Originally published on 5/22/11, 7:54 pm.
This a link to an article by Lisa Miller, described on the site as "formerly the religion editor at Newsweek, [and] the author of “Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife,” recently released in paperback." It would seem that she knows of what she writes.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/15/my-take-how-technology-could-bring-down-the-church/?hpt=C1
Here article concludes with the following line:
"Without a doubt, this represents a new crisis for organized religion, a challenge to think again about what it means to be a “body” of believers."
It seems that the open access to scriptural information presents a challenge, from Ms. Miller's perspective, to organized religion. Her words, of course, could not be considered as applying to Orthodox Judaism as Torah advocates for the open accessibility of Torah information. We have all continuously heard how Torah Judaism is fundamentally different because of the prime mitzvah of limud haTorah. What is interesting, though, is that similar fears actually are felt within the Torah world precisely, also, because of the open accessibility of Torah information. What maintained the power of the authority of Torah scholars within our community was not, though, their accessibility to the sources over the accessibility of the general populace to the sources. What distinguished Torah scholars was their very ability to understand the sources because of the inherent difficult challenge of Torah study. It is not the simple accessibility of the sources that is the challenge that Judaism faces but it is the seemingly simple ability to understand the sources that is our present challenge (of a similar nature to what Ms. Miller is describing). Now that everyone thinks they can also understand the material due to the abundance of explanatory books, the status of gadol because of the ability to understand is not appreciated because everyone today can be made to think that they do understand. The result is a challenge to authority but also a challenge to the reason for authority. The result is that the real reason for Torah authority which is the exceptional ability to understand the sources is lost. Everyone thinks they already understand -- so the gadol must be special because of some other reason, a reason that does not foster the further development of the thought of Torah.
I share this article because I think it is most interesting, both in the ways that it does not apply to the Judaism and in the strange way that some of these ideas do apply to what is occurring in present Judaism.
Rabbi Ben Hecht.
2 comments:
Excellent points. Technology will revolutionize Torah yet
I still see the modern gadol will be the one who can synthesize the vast array of Torah sources
Or like Bet Yosef can lay down some objective criteria
Or like the Rema refer to sheetot that have been commonly accepted as normative or have achieved a consensus
Or via charisma and persuasion can promote a single sheetah as suprerior
Or who can show from a meta policy level which choice is better for the community to adopt.
EG the mainstream Orthodox community accepts the Humra of Glatt, and the Kula of Haleiv "hacompanies"
Despite EG R Joseph Breuer who insisted on Haleiv Yisrael and not upon Glatt Kosher - [Glatt Yosher over Glatt Kosher]
These decisions were often driven by facts on the ground EG Glatt where mass production makes lung inspection time consuming and Labour Intensive. The Modern Gadol cannot function well in an ivory tower and will need to be involved as a Rav or Dayan and have hands-on Know-how
Shalom,
RRW
When our structure of authority is based on merit as defined by the Torah, there is a valid reason why someone well-versed in Torah will accept halachic rulings and general guidance from someone at a higher level.
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