Wed night July
29 telephone conference Shiur #13 call 605-562-3130 enter code 411161#
Modern Orthodox
Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn
Jewry in general is filled with
failure. “Most people sin with stealing.” “All Jews sin with Loshon Hora.” “Three
sins everyone does every day: sinful thoughts, praying and being sure of being
answered, and loshon hora.” (Bovo Basro 164b-5a) Our topic, however, is failure
that becomes enshrined officially, when people call themselves not Orthodox but
something else, Modern Orthodox or like the new apikorsim mamosh who call
themselves Open Orthodox even though their leaders say clearly that they don’t
believe in the Torah. Yes, we maintain a difference between a Jew who fails and
a Jew who hangs up a sign and says “I don’t keep this or that.”
We are going to speak here about
Modern Orthodox, but we also mention the trend
for some Orthodox rabbis to violate clear statements in Shulchan Aruch
and poskim when it comes to women’s rights to have a GET on demand. Some husbands can be forced to divorce, but
these are rare. We see rabbis who humiliate husbands and coerce in violation of
the Shulchan Aruch, and they are not Modern Orthodox. In fact, one Yeshiva rabbi in Philadelphia went so far as
to pronounce a married woman free to remarry, and the Modern Orthodox condemned
it. To my knowledge, other than myself, no Orthodox rabbis condemned it
publicly, although almost all of them condemn it privately.
Thus, what we say here about the
Modern Orthodox also applies, increasingly, to even the Yeshiva Orthodox.
Halacha about coercing Gittin is being openly violated in various Beth Dins and
among other rabbis. In the coming generation, therefore, when we look for a
shidduch for ourselves or our children, we must determine if there if there is
a GET in the family, and if so, if the mother had children, and if the GET was
kosher, and not coerced. Gedolim in Israel have already stated, as I heard in
person from Rav Elyashev zt”l, that those who violate Shulchan Aruch in making
forced Gittin, etc., lose the status of a Beth Din, and the wife must get
another GET from a kosher Beth Din. The children born from this remarried woman
with an invalid GET are possibly mamzerim. (See Sefer Mishpitei Yisreol with
the signature of dozens of Gedolei hador about these matters including Reb
Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Shmuel HaLevi Wosner.)
Let us now go back a century or so,
and look at the Orthodox Jewish community. There were no Yeshivas as we have
today. There was no Torah ViDaas, no Chaim Berlin, no Lakewood, etc. But around
this time Yeshiva University was founded. Its goal was to create American rabbis
and laity educated in both religious and secular law.
Dr. Belkin was a major Torah
scholar known as the Radiner Genius [Radin was the location of the Chofetz
Chaim], but he was also a foremost scholar of Greek literature. He had an
incredible personality and could influence people with a very brief
presentation. He gathered for Yeshiva University the greatest Roshei Yeshiva in
Europe, such as Reb Shimon Schkop, the Meitsiter Ilui, Reb Moshe Soloveitchik
and his son Reb Yosher Ber Soloveitchik. On the other hand, he had outstanding
secular scholars teaching regular studies. Albert Einstein gave his name to
Yeshiva University, and it had a very good name in every area, religious and
secular.
Students who spent hours a day
learning gemora spent also hours a day learning secular things, which were
filled with apikorsis. Inevitably, there was an imperfection in all of this. We
call this imperfection Modern Orthodox. There is a good reason for such a term.
Haredi or basically Orthodox Jews are exposed somewhat to the secular world,
but the major influences are religious ones. Yeshiva University created a
student filled with religious and secular knowledge. The religious instructors
were often European, whereas the secular instructors were Americans who speak easily
to the American students. The clash
between religious and secular learning in YU was a challenge. Modern Orthodoxy
is a label of the compromises that result from this challenge.
Once a young YU rabbinical student
who was ready for semicha came to the Rosh Yeshiva with a problem. He wanted to
find the laws of taharas hamishpocho but when he opened the Shulchan
Aruch, all that he found was about the sin of drinking blood. When the Rosh
Yeshiva heard this, he went to tender his resignation. But he was told, yes,
even this is progress. There is no way at this time of improving on this. If
you leave, everything will be lost. And he stayed, because he realized that
this is America, and even this is an experience of hope, and without it, there
is nothing. Indeed, the leading Rosh Yeshivas and Mashgichim in America learned
at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Mordechai Gifter and Reb Nosson Wachtfogel
eventually realized that they needed to go to European Yeshivas, and they did.
Rabbi Gifter became the Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe and Reb Nosson Wachtfogel became
the Mashgiach of Lakewood. Without YU, what would have become of them?
The intense study schedule in YU
created a problem. A person wanted to enter American society with a good
salary, something that required an advanced education. After getting this or
that degree, the student had to spend some years training in his new position.
By the time the job was steady, and he or she was ready to marry, they were no
longer so young.
Biologically, a person at sixteen
is highly developed. But in an Orthodox or Haredi world, people know that
marriage is right around the corner and this gives some control. But the Modern
Orthodox have no way to resist the biology. They are not young, one. Two, for
years, they have been watching movies, television, magazines and videos that
arouse the worst instincts. And they are constantly meeting boys and girls,
talking to them, in a society where tseinuyse is relative.
A religious woman got a job in NYC
in an organization with an excellent name, but it was associated somewhat with
the Modern Orthodox. Early on in her new job, a boy put his hand on her in a
friendly way. She jumped back. The surprised boy said, “Are you shomer
Negiah?” and left her alone. Now, when a boy assumes that a girl doesn’t
care if he puts his hand on her, you have a mighty pirtso in halacha.
Because touching a woman, something usually associated with pleasure, is a
capital crime that can require one to die rather than to commit. This is a
clear example of Modern Orthodoxy dealing with “reality.” Older people heavily
dosed with constant sexual arousal have a very hard time keeping halocho.
And some of them just don’t keep it. And, as we saw in the above, this was done
publicly, in an office, where a lot of people were working. That is Modern
Orthodox. And in this case the gap is terrible.
This brings us to the issue of
Agunose, another area where Modern Orthodox y cannot keep the open law in the
Shulchan Aruch that a woman whose husband will not give her a GET may not
remarry. Because the Shulchan Aruch clearly states that if there is no GET the
woman cannot remarry. Further, in most cases, the husband cannot be humiliated
or otherwise pressured to give the GET. If the GET is coerced, it is invalid,
and the children born from it are possibly mamzerim.
Rabbi Gedaliah Schwartz, head of
the Modern Orthodox Beth Dins, told me that he permitted a husband and wife who
had been married Orthodox, and who had lived together for a month, to leave his
office without a GET and remarry. He told me that there was no Biah so there
was no marriage. This is pure ignorance. Kiddushin is valid with a ring or
document without Biah (EH 26:4). But
this he didn’t know. Another person told
me that when he was involved with ORA and humiliated men until they divorced
their wives, he was told that a major Modern Orthodox rabbi simply annulled
marriages at will. Here we see that the gap between Haredi and Modern Orthodox
is such that in the coming generation, any divorced woman who received a Modern
Orthodox GET and has a child, may have a child that is considered by Haredim to
be a doubtful mamzer. The Haredim will intermarry. The Modern Orthodox will, if
they have divorces, have children that cannot marry Haredi children. And we know that some Orthodox rabbis do wrong
things with Gittin, such as annulling it or coercing a GET. So any divorce must
be carefully checked out.
Reb Chaim Soloveitchik said that
many Modern Orthodox will become Haredim. What is their mothers had a Modern
Orthodox forced GET or annulment? The child would be considered by Haredim as
mamzerim or doubtful mamzerim. The lenient rabbis are thus preparing a terrible fate for those
who will be considered possible mamzerim and nobody will want to marry them,
other than other Modern Orthodox. And when these have children, they will also
be doubtful mamzerim, with no way to reverse it.
The greatest tragedy in all of this
is that there is no leadership in the Torah world fighting these change in
halacha, and fighting those who make invalid Gittin and mamzerim. The great
social force of women’s rights has spread to the Yeshiva world, and there is
almost nobody around to publicly fight back. When a Philadelphia Rosh Yeshiva
openly encourages a married woman to remarry without a GET, I am the only
person in the United States to openly protest. I have publicly attacked senior
rabbis for their silence, even the ones who congratulate me for fighting. And hopefully, there will be a change. But I
don’t know of any change right now, that is, some fight it quietly, but to
openly condemn it publicly, I don’t know who does it, other than a few rabbis
who may make their opinions heard in their circles. But the public blast such
as this blog is missing.
When Reb Yosher Ber Soloveitchik
zt”l heard from his students various ideas how to “improve” the situation with
marriage he declared, “Kolu kol hakitsim” meaning, “We have reached the
bottom.” And he stopped it. But today, there is nobody to stop it, and these
rabbis who invent this or that have nobody to oppose them. The result will
obviously be mamzerim. This is the ultimate child abuse. Why is a rabbi who
creates such child abuse not considered a demon, but the husband who refuses to
give a GET for perhaps valid reasons, is considered a demon?
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