Comments on: Unwittingly Desecrating G-d’s Name by Rabbi Hyim Shafner

By: Dee

Dee — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:25:23 +0000

morethodoxy.org, how do you do it?

http://timehospitality.blogspot.com/

By: David Sher

David Sher — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:25:19 +0000

Mind you, I mean no disrespect to the Amish. They are good people, but its hard to be a light unto the nations if we hide that light.

By: David S

David S — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:36:05 +0000

I love this blog. It gives me a sense of hope that things will turn out all right with Judaism rather than that we will try in vain to turn back the clock and as a result become a marginal Amish like group.

By: pierre

pierre — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:08:17 +0000

There may be counsel from our tradition against the attitude, but there are definitely contemporary schools of thought that do not deter students from formulating such attitudes – it’s a simin that a newly-observant person has the ‘proper’ perspective on their previous life and the life of those who WERE peers. In SOME ways it is a naturally occuring attitude, especially under the pretense that regnant Orthodoxy is that which The Others have deviated from – in fact it grows best in soil that denies history and knows only its own ‘zachor’ of events and processes – among those who know “only Torah” (or those who use the resources of those who claim thus) -a Torah which explicates “clearly” and unambiguously both past, present and future.

By: Michael Stein

Michael Stein — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:40:28 +0000

I concur wholeheartedly with Rabbi Shafner’s comments. When I first became a ba’al teshuva 25+ years ago, I was guilty of the behavior he describes, and it did permanent damage. Over the years I became softer, and I hope a bit wiser. I observed many other people in similar predicaments, and I have observed many other instances of the Orthodox community’s insularity resulting in hillul Hashem. I think if Isaiah came back and observed the present day situation in the Jewish people, we would all be in for a rather severe rebuke.

I cite the Midrash Rabah in this regard — the source of the concept “derekh eretz kadmah l’Torah” — the story where Rabbi Yanai invites someone he thinks is a talmid chacham to his table, and insults him cruelly when he finds out the person is an am ha’aretz. But the ignorant person’s fine middot carry the day, and Rabbi Yanai comes out looking like a real boor, despite his Torah knowledge. Of course, this story isn’t about level of observance, but rather about level of learning. But the principle is similar.