Are Liberal Jews Necessary?

(continued from the last post)

I want to address A Yid directly since much of what he wrote is not so uncommon, and yet in its own way very shocking.

You seem to accept the idea that if liberal Jews were to disappear, Israel’s situation would become more precarious. It doesn’t seem to worry you in comparison to the sin of acknowledging a non frum person. Let us then let us look at what a world without Israel c’’v (chas veshalom, God forbid) would be like in greater detail. We should think about the huge suffering that would be involved if the Jews would be forced to emigrate from Israel c’’v, even assuming no loss of life. The monetary loss would be staggering including huge losses to the Orthodox Jews you care about as well as to Jews whose losses do not interest you. There would be the loss of the greatest Torah center in history – populated largely by those who you think of as coreligionists, but funded largely by non frum Israelis through their tax dollars. If there was a loss of life c’’v because of military defeats, the loss could be too horrible to contemplate. Even if secular Jews are not your concern, in accordance with the NEW idea that a Jew who sins though a Jew is not your brother as is, there are a million Orthodox who could c’’v suffer.

I believe every rabbinical leader including the biggest zealots would if faced with a dilemma of the destruction of the secular State of Israel, and propping up liberal Judaism would ultimately act to insure Israel’s survival, even if they felt the state itself was not holy and in fact the handiwork of Satan. I can’t understand how you could look at such a possibility as a matter of indifference. You cannot both believe it is important to work for Israel’s continued existence AND be sanguine and passive to what happens to non-Orthodox Jews in America.

The last paragraph is written from your point of view. I myself feel each and every Jew has intrinsic value irrespective of what good he may or may not do to benefit Orthodox Jews. Furthermore I feel I have an obligation to seek and pray for the welfare and well being of all Jews as they are today. I gladly give money to charities that help the Jewish poor irrespective of their degree of religiosity, something I assume you would consider way out of line. You quickly forget that your wife delivered her babies, your children had their tonsils removed, etc. in a hospital named Beth Israel, Cedar Sinai, Hadassah, funded by those dreaded liberal Jews. The irrelevant doctor, the one you have read out of the Jewish people, who took care of them on Shabbos and YomTov was a non-frum unter-Jew named Goldstein and Horowitz,etc. I have been to many hospitals in my day. I have never ever seen a frum Jew in an oncology or cardiology ward say "my mazal, my doctor is a secular Jew. If only I could have gotten a God fearing Pakastani or Bulgarian doctor."

I turn now to a second issue you raise: You argue…Judaism is a religion. The only valid form of that religion is Orthodoxy. All Jews are obligated by God to be Orthodox… It does not follow that from an Orthodox point of view there is absolutely no difference between Conservative, Reform or secular(CRS), as you suggest. All that follows are that all CRSers are not Orthodox. I would say some are not Orthodox in more spectacular ways than others, like by becoming apostates. The Talmud does count the number of prohibitions involved in a prohibited act. The idea that all non-Orthodox Jews are alike is a bit like saying all Chinese are alike, none of them are Caucasian.

Most of the ways Orthodoxy can benefit CRS-ers do not involve any dilution of Orthodoxy, with two caveats. If there is a mitzvah to openly express scorn and hostility to liberal Jews, it would indeed be difficult to be of much benefit. I assume it is permissible for an Orthodox Jew to act in a mentschlich way to the 11 million Jews who do not share his beliefs. I am not discussing what goes on in one’s heart or mind or how one acts in front of children. If you believe there is a mitzvah to hate Jews who are not Orthodox and to express your contempt for their ways whenever possible, then indeed there are problems. Second, I assume helping liberal Jews stabilize in place is not in and of itself a dilution of Orthodoxy. I do not think it is helping someone to sin. If you came across a Liberal Jew drowning in a puddle and you turned him around and saved his life, it would not be correct to say you enabled him to sin by allowing him to continue in his sinful ways. In helping a liberal Jew remain a Jew, you are diminishing the chances he will totally disappear from the Jewish world. The choice is not liberal or Orthodox, but liberal that might in a few decades go poof! and be gone. I feel most opportunities out there today are liberal Judaism benefits and the Orthodox do not lose (i.e. the current situation is not even Praeto optimal).

You cannot believe that if the 11 million Jews refuse to become Orthodox, they ought to disappear because then they would not be doing aveirot (sins). Is a world with 2 million Orthodox and no CRS Jews better? More desirable to you and to Hashem on your understanding of his will than the current world? Is a world where the 11 million ultimately became Christian, Muslim or atheist better than the current situation? I say no.

When there is a dilution of Orthodoxy, as you call it, there are again two cases. Halachic dilution and non-halachic dilution. There is only one case if every custom, hidur, chumrah (supererogatory acts) and expression of Daas Torah is ultimately halachic. I am the wrong address for debating this last point. Looking at halachic dilutions I agree that an Orthodox Jew is not obligated to sin so that the chances of a liberal surviving as a Jew are improved. Certain sin vs. uncertain future benefits is not a big contest. I could try to create dramatic conflicts, but I won’t right now since it is not and never was my intent to suggest any Jew violate halacha.

I want to look at one more variant that wasn’t brought up by you but is common enough. It goes like this. We as Orthodox Jews cannot tolerate others who openly disobey the Torah. It is outrageous to lift a finger to help them grow their temples and spread their pernicious doctrines, though of course we do not mean or hope for any harm to their person. If they become goyim, it’s their fault and will remain forever a signal to Orthodox Jews what happens when one throws off the guidance and yoke of Torah. As for Israel, maybe something bad will happen, maybe not. It’s not our job to guarantee how history plays itself out. Our job is to prey to Hashem to have mercy, obey the Torah and listen to the gedolim. Period. The rest is up to God.

I agree only heaven will ultimately decide how we will fare. I nevertheless think it is dumb to base our future just on prayers and hopes that Hashem will save us. If a policy appears to have certain terrible consequences we should do what we can to avoid the consequences including changing the policy. It is on par with a kolel view that one need not work and Hashem will provide, which is perfectly true except in those cases where He doesn’t. Once one goes down this road the logical outcome is Satmar –Breuer style anti Zionism. A passive Zionism that doesn’t try to anticipate the future shouldn’t get out of bed.

So one more time, here’s the deal. As things stand now the prospects for liberal Judaism are far from rosy. Many will disappear in a few generations, probably less. An American community that is overwhelmingly Orthodox will be so fragmented and weak it will have difficulty governing a neighborhood. Israel needs a strong American Jewish community. So do Jews in other countries. Orthodox attitudes toward the rest of Jewry would make a difference. As I will argue in a later post, many American Jews, (my guess is 500,000 +), have begun attending church services in the past 10-15 years. For the life of me I can’t see how Orthodox Jews can be passive and indifferent. I truly do not understand why a Jew would close himself off from 11 million Jews. How can anyone have a shita (an ideological position) that either you are one of us or ich hub dich teif tire in dred (go to hell)? I believe it goes hand in hand with closing oneself off from secular studies, from secular culture, from the arts and sciences. Austritt all the way down!