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#2035713

Avira > some are just shy of the yeshiva world

There are 2 aspects here:
1) philosophy of the movement – here the hierarchy is contested. There is a lovely exploration of decision space. Frankly, we did not yet have a proof that any of the approaches to modernity work: should we totally separate from humanity, should we incorporate capabilities developed by it? what is dangerous? what is useful? we have plenty of opinions, but I don’t think it is settled. Moses Mendelsohn tried one risky approach – and it failed clearly within a generation. Was everything done by his opponents correct? No, otherwise we would not have so many Jews lost to haskalah, it is not just fault of assimilators, it is as well fault of those who led communities. We can’t look down at those generations, of course. They were confronted with a tremendous challenge that we still did not fully understand. Compare this with post-churban-sheni period: R Yohanan Ben Zakkai forcing some of the changes, Rabban Gamliel talking to people who refused to eat meat, etc. There were multiple thoughts initially.

2) community level – there is no question that yeshiva community has more people learning Torah than others. Are they doing it to the right credit (see Israel where people stay “in learning” to not go to the Army), what is the quality of learning, is the approach sustainable – are we trying to follow Rashbi “the way that many tried and failed” – these questions are not answered yet. Many discussions here mention “emergency measures” to allow current social norms. I hope we will settle at some point into non-emergency where learning will be integrated in the normal lifestyle.