A Rabbi and His Congregants Debate Our Jewish Future
Published in Ami Magazine in October of 2013
The October 1 edition of the New York Times published a Pew Research Poll regarding the state of Judaism in America.
The numbers are a sorry sight. Intermarriage has surged, synagogue attendance has declined, and a large number of American Jews (32%) define themselves as “having no religion”.
The only growth and stability found in this poll was among the Orthodox.
What follows is a series of email exchanges between Rabbi Moshe Taub and members of his community in Buffalo, NY on how to deal with these statistics as well as their cause(s). While names, other than Rabbi Taub’s, have been left out, permission has been received from the others to print their emails.
On Oct 1, 2013, at 1:13 PM, X wrote:
To: Rabbi Taub
CC: Y
You may have seen this article, but I thought I would pass it on. It
is sad that less than 70 years after the Holocaust and the founding of
the State of Israel, Jews, by sheer indifference, begin to disappear.
After spending 100 hours in Shul in the last month, it is hard to
imagine that most Jews didn’t go at all! Not fair!
On 10/1/2013 4:10 PM, Moshe Taub wrote:
Yes, very sad, even sadder that I am not surprised.
Based on these statistics, in two generations Orthodox will be the
majority -based both on its fast-growing numbers and due to the continuing cultural suicide of the other movements.
Every few years a poll like this gets picked up and the Reform et al.
have serious discussions as to what they can do to fix the problem.
Ironically, up till the late 70’s the Orthodox were seen as a
disappearing relic and the other movements thought they had a monopoly
on the future.
“Chacham Einav B’rosho” The wise man sees far, far ahead, and in the
40’s and 50’s, while many chose to bend to the will and desires of their
Congregants -and wer seen as pioneers in the process – the true and great pioneers were in fact the ones who ignored them while simultaneously planting seeds for the next generation.
Thankfully, what these men planted on these shores was an Ilan Chazak. And like Choni HamAgel, 70 years later we wake up and see the fruits of their tireless labor.
The saddest part of all this is witnessing the decline of Conservative
Judaism, both in numbers and in policy. They will feel the brunt of this
more so than Reform etc.
Moshe Taub
On Oct 2, 2013, at 9:48 AM, Y wrote:
Dear Rabbi Taub,
I don’t disagree with your assessment. But there are other matters, perhaps ones which you broach indirectly in mentioning that the saddest part of all this is the decline of Conservative Judaism. Granted the wisdom of Orthodoxy hoeing its own garden, rather than worrying so much about “outreach,” must not Orthodoxy ask itself if the alienation of so many Jews from Orthodoxy expressed by the very formation of the Conservative and Reform movements does not have something–at least something, if not everything–to do with the way in which Orthodoxy, in its various institutions and functionaries, conceives of itself? When Conservative and Reform disappear, are we confident that new break-offs will not arise and that those who break off will not do so because they are repelled by Orthodox behaviors, attitudes, ways of doing things?
And as for Orthodoxy in itself, it is not good that it should be monolithic. Not good, because sages, wise as they are, have an inherent tendency toward arrogance about their wisdom (I think of kin’as sofrim) and, if not arrogance, at least complacency. The sin of the people of Babel is that they were all one people speaking one language, and this was equivalent to building a tower to heaven and replacing God with themselves. God multiplied their languages–not, by my lights, a klalla but a bracha.
Y
On Oct 2, 2013, at 11:24 AM, Moshe Taub wrote:
I hope you won’t be mad if I respond with honesty…
– Imagine if there was a breakdown in academia. Schools were closing one after the next, and that scholarly interest, if existing at all, were purely for vocational purposes. Harvard soon shuts down its Humanities Dept. etc., etc., etc.
In the entire country of three hundred million there is no more than 1000 people left who know how to read Shakespeare, who have even heard of Plato, who have ever truly read a poem.
After meditating on that new reality for a minute….
As a passionate student and teacher of such subjects, how would your plan for fixing this differ than Rav Moshe’s? Would your main focus be to get the 40 year olds back to school, is that where you would spend your energy?
I hope not.
Rather the smarter bet would be to first make sure that these studies can live on authentically. Second, you will work on the upcoming college age kids, while not ignoring the already lost -and certainly composing books geared toward them.
Infrastructure for the future, preserving an authentic rendering of whichever subject or school, must come first.
– Would the above be seen as arrogant? Probably. But to define it as ‘hoeing one’s own’ would, I contend, be simplistic, as well as not giving Torah L’Shmah the same urgency as you would your own life focus.
– As for outreach, Orthodox has not failed. Many more people have flocked to Orthodoxy on serious religious grounds than any of the other movements, which have, often, acted as weigh stations as one’s family and history exits the nation – sadly. Yes, they often extend this life, yet like a hospice, few make it out alive. Indeed, the other movements cannot hold a candle to the energy that the Orthodox have devoted in outreach toward other Jews.
But perhaps your point is not that we do not reach-out to others, but that we reject the other paths, and they notice this. Which leads to my next point…
– Your proof from Babel is, in my judgment, misplaced. Again, imagine we are talking about your acceptance of how yeshivos edit Shakespeare’s works for tznius purposes. Do you accept that, and if not, what of alienation? And then what do you do if colleges begin a puritan streak and begin doing the same, rejecting, say, Romeo and Juliet? Do you go silent? Would you worry about alienation above authenticity? We mustn’t have separate rules governing modes of protection for authentic Torah vs. protecting the things outside of faith that we most passionately pursue.
– Yes, Gd allows each of us to find our own emes (see Bereishis Rabba, bereishis where Gd threw emes to the earth and it shattered into many pieces). But there are limits, as any system must have.
Where are those goal posts? That is a question that we all must ponder before discussing inclusiveness, not after. Otherwise one runs the risk of falling into the trap that Aaron fell into (al pi pshat) -a much better illustration in my view.
So, yes, diversity exists within Torah, as it does within Academia. Yet, in both there are limits -must be limits. You alienate a nice chunk of people who call you ‘Elitist’, as I too am viewed bleakly by many. And we both sleep well at night, confident that we have preserved what we need to.
A few final points:
– Considering my example, you know that if you would allow for the ‘Disney-fication’ of academics, if Readers-Digest-like critiquing is respected, and if you allow those teachers to join you as equals at the table it would influence over time the authentic teachers far more so than the inauthentic teachers. A broom gets dirty as it cleans up (see introduction to shu’t Chasam Sofer from Avraham and Sdom where he wonders just how ‘dirty’ a rabbinic broom must get).
– Your disappointment would be better directed at the founders of the other failed and inauthentic movements, not those who, whether true or not, did not do enough to clean up their mess. The NYT article was about their failure, not ours.
– Lakewood has 6500 students currently enrolled; this is not including the many Lakewood affiliated yeshivos and kollelim throughout that city and the world. Surely you are aware that not all of their students’ grandparents were frum. Compare this number to any of the other schools of higher Jewish learning, even high schools. Lakewood did not succeed alone but with the help of the many other yeshivos and derachim that helped either turn those students’ families onto yiddeshkeit or that produced the rabbanim who inspired them toward change. Remarkable, for had we asked any branch of Judaism in 1950, “Considering that each of you claim a monopoly in saving the future of Jewish America, venture a guess as to the enrollment of all of your branch’s yeshivos, rabbinical schools, and high schools in 60 years, 2013”, no one, aside for Rav Aaron, would have guessed this result (and the design for a 3000 student yeshivah found in his notes following his pertira –at a time when the yeshiva numbered in the low hundreds – is testimony to his confidence in his approach’s future success).
While some would argue that the number of people enrolled in yeshiva is not the best yardstick, this last poll proves that this is the only yardstick to know what will be in 60 years from now, in 2073.
On this point, and with respect to the tzadikei shluchei Chabad, Morristown’s enrollment has not shifted much for deacdes. This is not to take away from their amazing work, rather to say that a Top-Down approach -create the highest level Kolellim, Yeshivos, etc. -seems to be a winning one. In my father’s day at NCSY, its Shabbatonim were never seen as an end onto itself, rather sending the girl to Neve Yerushalaim, or a boy t Telshe was.
– One must be careful regarding inclusiveness; a demarcation between the beauty of outreach and the enticement for overreach. Judaism mustn’t turn into a pyramid scheme. The objective mustn’t be to inspire so that those people can then inspire people so that now those people can inspire people, etc. This is not Glengerry Glenn Ross, rather our end goal is to become, support, strive for, be envious of Elite Torah L’Shmah…the singular book Gd gave us to study and from which to learn, the book that is the envy of every nation and that has been robbed and pillared for every other system, of faith.
The man alone in the beis midrash learning a ketzos must be seen as the preserver not the ignorer.
Otherwise we have become Am-way.
Lakewood knows this, YU knows this, Chabad knows this.
When a retired conservative rabbi began to daven in our shul he remarked that in his movement the rabbi is seen as the frum one, the knowledgeable one, on behalf of all others. “He keeps Shabbos so I don’t have to”. He was amazed to see a shul where the balla battim know enough to challenge a rav during a shiur, or even to give a shiur of their own.
Finally, and to sum up:
No matter our tiny size, no other religion fills up stadiums every seven years. But it is deeper than that:
I defy anyone to discover another cause within yiddeshkeit other than Torah study that could fill 100,000 seats in Giants Stadium. No other branch of Judaism could do it, and even the Orthododx would struggle unless it is a celebration of each Jew’s personal authentic Torah study.
Kiruv could not do that, Hatzala could not do that, Bikur Cholim could not do that.
You know how I know? Because if they could, they would!
Of course, we NEED all the above chesadim, and it would be specious and pure sophistry to misread me as diminishing those holy tasks in any way (after all, I myself am a rabbi in Buffalo!)!
Rather, that the authenticity of Torah and its study, and our preserving of it, must always remain focus number one, for it is the elixir that has always saved us from withering on the vine.
M
PS – I would be remiss not to mention that the entire enterprise of outreach has been compromised of late due to the high intermarriage rate. Many Temples have a higher rate of halachic gentiles among their memberships now (especially the children) than halachic Jews.
PPS –As to who gets to decide what is authentic Torah study, ahhhh, well that is an email exchange for another time…
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