On Being Aished ‘Being Aished’ is the common phrase students at Aish Hatorah use to describe the reasons for their drastic lifestyle (and worldview) change as they become religious. This article is written as a detailed critique of Aish’s practices including a discussion of Aish as a Cult; all coming from my experiences with the organization in addition to further research. Gilad Amar [email protected] 2011/04/04 Table of Contents On Being Aished ....................................................................................... 1 Aish Through My Eyes ........................................................................ 2 What is Aish? ........................................................................................ 2 My History of Involvement ................................................................. 2 Issue: ‘Scientific Proofs’ & Intellectual Honesty ............................... 3 Issue: Honesty ...................................................................................... 4 Issue: Obsession for Fronts ................................................................. 7 Issue: Miscellaneous ............................................................................ 7 Discussing the Comparison with a Cult ......................................... 8 In Fairness (a Defence of Aish) ......................................................10 References to Other Impressions...................................................11 Online Opinions ..................................................................................12 The Odd Couple ..................................................................................13 1 Aish Through My Eyes What is Aish? Aish Hatorah is an Orthodox Jewish organization which has its centre, and Yeshiva, in the old city of Jerusalem. Founded by Rabbi Noah Weinberg in 1974, their stated mission is "providing opportunities for Jews of all backgrounds to discover their heritage." At their yeshiva, a range of classes are taught. ‘Essentials’ which tackles issues of Judaism’s relevance in the modern world and the core principles of faith. ‘Intermediate’ and more advanced programmes offer courses in Talmud, Tanakh, Hebrew and Jewish Philosophy. For women there are a number of offered courses as well. These include ‘Jewel’ and ‘Gem’, both learning programmes for different age groups, and EYAHT, a full time seminary under Rebbetzin Denah Weinberg (Widow of the late Rabbi Weinberg). Around the world they are mostly known for their Discovery Seminar, a crash-course offering ‘scientific’ evidence as proof of Judaism’s truth and validity. Over 100 000 people worldwide have attended this seminar. In addition they are also well known for their low priced Fellowships programme. This is a few weeks long programme where students are taken through a Discovery Seminar in Israel in addition to travelling Israel as tourists. Aish branches outside of Israel host Shabbatons (Friday night communal dinners featuring an Aish Lecture), and offer heavily subsidised trips (in addition to Fellowships) overseas including destinations like Australia and South Africa. Finally, ‘Earn & Learn’ is a programme launched where students are paid to attend classes once or twice a week covering similar topics to be found in an Essentials or Intermediate class in the Aish Hatorah Yeshiva. As to what they are about, no-one says it better than the founder: “Today we’re losing 20 000 Jewish kids a each year to assimilation” he says referring to the high intermarriage amongst Jews and assimilation as a “Spiritual Holocaust”. He views the students of his Yeshiva as an army to combat this assimilation. Stating, “The only way we can survive is to go out there and get them *the atheists+. If we don’t they’ll come in here and get us. ” “You give us any secular professional to learn with us for 3months and we’ll turn him around to our side. If he’s a University professor, so much the better. The more intellectual he is, the easier the job.” My History of Involvement To give some context as to where all this is coming: I went on an a 3 week Aish Fellowships Programme at the end of 2007, after Grade 12 (Matric). Following that, as a direct result of the ‘epiphanies’ offered to me on the trip, I made the decision to go to Aish Hatorah’s Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem for a gap year after high- school. The intention of this Gap Year was to investigate all the claims for and against Judaism in the most intellectually honest way I could manage. After my gap year I also attended an Earn and Learn Programme in Johannesburg. 2 Issue: ‘Scientific Proofs’ & Intellectual Honesty One of the most notable issues to me was the nature of the ‘Proofs’ offered in favour of their conclusions. Their conclusions being something approximately in the order of: God (of the Personal God of religion type) Torah from God (Literally the 5 Books of Moses) (By extension the books of the Prophets and Writings) Oral Torah (The Commentaries, The Talmud and Authority of the Rabbinate) ‘Living up to the Truth’ Becoming an Orthodox Jew in the way presented by Aish. As Rabbi Gottlieb (Not of Aish Hatorah, but Ohr Somayach) says it, “Therefore, Judaism is the only responsible way to live.”(Link) One of the pieces of evidence raised was that of Chazal (The Sages) being aware and quite knowledgeable of modern day science back in their days, which they couldn’t have possibly known if it were not for the hidden insight of the Torah. For which it is often claimed it can be turned over and over, “For everything is in it”. Presumably we are led to believe this includes accurate History, Science and quite possibly the Dalai Lama’s favourite colour. Examples of this include the knowledge of the only four non-Kosher animals with only one sign of being kosher. It is forgotten that there is a slight issue of this not actually being the case, in addition to the fact that the Hare or Hyrax mentioned is said by the Torah to ‘chew the cud’ (ruminate), which it does not(Link, Link, and one more for good measure Link) Now there is actually a lot more to this, commentaries debate which animals were actually being spoken about, for instance, but that’s exactly the point, no due consideration is given to the complexities at hand. Instead a bite sized tidbit of misleading info that presents their version of Orthodox Judaism in a True (with a capitol T) light is presented without even a hint that it is n’t the whole truth. Another example used is how Chazal supposedly knew the current day estimate of the number of the stars. This, I think, is discussed rather well over here: (Link). In fact for those who have this idea of Chazal having known intricate knowledge of the Universe a few thousand years ago, I invite you to improve your education here (Link). Another example to show is Gerald Schroeder’s theory of the account of Genesis and the Big Bang as being entirely compatible. I have yet to find a Physicist who has concurred with his use of Special Relativity equations, never mind the issue that one seemingly has to consider God moving relative to the universe to accomplish this. What can certainly be seen is that whether or not you manage to say the 1 st day represents X Billions of years and the 2nd day Y etc in a physics-consistent way, one still runs into the icky problem of the order of development in the perspective of science NOT being like the order of development of Genesis (despite a lot of forced interpretation). Of course, in truth, it very quickly becomes an involved discussion of questions like “What is the Firmament?”, “Does his application of Physics make sense?”, and “Which interpreters do we have to essentially pick in order to force this possibility?” And, again, that’s exactly the point. People are encouraged to walk away with the “Wow, a 3500yr old document (Let’s not even start with Documentary Hypothesis) knew truths that science is only just perceiving now!” rather than giving an interesting topic, the relevant tools and the intellectually honest desire to look at both arguments for and against (don’t forget counter-arguments). There are a multitude of Proofs offered in this way: Cosmological, by Design, the Kuzari (Mass Revelation) Argument and the issue of Objective Morality only being possible only with God (Someone in Aish needs to decide if this is a proof or a ‘scary’ consequence of there being no God). And just as many hyped up stories or co-inky-dinkies (which somehow ‘prove’ by the sheer number of them rather than actually being proofs in themselves) like: The Cohen Lineage (Link), the Nuremberg Trials Executions having ridiculous comparisons to the story of Purim (Link), miracle stories and/or moral strength of great Rabbis (same stories in any religion for their religious leaders), the success of Jews academically, the existence of Israel, the survival of the Jewish people, the lack of violent crime amongst Jews (don’t mention the excessive white collar crime) and finally Torah Codes (Link). The classic Torah Codes; for which the only major proponents are Michael Drosnin and 3 Harold Gans. The rest of the mathematics community consider it debunked. Of course in this highly technical and evocative debate only someone like (Dr.) Harold Gans is presented who represents both sides of the argument. Keep in mind, it’s easy to win a debate and convince the audience you’re being comprehensive when you’re the only one doing the talking. There is a hidden irony here. Torah is presented as having access to hidden knowledge of the world and it is modern day science that confirms it, not vice versa. You’d think this is done to appeal to people’s confidence in science with ideas like the Age of the Universe and a Flat Earth, and say that there isn’t actually any conflict between the two, in fact science is contained within Torah. The irony here is that you will very very often encounter the assertion that scientists hate god, religion and are part of a global conspiracy to mislead people. Or, the less harsh, but equally foolish assumption that The Scientists make the boldest claims from the most inconclusive evidence.