scholarship all episode above would support Rabbi acknowledge" (p.245). Hunter's view that the nationalist Zionists would naturally tend to stiffen (Rabbi) Aaron i. Rcichel, Esq. any Arab nationalist's neck and push New York City 182 Communications LAWRENCE KAPLAN REPLIES: Moreover, Rabbi Reichel seems to see in my comment on the Agudah's My respondents havc, quite hostility to Zionism some sort of charge properly, focussed on two different or accusation and rushes to the defence.

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