I president of Bar Ilan University, Emanuel Rackman, were been called ' 'An Attack on Mainstream Orthodoxy'' ! not offered in joy. As reported in Yedioth Achronoth rather than the facetious and inaccurate ' 'In Defense of ! (July 20,1971), Rackman bemoaned the fact that Orthodoxy.'' That point may seem minor, but it is "the religious leaders and have failed to promote indicative, I believe, of his failure to deal properly or unity. Instead they have promoted antagonism and fairly with his topic. The cleavage among Jews deserves hatred.. .Today the love of Israel flows from the State of more serious — indeed, more responsible — treatment. ', Israel.. .The State has succeeded where the Halacha has Essentially, Rabbi Schulweis makes three points: failed." Orthodoxy shuts itself off from contact with Dismantling Religious - Secular Barriers non-Orthodox Jews; Orthodoxy should recognize the No one except the politically state-empowered can rejoice religious equality of other ideologies within Judaism; in this religious situation. The major constituency of and Orthodoxy is lacking Ahavas Yisrael, the love of Israel remains secular. Presented with the forced option fellow Jews. He is wrong on all three counts. of either/ or they have more often than not responded It is essential to differentiate between Jews as people, with a neither/nor. They are neither orthodox in and individuals or organizations that purport to accordance with the establishment version nor atheists. They have judged the spirituality within organized religion as irrelevant or worse, amoral. Jewish religious Sh'ma pluralism, institutionalized and legitimated, will offer searching Israelis less reason for apostasy and more a journal of Jewish responsibility \ opportunity for religiosity. Editor Eugene B. Borowitz This is a time for courage from religious leaders on Asst. to the Editor Marjorie Yudkin behalf of religious peace. Religious voices from all areas Administrator Alicia Seeger of Jewish life must converge to overcome the polarizations Fellows Morris Allen, Jacobs, Shira Pasternak, t which threaten to fragment our people into separate Linda Rosenfeld Shulsky, Shira Stern j sects. Muteness from any quarter is tantamount to Production CLM Graphics consent to the schizmatic status quo. The rabbis and Contributing Editors J. David Bleich, Balfour Brickner, laity of every movement have an obligation to demand Daniel J. Elazar, Blu Greenberg, Paula Hyman, Nora \ that their spiritual leaders sit down together for the sake Levin, David Novak, Dennis Prager, Harold Schulweis, | of peace. In a democratic society, unity can only grow Henry Schwarzschild, Steven Schwarzschild, Seymour j out of religious pluralism and in the name of the love of Siegel, Sharon Strassfeld, Elie Wiesel, ArnoldJacob Israel. Shall we unite before the enemy without and Wolf, Michael Wyschogrod. ' tear ourselves apart from within? Can our political Sh'ma welcomes articles from diverse points of view. statesmen exhibit the courage and wisdom to sit down Hence articles present only the views of the author, not those with their enemies at a common table in pursuit of of the editors. We do not correct obvious typos. i peace, while our religious statesmen refuse to negotiate Donations to Sh'ma, Inc., though particularly welcome during ' mipne darkei shalom-iot the sake of peace? Shall our annual deficit-reduction campaign, are needed and hence j rabbis and laymen stand idly by and observe with appreciated all year long. They are tax-deductible. , embarrassment the throwing of stones and epithets Address all correspondence to: Box 567, Port Washington, against the other? Our leaders, the heads of religious N.Y. 11050. For a change of address, send present mailing movements, yeshivoth and seminaries, must hear from label and new address and allow four weeks. us the people's mandate to restore civility and mutual Sh'ma is published bi-weekly except June, July and August respect to the on-going dialogue between us. We are by Sh'ma, Inc. Office of publication: 735 Port Washington Blvd., Port Washington, N.Y. 11050. Subscription $20.00 for mandated to pursue the paths of whose "ways 2 years in U.S.A. and Canada; $12.00 a year overseas. are ways of pleasantness'' which binds us together as a Institutional bulk (10 or more copies to one address) $6.00 i covenanted people. each per year. Copyright 1981 by Sh'ma, Inc. Retired or handicapped persons, whose means are restrictive, may now receive Sh'ma at half the regular subscription rate. Please write "retired" or "handicapped" on your bill and send Nonnegotiable judaism it with your check for half the regular amount. Nosson Scherman POSTMASTER: Please forward Form 3579 to Box 567, Port Washington, N.Y. 11050. For all its apparent sincerity, compassion, and probing, Second class postage paid at Port Washington, N.Y. Rabbi Schulweis's article is deeply disappointing — and Publication Number ISSN 0049-0385 not primarily because it should more honestly have 11/211, April 3, 1981 82 I:l i ; represent Judaism as a religion. Orthodoxy does not Why then can Orthodox religious leaders and ' discriminate against fellow Jews who are less or even organizations not join their Reform and Conservative i non-observant. The teaches that a Jew remains counterparts around the table? There, an unbridgeable ajew even though he has sinned and the Halacha cleavage does and must exist. There is a basic difference c , recognizes no differences between the treatment of Jews between Jews as people and Jews as representatives of 51 of greater or lesser religiosity. In my community there Judaic thought, religion and worship. are many self-help organizations supported and staffed Reaching out Personally, not Religiously • exclusively by Orthodox volunteers — primarily the sort Orthodox people can and do work with non-Orthodox j commonly described by the fashionable pejorative individuals and secular organizations for the i ' 'ultra-Orthodox.'' Their help goes to all Jews, and advancement of Jewish interests. (As a matter of I i often non-Jews, on an equal basis. historical fact, the pinching shoe has been on the other I foot: the "establishment American Jewish i l Orthodox Involvement with others organizations and federations have disdained { An interesting and inspiring case in point is Hatzoloh, a Orthodoxy and been most reluctant to give its leaders 1 voluntary life-saving organization whose members must and institutions a voice on their boards and in their ! 1 receive an intensive hospital-administered course in councils. Only recently has this policy begun to change, ]; 'emergency techniques. Its members all carry beepers and grudgingly at that). But religious recognition is {; and must be on call 24 hours a day, including store and quite another matter. {' office hours, Sabbath and festival days. It is widely known in the major Jewish neighborhoods that the Let me illustrate. Lawyers, accountants, doctors, | Hatzoloh ambulance and volunteers will always be on builders, and pants manufacturers can rub shoulders | the scene before anyone else. The members span the comfortably and equally in country clubs, synagogues, ; spectrum of all the Chassidic sects and yeshivos, more and community and political organizations — but they i j than half wear shtreimels on the Sabbath. They take cannot belong to the same professional organization. I 1 their religion very seriously; it is because of that, not in The chairman of General Motors buys lawyers and I spite of it, that they answer emergency calls on the company doctors by the dozen, but he cannot buy a ; I Sabbath without asking whether or not the victim is membership in the American Bar Association or the I observant. I vividly recall summoning Hatzoloh to American Medical Association. And that is how it | literally save the life of an elderly invalid who had should be. i always viewed his bearded Orthodox neighbors with an • ' irrational antipathy. To their dying day, that man and The question is not whether Reform or Conservatism I his wife could not believe that the people who dashed are entitled to religious freedom. They are. But that i ' up their stairs with an oxygen tank and lovingly carried does not make them legitimate expressions of historic, : . a dangerously stricken octogenarian down the steps to authentic Judaism. For people who take their Judaism I the hospital-bound station wagon were not well-paid seriously, it is unconscionable to confer Jewish religious | employees of something or other. My daughters are legitimacy on people who espouse a Judaism without | among the hundreds who are up at 6:30 a.m. at least belief in the Divine origin and immutable nature of j one morning a week, or give up afternoons and both the Written and Oral Torah. That is no less a *. evenings, to feed chronically ill patients, few of whom matter of principle and conscience than the i are Orthodox. maintenance of professional standards by the legal and medical fraternities. j 'It is true, and sad, that a social and cultural gap often Protecting Authentic Judaism j r keeps us too far apart from our fellow Jews. We don't r A recent Jewish quarterly profiles a rabbinical student ' ' feelcomfortabl e with one another, unfortunately, but at a non-Orthodox seminary. His belief is described as ineither do physicists with philosophers. Despite that we ' *see[ing] G-d not as a supreme personage but as an lemain fellows injewishness, if not in observance. Thousands of unobservant, semi-assimilated young ideal which sets a pattern for morality and behavior men and women come to our homes and communities which has given rise to Jewish civilization." He believes ' to spend Sabbaths with us and observe the "Jewish that "G-d is a goal, an inspiration and a process that develops out of a community of people, making for Amish.'' and most of them go away respecting good, for ethics, and for the Jewish way of living." The [ Orthodox life, some even return to the faith of their article says that' 'this is the G-d he says he prays to." forefathers- but not because we are trying to "spread nhe faith.'' Perhaps we should, but truthfully all we do Rabbi Schulweis feels that our refusal to recognize such open our homes and act ourselves. We are available. a belief as' 'Judaism'' is akin to what he calls coercion, jlWe don't agree that "love costs." refusal of the right to preach and practice, and i m it i i denigration. I am appalled and personally offended by Ahavas Yisrael? Indeed, we need much more of it, such characterizations; they tar with a wide and within Orthodoxy and without. We are not pleased j slanderous brush. Orthodoxy does not seek to strike with the state of Orthodox life in many, many areas, j down the First Amendment, but it is grossly unfair to and we are self-critical, though probably not enough. ask one who believes in a Judaism based on the Indeed, self-criticism too is a religious requirement. But existence of G-d, His omniscience and divine ' 'Ahavas Yisrael'' is too often used as a bludgeon to providence, and the divine origin of the entire Torah, intimidate Orthodoxy into renouncing its religious to grant Jewish religious validity to movements denying principles. Modern society has watered down religion to any or all of those principles. Truth in labeling does not the point where hardly anything has been left it but the end at the supermarket. pap of love, tolerance, and the espousal of fashionable j (if important) causes. The pages of Sh'ma, for example, j Judaism was defined undisputedly by the above basic are regularly filled with essays preaching a ' 'Judaism'' • j beliefs from Abraham's day to modern times. of environmentalism, anti-Reaganism, feminism, ' j Sadducees, Christians, and Karaites deviated and fell keep-the-West Bank, give-away-the-West Bank, have away, never to be recognized seriously as coequal strains babies, don't have babies, and so on. Often these j of Judaism. Nor did anyone challenge classical Judaism legitimate expressions of political or social opinion are i for not sitting with them around a common altar. wafted into a celestial sphere as '' new mitzvos," or at . I Reform, Enlightenment, Conservatism and other least religious requirements. I submit that not every 1 movements have succeeded in breaking down the liberal, conservative, or moderate stand is an expression'! barriers that protected Orthodoxy. They have also ofjudaism. Love is one of the 613 commandments, but [ succeeded in spawning unparalleled assimilation and it is not the only one, and when it is used to subvert the j intermarriage. Now they seek even to gain recognition other 612, it becomes just another four-letter word. ' as authentic forms of Judaism. They are expressions of religious belief, but someone who believes in the Orthodox families who bear the crushing burden of j traditional principles of faith cannot acknowledge them supporting boys' and girls' schools and numerous • as legitimate streams of Judaism. religious charities would welcome some Ahavas Yisrael in the form of moral and financial support of Torah Rabbi Schulweis cites a number of Orthodox rabbis and causes and institutions, by the way. scholars, but a careful reading of their remarks as quoted by him — I do not know whether they are taken Necessary Role of Religion in Politics j out of context — does not disclose a basic challenge to Rabbi Schulweis properly bemoans the corrosive effects i. the above thesis. Surely no one believes that the 1 president of University, for example, would of politics mixed with religion. It should be recognized, agree with those who claim that Orthodoxy is no more however, that the atrocious over-politization of Israeli valid than any other credo calling itselfJudaism . Rabbi society has thrust political involvement upon religious I Lookstein's remark questioning the future of Reform movements. Orthodox leaders and academics often and Conservatism and categorically declaring the debate the question of divorcing religion from party I death of classical Reform can hardly comfort members politics; most of them conclude sadly that there is no of those groups who draw the cloak of legitimacy snugly practical alternative to going to the political mat if ,i over themselves. important rights and interests are to be safeguarded. As ; a case in point, Agudath Israel had to become an Retaining Judaism with Ahavas Yisrael indispensable member of Mr. Begin's parliamentary More illustrative than the people Rabbi Schulweis cites coalition before it could achieve legislation giving ' — generally to the left of the Orthodox mainstream families the same rights routinely enjoyed by Americans i — are those he cannot cite. Rabbi Joseph B. and almost every other nationality to prevent Soloveitchick is nowhere found in his thesis, nor are the unauthorized and unneeded autopsies. The 1. rabbis of Lubavitch, Satmar, Ger, Belz, Vizhnitz or anti-Orthodox press to the contrary, religious parties of jj such venerable roshei hayeshiva as Rabbis Moshe Israel do not infringe on the rights of others. And it is i Feinstein, Yaakov Kaminetzky, Eliezer Schach, Shneur noteworthy that major decisions on politics and i< Kotler, Mordechai Gifter and others. It is certainly fair principle are decided for Agudath Israel by its Council to say that the above Chassidic and Yeshiva leaders, of Torah Sages who frequently put sharp brakes on the individually and in combination, have had far more politicians. Too few American Jews know that the influence within Orthodoxy and in revivifying Jewish Council would not permit Agudath Israel to accept pride and identity than any other group of Jewish cabinet portfolios, those hotly sought "pots of gold" leaders. filled with power, prestige and patronage. The party

84 lent its votes to the government but would not join an Religious Ethnicism or Pluralism executive branch where it would be bound by oath to Since in Judaism ethnic and religious factors combine administer laws contrary to its religious beliefs. to form an organic unity, "religious ethnicism"- to borrow Yehezkel Kaufmann's term- engenders a sense In conclusion, let me emphasize that this is no of solidarity that transcends all religious, cultural or whitewash of Orthodox life. All is not idyllic on our socio-economic differences. Identification with the street. We have an uncontrollable lunatic fringe that Jewish community and concern for its welfare engages in acts not sanctioned by their leaders or constitutes a religious imperative. Hence, Orthodox Halacha. We have too much friction and too much Jews, however separatist their orientation, regard carping among ourselves. Thoughtful and conscientious themselves as responsible for the welfare of other Jews, people should and do address these concerns, but just be they "secular" or "religious." Rejection of the as we make no claims to perfection we decry the legitimacy of non-Halachic ideologies is fully unfairness of' 'defending Orthodoxy'' by compatible with the loving concern for the adherents of misrepresenting our stands and pointing only to our such ideologies. For this reason, even warts in an imperfect world. * ' 'ultra-Orthodox'' Jews are ready and eager to cooperate with non-Orthodox Jews in areas where the common interest of the Jewish community are at stake. On religious pluralism But to return to the issue of "religious pluralism,'' I am WalterS. Wurzburger not sure that I understand the sense in which Rabbi Schulweis employs the term. If he merely intends by it Rabbi Schulweis's moving plea for "restoration of that non-Orthodox Jews should have every right to live civility and mutual respect" between the various in accordance with the dictates of their conscience, he religious "denominations," strikes a responsive chord can rest assured that the bulk of the Orthodox Jewish within the overwhelming majority of the Orthodox Community shares his point of view and opposes any community. No group is immune to the debilitating infringement upon freedom of religion. But in recent effects of sinat chinam (unfounded hatred). We all years, the term "religious pluralism" has acquired suffer from the excessive politicization, narrow another connotation. It does not merely refer to the institutionalism and myopic sectarianism that plague right of individuals to exercise their freedom of religion contemporary Jewry. Engaged as we are in a bitter without interference on the part of others, but calls struggle for our very survival, we can ill-afford the upon religious groups to renounce any claims to growing polarization that threatens to fragmentize the superiority. Accordingly, all religious groups are Jewish community. expected to accord each other equal validity, since religious truth allegedly, is always relative to a But it is one thing to agree with Rabbi Schulweis's particular faith. It is this meaning of "religious diagnosis of the current malaise, and another to be pluralism" which is involved when Jews protest against prepared to accept his prescription of "religious Christian missionary activities on the ground that they pluralism" as the remedy for our ailments. are incompatible with ' 'religious pluralism.'' To begin with, Jewish unity does not really depend upon our respective attitudes towards the belief-systems In Defense of Orthodox Principles held by our fellow Jews. Hitler has taught us that, However appealing such a pluralism may be to the irrespective of all theological convictions, we form one modern mind which eschews all dogmatism. Orthodox people. However divergent our articles of faith may be, Judaism cannot accept this canon of modernity. Just as we constitute a community of fate. From the Orthodox Judaism cannot legitimize the belief in paganism, be it perspective, all Jews are included in the Covenant, in its ancient brand or the more modern version of regardless of whether we consciously affirm it, whether communism, so Orthodox Judaism is bound to reject we identify as ethnic secular Jews, or whether we are (and declare as illegitimate) any deviation from indifferent to our Jewishness. Christians may require an Halacha. For Orthodox Jews, Halacha represents the ecumencial movement in order to achieve a sense of unconditional demand of God to which all other unity. But for us Jews, the situation is different. To considerations must be subordinated. Rabbi Schulweis paraphrase Franz Rosenzweig, Christians may be "on deplores that "religious statesmen refuse to negotiate- the way'' toward unity. We Jews, however, are already mipnay darkei shalom- for the sake of peace.'' But there. We form a people- not just a set of does Halacha lend itself to negotiation? Negotiation is "denominations" related to each other by a shared set the proper procedure for the settlement of conflicting of common core-beliefs. claims, rights and interests. But Halacha is a subject for

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