Encore Archive

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In Defense of Orthodoxy

Harold M. Schulweis (Sh'ma 11/211, April 3, 1981)

If readers of the Jewish press gain their understanding of Orthodoxy's view on Jewish religious pluralism in Israel from letters to the editor or an article submitted by an individual Orthodox rabbi, they may well be misled. Orthodoxy is not as monolithic in its judgments on the rights of Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist movements to preach and practice their interpretations of Judaism as some ultra-Orthodox would have it. It is not fair to Orthodoxy to be represented solely by those who are intent upon denigrating and delegitimatizing all non-Orthodox ideologies. It is not fair to view advocacy of religious freedom and Jewish harmony as an exclusively non-Orthodox concern.

Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits, the distinguished Orthodox philosopher and author, has written unambiguously: "The claim of what is known as Conservative or Reform Judaism to equality with Orthodoxy is morally irrefutable." His Orthodox colleague, Professor Ephraim Urbach, has argued that "any form of coercion in matters of religion is contrary to the concept of Judaism and carries with it no halachic authority." Eliezer Goldman, one of the foremost intellectual leaders of the Kibbutz Dati movement, maintains that the very notion of a Torah State is a contradiction in terms.

Against Divisive Insularity

There are disturbing signs of growing denominationalism in Jewry and the increasing self-isolation of important elements within Orthodoxy. Here again the concern expressed is not limited to Conservative or Reform or Reconstructionist observers. Orthodox intellectuals such as Rabbi Irving Greenberg are equally worried about the rightward turn towards a separatist community, an "austritts gemeinde." A beloved Orthodox teacher of mine at Yeshiva University, the late former president of Bar Ilan University, Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, counseled against the raising of barriers between us. "Are we ready to turn against our brothers who differ from us and with whom we differ? Who knows what the future of Reform and Conservative Judaism will be?…Classical Reform is dead. A love of Israel has entered Reform hearts. Reform and Conservative Day School as sprouting forth. Every such Day school is an entering wedge of Jewish tradition…Is it not wise and Jewish to draw them close to our hearts?"

The twin dangers of the politicization of religion and the religionization of politics in Israel and the call for Jewish religious unity are not the special pleadings of a Conservative rabbi. They are presented in the interest of preserving the mutual respect and dignity of all expressions of Jewish life. Politicized religion, whether Orthodox, Reform or Conservative, suffocates all of Jewish life. No one is exempt from the harassments which attend the rise of state-given religious monopoly. Rabbi Norman Lamm, the president of Yeshiva University, expressed his anguish over the disunity within Orthodoxy itself. He warned against the coercive homogeneity of ultra-Orthodoxy which "leads to bigotry and shallowness." His caveats were not meant to prevent the antagonisms of ultra-Orthodoxy against the non-Orthodox but within Orthodoxy itself. He sought to protect from ultra-Orthodox vilification those Orthodox who did not eat glatt kosher, who did not deny themselves higher secular education and who did observe Yom Ha-Atzmauth with religious joy.

Common Purpose, not Common Halacha

The issues before us must not be seen as pitting the whole of Orthodoxy in opposition to the non-Orthodox Jewish world. The principle at stake is the ideal of ahavat Yisroel, which is the unconditional love of the Jewish people. Love costs. The price for that love nowhere entails surrender of one's principles and practices; but it cannot be truly lived on condition that the other must either conform to my ways or else be excluded from the legitimate Jewish community.

Unity is not uniformity. To reply to the argument that only submission to one mode of halacha, to one halachic authority will bring the harmony and unity we pray for, one need but observe the tragic and repeated scandals of verbal and physical outbursts among admittedly Orthodox groups. The Belzer Chasidim and the Edah Haredit, the vilifications between the Chief Rabbis, the antagonism between the Satmar and the Lubavitcher, the quarrels between Mafdal, Agudath Yisroel and the Chief Rabbinate offer little evidence that Orthodox uniformity yields Jewish unity.

The comments of the Orthodox thinker and writer, the president of Bar Ilan University, Emanuel Rackman, were not offered in joy. As reported in Yedioth Achronoth (July 20, 1971), Rabbi Rackman bemoaned the fact that "the religious leaders and rabbis have failed to promote unity. Instead they have promoted antagonism and hatred…Today the love of Israel flows from the State of Israel…The State has succeeded where the Halacha has failed."

Dismantling Religious - Secular Barriers

No one except the politically state-empowered can rejoice in this religious situation. The major constituency of Israel remains secular. Presented with the forced option of either/or they have more often than not responded with a neither/nor. They are neither Orthodox in accordance with the establishment version nor atheists. They have judged the spirituality within organized religion as irrelevant or worse, amoral. Jewish religious pluralism, institutionalized and legitimated, will offer searching Israelis less reason for apostasy and more opportunity for religiosity.

This is a time for courage from religious leaders on behalf of religious peace. Religious voices from all areas of Jewish life must converge to overcome the polarizations which threaten to fragment our people into separate sects. Muteness from any quarter is tantamount to consent to the schizmatic status quo. The rabbis and laity of every movement have an obligation to demand that their spiritual leaders sit down together for the sake of peace. In a democratic society, unity can only grow out of religious pluralism and in the name of the love of Israel. Shall we unite before the enemy without and tear ourselves apart from within? Can our political statesmen exhibit the courage and wisdom to sit down with their enemies at a common table in pursuit of peace, while our religious statesmen refuse to negotiate mipne darkei shalom - for the sake of peace? Shall rabbis and laymen stand idly by and observe with embarrassment the throwing of stones and epithets against each other? Our leaders, the heads of religious movements, yeshivoth and seminaries, must hear from us the people's mandate to restore civility and mutual respect to the on-going dialogue between us. We are mandated to pursue the paths of Torah whose "ways are ways of pleasantness" which binds us together as a covenanted people.