Al Reguel Ajat

Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer defines ultra-Orthodox or “Haredi” Jews as those who maintain that to preserve the integrity of what they consider “true Judaism,” they must disconnect from the outside world and their reality and practice maximum isolation from the culture, practices, and values ​​of the world around them.

For the Haredi community, Pfeffer explains, what matters are their institutions, not the individual, who must sacrifice their individuality for the sake of the collective. Haredi Judaism is designed so that it can only be practiced within their own environment, in their yeshivot, synagogues, and other community institutions. To achieve this, they have their own social structure, rules that define their world in matters such as education, internal justice, charity, and culture, where the Chief Rabbi is the ultimate authority. They consider communal autonomy essential, often placing it above the larger society to which they belong.

Rabbi Irving Greenberg believes that Haredim literally interpret the biblical concept that God controls and decides everything that happens in this world. Absolutely nothing happens except by His Will. They firmly believe that as long as people please God by performing mitzvot, God will reward them. Therefore, Haredi theology sees all natural or human catastrophes as divine punishment for failing to fulfill His commandments. Similarly, the other side of their coin is the Haredi teaching that if you fulfill His Precepts, God will keep you safe. «Those who are agents who perform a mitzvah will not be harmed» (Talmud Pesachim 8B). This attitude is nothing more than magical thinking. Magic claims that, through certain words or actions—in this case, religious faith or behavior—God is «obliged» to do what the practitioner wants, says Greenberg. They believe that studying the Torah and rabbinic texts guarantees them special protection and preservation.

Some groups of Haredi Jews, such as the Satmar Hasidim or Neturei Karta, oppose the existence of the State of Israel, arguing that it was not created by the Messiah, but by man, who acted against God’s will. But the true basis of their position is different. Rabbi Pfeffer explains this with an anecdote: The leader of one of Israel’s religious parties was once asked what would happen if, after an election, the religious parties held the majority in the Israeli parliament. He first said that this could never happen and then added that they would immediately call the President of the United States to ask him to make Israel the 51st state of the American Union.

The Haredi world cannot fulfill the functions of an independent state on its own. To survive, they depend on a higher state to shelter them under its mantle. Someone to carry out all the tasks required for the state to function every day, including Shabbat. Activities such as national defense, healthcare, tax collection, infrastructure construction, professional education, and so on. Ultra-Orthodox yeshivot do not prepare their people for any of this. The Haredi Jewish identity model has limitations; it can only exist as a «state» within a state.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Articles by Orthodox rabbis Irving Greenberg and Yehoshua Pfeffer.

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo (1946) is the founder and dean of the David Cardozo Academy in Jerusalem. Originally from the Netherlands, Rabbi Cardozo studied at several ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, including the Gateshead Yeshiva in England, the Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and other kollelim. He is the author of 13 books and numerous articles. In one of his articles, “Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo by Rav Ari Ze’ev Schwartz,” Rabbi Cardozo comments:

“Over many centuries, the Jewish people made changes in their way of observing halacha in response to new circumstances arising in Jewish society. Very often this was not made or suggested by the rabbis, but initiated by the community itself. The rabbis simply followed their example. And they did so willingly, because they realized that it was the laity, not they, who had a better perception of the conditions of the times.” Cardozo continues: “There is an almost infinite amount of literature on halachic responses to social change. Responses that have continued into our time. The fact that the rabbis were willing to make the changes showed their courage and, at the same time, demonstrated the enormous flexibility of halacha, which allowed it to remain organic, alive, and relevant.”

Cardozo says: “Tosafot, a text written between the 12th and 14th centuries, is the main and most comprehensive classical commentary on the Talmud, written by hundreds of sages who constantly justified these changes through innovative halachic arguments, but almost always “post facto,” after people had promoted them. They had no choice but to take that position, otherwise Judaism would have become increasingly impractical, unacceptable, or simply irrelevant. A famous example is the case of the “Beit Yaakov” movement, the numerous seminaries for young Orthodox women, which was heavily attacked by rabbis in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Sarah Schenirer (1883-1935), a seamstress and the initiator of this movement, noticed that Jewish girls were receiving a poor Jewish education at home, causing many to seek that education outside. Today, this movement has been accepted by almost all ultra-Orthodox communities, and no one questions its validity or halachic justification. Even so, this was not at all the accepted halachic position at the time. In fact, it was completely forbidden to teach women that level of Torah.

“Another case was the famous ruling by Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik (1903-1993) on whether women can (and even should) study the Gemara. Here the case was even more symptomatic. Many women had already begun to study the Gemara on their own, without anyone’s permission. So it wasn’t even an innovation or «chidush» by Rav Soloveitchik, but rather a capitulation to new circumstances. What was novel about this was that Rav Soloveitchik realized that any opposition to this fact would be counterproductive.”

“This brings us to our times. All the halachic arguments about why women and men cannot form minyanim, and why women cannot become rabbis, are probably correct if one looks at the primary sources. But by now they are completely irrelevant. The reason is obvious. Modern Orthodox women and sometimes even hareidim have advanced in this field without asking the rabbis.” I add: liberal Jewish movements have long accepted these changes. As Rabbi Cardozo says: changes come from the people, not from the rabbis.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: “Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo by Rabbi Ari Ze’ev Schwartz,” by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo.

Amos Oz said: “As problems become more difficult and more complicated, more people look for a simple answer, an answer that fits in a single sentence, an answer that points, without hesitation, to a culprit who can be accused of causing all our suffering, an answer that promises that if we would only eradicate the villain, all our problems would disappear. All people want to know is, Who’s the bad guy? (I add: Or who’s the good guy?) All they want is a simple idea that will solve all their problems.”

And Oz continued: “At the foundation of fanaticism is an idea, a bitter, desperate, and distorted idea. And it’s worth remembering that you can almost never defeat an idea by force, no matter how twisted. To defeat it, there must be an answer, there must be an opposing idea, a more appealing belief, a more compelling promise. If that idea is absent, fanatics of every stripe step in and fill the void.”

Oz continued: “Fanatics tend to live in a black-and-white world, with a simplistic view of right and wrong. Conformity, behaving without stepping out of line, obeying without thought or question, the shared desire to belong to a closely knit human group—such is the fanatic spirit. The urge to follow the crowd and the passion to belong to the majority. They idealize leaders of all kinds—religious, political, celebrity, and sports figures. The fanatic doesn’t want there to be differences between people. They want everyone to be the same.”

Oz said: “For religious fanatics, the only medicine that cures all human illnesses is religious laws in their strictest form.” For the ultra-religious Jew, there is only one way to be Jewish: to be extremely observant.

And it seems that more and more people are convinced that this is the only way. But no matter how hard they try, they won’t be able to make a simple idea solve a complex problem. The simple idea of ​​building a wall doesn’t solve the complex problem of migrants. In the same way, becoming ultra-religious won’t solve the complex problem of what it means to be Jewish. Because defining what it means to be Jewish isn’t easy, for the simple reason that there are many ways to be Jewish. I would say there are as many different ways as there are Jews in the world, and perhaps more.

If we were to make a list of the characteristics that make up Jewish identity, the fanatics’ list would have a single quality: a Jew is only someone who strictly observes halacha. For the others, the list would be as long as their knowledge of Judaism. Raphael Patai argues that Jewish identity is entirely proportional to your knowledge of Judaism: the more you know, the more “Jewish” you are. And Jewish identity includes much more than just the religious. It also includes the ethical, social, political, cultural, and many other aspects.

There are those who see their Judaism in black and white. There are others who see it in multi-colored shades. There are those who only know how to count up to one. There are also those who count much higher.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Amos Oz “Dear Zealots,” Raphael Patai “The Jewish Mind”

Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Greenberg, in his collection of essays on the Torah, «Itturei Torah,» quotes Beit Aharon: «Every Jew (and every person) must know and think that he is unique in the world, and that there has never been anyone exactly like him. If there had been someone like him, there would have been no need for him to come into the world. Every person is new to the world, and his duty is to improve all his ways until all of Israel (and all of the world) has attained perfection.»

Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld says: “God, in his infinite wisdom, saw to it that no two people are alike. And for that very reason, God doesn’t want us all to serve him in the same way. He’s not interested in 7 billion people who are identical to one another. He made each of us unique. We must discover our own individuality, direct it toward the God who formed us, and transform the world into a place of beauty, harmony, and diversity.”

Rabbi David Golinkin says of the Jewish people: “We’re supposed to be united, but that doesn’t mean we all have to think and act the same way. It’s unity versus uniformity, and uniformity has never been the point,” says Golinkin. “The idea that there is a ‘one size fits all’ Judaism that fits us all, and that therefore we should all do the same thing and act the same way, flies in the face of everything Jewish history teaches us.”

Rabbi Sacks writes: “There was not a single Jewish settlement in the Middle Ages that did not have its own minhagim and piyutim (liturgical customs and poems). In the 18th and 19th centuries, each Hasidic group and yeshiva had its own style, its own nigunim (melodies), its own derech ha-limud (way of studying), its own role models, its own spiritual tonality. The path of Ger was not that of Chabad; that of Volozhyn was not that of Mir.”

Rabbi Yehuda haNasi said: “What is the right path for a person to choose for himself? Whatever brings glory to himself [before God] and grants him glory before others.”

Soren Kierkegaard, Danish thinker and father of religious existentialism, speaking about the great religions, says: “The greatest proof of the decline of these great religions is the prodigiously large number of like-minded followers.” Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo adds: “The more Jews behave the same way and hold identical beliefs, the greater the evidence of the deterioration of their Judaism.”

If everyone decides how they eat, dress, think, speak, and love, why do we have to be the same, not to say identical, in matters of identity and religion? Al Shtei Raglaim seeks to give you the tools to find your own Judaism and answer the questions on your exam about your Jewish identity, without having to copy someone else’s.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Articles by the cited authors.

“Al Shtei Raglaim, the Judaism you believe in, the one you practice, and the one you feel.”