Orthodoxy And Isolation
Angel, Marc D.
ORTHODOXY AND ISOLATION MARCD. ANGEL Gershom Scholem has described a mystic as one who struggles with all his might against a world with which he very much wants to be at peace. This tense inner...
...The right-wing Orthodox community condemns him for associating with non-Orthodox rabbis and non-Orthodox Jews...
...He also has ears, eyes and senses...
...His liberal education has made him receptive to a host of ideas, many of which can be implemented within the guidelines of traditional Jewish law...
...Yet, because his eyes are open and because he is receptive to the intellectual and social life of the society around him, the enlightened Orthodox Jew finds it difficult to be at peace...
...The Orthodox community on the "right," which scorns university education, looks upon this rabbi as a fake and imposter...
...In fact, he probably spent more time thinking about his condition when he wore the mask than when he did not...
...children learn from the earliest age what they should and should not do...
...Moses, behind his mask, may indeed have been lonely and sad...
...K, a land surveyor...
...Sometimes, he may appear to be a modern version of Don Quixote...
...He can speak, but he has few who will listen...
...It is very tempting to give up the battle...
...He is religiously educated and committed...
...He knows that his ideals and visions for his community are far from realization, perhaps impossibly far...
...While people to the right and people to the left will judge, condemn, patronize, "respect" the enlightened Orthodox rabbi, few people take the time to wonder what is going on behind his "mask...
...His own society reinforces him...
...We imagine that within a tightly knit Chassidic community or in a "right-wing" Orthodox enclave, the positive forces of the community strongly repel the external pressures of the non-religious world...
...And often, he wonders if he, too, is nobody...
...He fights with all his power to resist succumbing to the overwhelming non-religious forces around him...
...Sometimes his congregation may not even realize there is a war...
...It is difficult to have a barrier between yourself and others...
...With all these tensions and conflicts, with all the voices to the right and to the left, the enlightened Orthodox rabbi tries to serve his God and his people in an honest and authentic way...
...The non-Orthodox community looks upon him as a religious reactionary who is trying to maintain ancient standards of kashrut, Shabbat, mikvah and so many other laws in a society where these commandments seem almost meaningless...
...It was necessary for him to wear a mask so that people could look at him...
...he is the prisoner of his commitments and beliefs...
...And in the most confusing situation of all we have the enlightened Orthodox rabbi...
...Not only is he busy with his own personal struggles, fighting his own wars, but he is also responsible for the struggles and battles of his community...
...He wants to be at peace...
...K's predicament is especially meaningful to an enlightened Orthodox Jew...
...He is trained in the humanities or sciences...
...In such communities, the individual need not feel the incredible loneliness and pain of struggling by himself against society...
...But the so-called "modern Orthodox" Jew feels the intensity of the dialectic struggle to the core of his existence...
...Marc Angel is a rabbi at Congregation Shearith Israel, The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York City...
...He knows that his best talents are not enough to bring his people to a promised land...
...He knows what people are saying and thinking...
...He does not feel he is less religious because he does not have a beard, does not wear a black hat...
...Religious observance is the norm...
...He may want to work within the halakhah to encourage would-be converts to accept halakhic Judaism...
...comes to a place which is composed of two distinct entities: The Castle and the Village...
...An enlightened Orthodox rabbi may recognize the need for compassion and understanding when dealing with the issue of conversion to Judaism...
...Yet, it is possible that the Reform rabbi sitting next to him has eaten a ham sandwich for lunch, drives to the synagogue on Saturday, and has performed marriages which should not have been performed according to halakhah...
...At one point, someone tells K: You are not of the Castle, you are not of the Village, you are nobody...
...There are "religious" communities where the tensions of this dialectic are successfully suppressed...
...When Moses came down from Mt...
...He is at war with society, but wants to be at peace with society...
...And the non-Orthodox rabbis and non-Orthodox Jews may "respect" him from a distance, but innately recognize that he is "not one of us...
...Sinai the second time, the Torah tells us that his face emitted strong beams of light...
...A religious person devotes his life to ideals, values and observances which are generally at odds with the society in which he lives...
...The internal pressures are sometimes too much to bear...
...Is this Reform rabbi—whom he likes and respects as a human being—his friend and colleague...
...it is the pragmatic reality for many thousands of devoted Jews in this country...
...And at the same time, the non-Orthodox are fast to condemn the enlightened Orthodox rabbi for being too conservative and rigid...
...He may vehemently reject the narrow and unnecessary stringencies advocated by colleagues on the right wing...
...An enlightened Orthodox rabbi may recognize a variety of ways which could ameliorate the position of women in halakhic Judaism...
...Yet he does not want to live his life as a struggle...
...Yet the "right wing" Orthodox would condemn such ideas as basic violations of Jewish law and tradition...
...On the other hand, because he believes absolutely in Torah and halakhah, he will require converts to undergo a rigorous program of study as well as circumcision and mikvah...
...And yet another example...
...Perhaps Moses cried in misery and loneliness behind that mask...
...Imagine the quandary of an Orthodox rabbi who works with non-Orthodox rabbis in Jewish Federations or Boards of Rabbis...
...The Orthodox Jew who is a college graduate, an intellectual, a professional, an open-minded person, can pray to God with a deep spirituality and can live his life consecrated to fulfilling the words of God as revealed in the Torah...
...It is easier to create what Henry Feingold has called a "Pavlovian Jewish response" within a vibrant and deeply committed religious colony...
...For some people he is not modern enough, while for others he is a traitor to tradition...
...He does not have a large reservoir of friends who share the depth of his religious commitment while at the same time sharing his openness to literature, philosophy or science...
...He wants to be able to relax his guard, not always to feel under siege...
...Who can know...
...He is as Orthodox and as Jewishly committed as the Chas-sidim or the "right-wing Orthodox...
...outside influences are sealed out as much as possible...
...spends a good deal of time trying to make his way from the Village to the Castle but—in typical Kafka-esque style—he becomes lost in labyrinthian confusion...
...And what is he to do with the voices of the non-Orthodox who condemn him for not being flexible and open enough on religious questions...
...On the one hand, his liberal training and open-mindedness compel him to be involved in communal Jewish affairs and to work for the good of the community with all interested people...
...One can imagine the terror of little children when they looked at the masked Moses...
...He knows that his authenticity as a religious figure is challenged from the right and from the left...
...He generally does not live in a community which helps him shut off external influences...
...Sometimes he is perceived as being too religious and idealistic, and sometimes he is perceived as being crass, materialistic, secularist...
...And he will be roundly criticized and condemned by them...
...In The Castle, Kafka describes the predicament of Mr...
...He is neither a part of the Village nor the Castle...
...This is not metaphysics, not philosophy...
...Really, he is alone...
...But he never forgot who he was...
...Or is this rabbi his arch-enemy, a person dedicated to teaching Judaism in a way which he considers mistaken and even dangerous...
...And as this conflict nags at him, what is he to do with the voices of the right-wing who condemn him as a traitor for recognizing or legitimizing non-halakhic clergy...
...But perhaps a mask helps you to develop the courage and strength to stand alone in the battle against a world with which you want—with all your being—to be at peace...
...One can also imagine the profound impact such a mask must have had on all the people of Israel...
...His own community—as a community—is relatively self-sufficient spiritually, and it is this entire community which withstands the outside world...
...This tense inner dialectic, 1 think, is true not only of a mystic, but also of every truly religious person...
...Imagine for a moment the dilemma of an enlightened Orthodox rabbi...
...Or imagine another case...
...Because of his standards, the non-Orthodox community views him as old-fashioned, unenlightened and even insensitive...
...But he cannot succumb to the temptation...
...But we must also stop to think about how Moses must have felt wearing such a mask, knowing that there was a strong, visible barrier separating him from his people...
...He has the right ideas, but no medium of communication...
Vol. 5 • September 1980 • No. 8
