[An extension of a discussion on Avodah]
Just a few blocks from each other a mini Kulturkampf exists between the Breuer community and the YU community.
The issue TIDE vs. TuM
Or Torah I'm Derech Eretz vs. Torah uMada.
The Hirschians assert that TIDE means absorbing Torah and wordliness BUT that Torah is the only valid prism by means which one sees the world
Thus Torah is supreme - Torah uber alles. Yet Torah can be applied to engineering or medicine the way one applies it to a "Blatt G'mara"
Furthermore Hirschians allege that TuM means seeing science w/o Torah as valid - and further as an equal to Torah may (or will) dillute it or corrupt it. And that this is unacceptable.
TuM devotees would demur that this is not quite the goal of Torah uMada. As Dr. Belkin might have said, One Studies pure Torah and then one studies pure "liberal arts" and goes home and makes his own synsthesis. Thus any potential "corruption" is not in the Torah classroom (the Blatt shiur) but in the individual.
But even this sells TuM Short. Ideally a purebred Torah devotee absorbs science not to modify, dillute., or corrupt Torah, rather to expand, enlighten, and to clarify Torah.
Example - Tanninim Gedolim means one thing to people unfamiliar with science. But a TuM student can easily see that science posits dinosaurs, and now the torah text can be better understood (not revised or compromised!) By adding this piece of information to one's tool-chest! Peshat can be clearer and enhanced by adding Mada to the mix!
However, the danger lurks, nevertheless, that Madda may lead one off the correct path. However, Madda should never be the sole prism by means with which one views Torah. Rather, Torah is learned on its own and Madda shouls merely enhance that View.
Part II
The Danger of the Isms
Kt
RRW
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