A Life on the Firing Line; Thoughts on Modern Orthodoxy

To a fellow Charedi Jew,

There's a story that makes the rounds in the perennial debates between MO Jews of all types and Charedi Jews. I can't vouch for its historical accuracy, but it certainly explains a mindset:

The neo-Kantian Jewish philosopher Herman Cohen met a simple Jew from the east along the road. Excited at the chance to expound on his view of God as a Kantian ideal, he went into a long lecture explaining his view of God as a philosophical postulate. At the end of his lecture, the simple Jew looked at him and said, "That's very nice, but where is the Master of the Universe in your vision?". According to some versions, Cohen broke down and cried upon hearing this.

This story is often brought as the penultimate evidence in favor of "emunah peshutah" – simple faith. You MO Jews, they say, are like Cohen – sophisticating yourselves to death and riddled with doubts and questions. Surely it is better to be like the simple Jew from the east in this story – the kind of Jew we try to create by isolating him from the world.

The problem with this argument is that the story has a sequel, one with a tragic ending. That "Jew from the east" was likely on their way to a nearby city to make a living. Perhaps he was immigrating to another country. Yet even if he stayed where he was, the result was the same: modernity came and changed everything.

Maybe he held fast, but his children or grandchildren didn't make it. Whether it was the challenges of modern scholarship, the collapse of the kehilah community structure or the difficulties of making a living, they left Orthodoxy. In every country of Europe on the eve of WWII – Poland and Lithuania included - the majority of Jews had long since "opted out" to one extent or another. I don't need to tell you that the situation in the states was even worse. In the space of a century and a half, Jews went from being mostly shomer Torah and Mitzvot to only 10% doing so. That ratio has not changed to this day.

I am not naïve. Many, perhaps most of the losses were probably unavoidable. Jews have turned their backs on God even in times of revelation – witness the Golden Calf incident. It stands to reason that it should be all the more true in a time of mass skepticism and hester panim. But far, far too many of the losses were entirely avoidable, in my opinion.

Too many Jews left because their leaders – especially Rabbis, refused to see what was going on. They refused to answer legitimate questions of faith or invest in providing tools to those who struggled. Too many of them showed little to no sympathy to Jews who violated Shabbat to provide their families with food. Many more "Not So Frum Jews" were edged out as the Austritt-mentality of "you are either with us or against us" and the "all or nothing" attitude to Shmirat Mitzvot increasingly prevailed.

Enter Modern Orthodoxy. Contrary to what you may think, MO is not a single coherent ideology. It is a "family name", a broad category of different strategies for Orthodox Jews to cope with the difficulties of modernity. It is a category that includes TIDE along with TuM, Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Kook pere, all the way to Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the Religious Kibbutz and Ne'emanei Torah Ve'Avodah. Some have a more positive view of Torah and modernity, some less. What they all have in common is a willingness to stand on the "firing line" and help defend Orthodox Jewry against modern challenges.

The simple Jew of the above-mentioned story had no real defenses against the storm of kefira. Today, thanks to the much-despised MO, he has a multitude of options to choose from and keep the faith – both for himself and his children. It is no longer an "either-or" issue – either simple, willingly ignorant faith or complete abandonment.

I know what you're thinking – we've shut them out! Just look at the success and insularity of the Charedi community. Would that that were true, but it isn't. We both know that, at least in Israel, that society is living on borrowed time, time which is increasingly running out. Modernity is still there, with all its dangers, and no matter how much you try to shut it out, it will get in. Just look at how thoroughly the internet has penetrated Charedi homes. This is to say nothing of the masses of Charedi Jews who will have to enter the modern workforce and deal, just like us evil mizrochnikim, with the modern world. Only you'll have to do it without any real defense mechanisms or tools.

This may surprise you, but I don't like the fact that I have to struggle so hard with my faith. I don't like the fact that every day feels like a re-run of Yaacov's indecisive struggle with the angel. I, too, wish we could all live "betemimut" and without difficulty. But I don't get to choose what period I was born into and neither did you. I am happy that I at least have the option of struggling that was denied the simple Jew from the east and his descendants.

MO Jews, especially the ideologues, have been fighting in the trenches for generations to ensure that Orthodoxy is a viable faith option in the modern world. They bravely continue to struggle against all odds. Their motto could very well have been like soldiers in the civil war – "we'll fight them till hell freezes over, and then, we'll fight 'em on the ice".

So, instead of condemning us for our supposed laxity or our lack of ideological purity or consistency, perhaps you can show us some gratitude for fighting milchamta shel Torah.

Yours,

A Proud Mizrochnik