Daas Torah - Part I

Recently, my Shul hosted as scholar in residence, Dr. Marc Shapiro, chair of the Judaic Studies department at the University of Scranton. On Friday night Dr. Shapiro gave a brilliant lecture about Rabbi Yaacov Yehiel Weinberg who came to prominence in Europe before World War II and his attitude towards both Torah and secular study. Dr. Shapiro has covered this broader topic in a book he wrote called “Between the Yeshiva and Modern Orthodoxy.” What I found so captivating about the discourse was that 100 years ago and even before that, Orthodox Judaism was having the same type of intellectual debate as we have today. Not only that, but sometimes the debate was so heated that letters and articles revealed through research of that time show not much has changed. We are a diverse and passionate people.

It was with this fascination in mind, that I read an ongoing dialogue between Rabbi Avraham Sebrow and Rabbi Moshe Meiselman, in the Five Towns Jewish Times. The essence of the debate seems to be whether all things in the Torah (like creation and the flood) are to be taken literally or allegorically. Both sides bring their scholarly research to make their points. Fascinating stuff. The proof to their arguments seems to be in how one interprets the writings of different Rishonim, Achronim, commentaries and some more recent scholarly work. The biggest debates regarding what some Rabbi once said and what he meant by it always come after their death. This makes for great intellectual theatre and so long as we can continue to debate peacefully, strengthens us as practicing Jews.

I’m confident that 100 plus years from now, scholars studying Orthodox Judaism in the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries will read such dialogues to form their own opinions about what and how we debated the many issues facing us. Unfortunately, they will also be exposed to other things that get published these days. Turn past the debate between Rabbis Meiselman and Sebrow and read about the annual Agudath Israel Convention and you will find that intellectual debate is often the farthest thing from some minds. Intellectual suppression is a better description.

A prevailing theme of the convention was that technology; specifically the internet and devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry are destroying the Torah world. One Rabbi won’t so far as to quote Rav Kanievsky who said that one should accept death rather than go on the internet. Rabbi Shimshon Sherer, whose father once lead Agudath Israel is quoted as saying about anonymous blogs and callers to radio shows who criticize leading rabbanim, “Our gedolim are not like political candidates who are subject to being bashed by pundits, total subservience to daas Torah is divinely ordained.”

Rabbi Yosef Viener, Rav of Congregation Shaar Shamayim in Monsey, insisted that peer pressure be placed on ones neighbor regarding unfiltered internet. He is quoted as saying “someone with unfiltered internet and phones shouldn’t be able to do a shidduch. Wow. Sounds to me like the emperor has no clothes, except this time it’s not one little kid screaming out the obvious it’s lots and lots of kids.

Here we have the self proclaimed giants of Torah using the force of their rabbinic authority, not to find solutions to the epidemic of child abuse in our Yeshivot, not to find a solution to spousal abuse in our community, not to condemn theft and embezzlement by members of our community, not to blast the shidduch crisis. No, they use the bully pulpit to consolidate their power by denying us the right take advantage of technological advancement and cloaking it in that blanket fable of their own creation, “daas Torah.” Let me be clear, it is not daas Torah that I am against, it’s the abuse of the term and it’s random application to close off and insulate us from the world. And I really am sorry, but rabbis, even ones from Agudath Israel, are human beings who make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes deserve to be highlighted and the rabbis called out on.

Some rabbis of Agudath Israel have no problem publicizing their disagreement with the daas Torah of other rabbis. That is permitted. But for someone to criticize one of them, no matter how ridiculous they are, is forbidden because only their daas Torah is the True daas Torah. My friends, we live in interesting times. How we practice our religion and our core beliefs will always be the subject of debate. Allowing the suppression of ideas and the advancement of technology serves only to further empower a select group of people while hindering the rest of us to grow.