http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/18/chief-rabbi-donor-card-immoral argues that Chief Rabbi Sacks has taken an immoral stance.
Let's just take a look at his title and his bi-line to see what he means
The chief rabbi's immoral stance on donor cards
Orthodox Jews should be free to make their own decisions about what constitutes death
On the surface, he seems to be challenging the Chief Rabbi's position on organ donations. As you read further and as he already clarifies in his bi-line, it seems that what he is really challenging is the Chief Rabbi's refusal to allow Orthodox Jews to make their own decision regarding what constitutes death. But wait a second, of course Orthodox Jews cannot make their own decision regarding what constitutes death for that is a halachic decision which can only be made by someone proficient in this halachic area. Arguing that the Chief Rabbi is immoral for not allowing individuals to decide this matter of Jewish Law would be similar to describing him as immoral for not allowing people to decide what is kosher or what is prohibited on Shabbat. It would seem that Mr. Braunold is just simply attacking the Chief Rabbi for being Orthodox and insisting that the Orthodox follow the religion. So why not just say that and argue that, he feels, Orthodoxy is immoral.
Mr. Braunold, of course, would contend that this is not what he saying. He is just saying that Orthodox individuals should be allowed to choose the decision within Orthodox law that they wish to follow. The argument is that they should free to choose the opinion they like within Orthodoxy and the Chief Rabbi is immoral for not allowing them to do so -- after all Orthodox Jews around the world are able to make that decision. The question then is: what exactly is a Chief Rabbi? More succinctly, what is a rabbi? Is the rabbi's function to give you the choices available to you within Halacha, leaving it to you to choose the opinion you favour or is the rabbi's function to tell you the law (as he sees it)? That is what is so strange within this article -- it seems to imply that there is a right in the individual to choose.
The reality is of course that today we choose our rabbis, i.e. the person we wish to learn from and/or the person we wish to ask in regard to Halacha. This, of course, may have been the way it almost always was -- after all Pirkei Avot states twice "Aseh lecha rav" with some mefarshim stating that it refers to the two tasks noted above. Today, though, there is more flexibility than before -- but what one is really choosing is still an authority figure. This is what is so problematic in this article. The job of a rabbi is to state the law, to make the decision. This article seems to imply that the individual has a right to choose the decision to follow. That actually challenges the very role of a rabbi.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
3 comments:
Jews, including rabbis, answer to HaShem, not to PC academicians, journalists or politicians. If the latter types have trouble with Torah MiSinai they can sincerely ask the Chief Rabbi and others at his level for an explanation, but never for an apology!
The UK is the nation that recently was perfectly OK with our genocide by the Nazis and their Arab helpers as long as their own hands stayed clean.
The misunderstanding here is that Judaism is a nationality with a religious section within its legal code. However, most folk outside "the pale" think that Judaism, like Chrisianity, is simply a religion with nothing to say about anything outside the religious component. Thus when a rabbi opines on what the definition of death should be, he isn't simply offering his religious view but making a legal statement no different than a judge giving his "psak" on a Canadian law.
So one can see why this columnist is so bothered. Shouldn't the definition of death be a personal choice? Not if it's halacha, but he doesn't see that difference.
My issue - and probably RBH would probably concur - is the lack of Elu v'Elu.
Personally I have no issue davening mincha with a minyan after shk'kiah.
But I also respect those who insist that sh'kiah trumps minyan - FOR THEMSELVES.
When they impose that upon me, it's different.
RRW
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