I find it hilarious that someone would translate emunas chachamim as ‘believe of the sages’, because that really doesn’t mean anything.
The baryonim, were wrong because they went against daas torah – they thought they were right, and they thought they were doing the ratzon hashem. Now, according to norman lamm’s idea, which, I challenge you to find me in any sefer ever written, (not those written by lamm, obviusly), the baryonim were correct – they followed their OPINION on what daas torah was(so rabbiofberlin would say they werent wrong, after all, they had a sevara, and isnt that what’s most important, svara? we cant just blindly follow people like rabban yochanan ben zakkai after all) – now, they disobeyed chachamim, but accoding to norman lamm, they did no such thing – after all, they may have had faith in sages, whateevr that means(I’m really waiting for someoene to define that for me, what can it possibly mean? faith in the ‘idea’ that sages are right? or what? i mean, come on, for a concept in our emunah which is so omnipresent in torah literature, it must mean something which, well, i dont know, the seforim describing it say it means)
So according to mr lamm, the baryonim were not guilty of disobeying the sages, since they had a svara, and im sure if you asdked them they would come up with some sort of psak about it, and their only crime was being wrong in judgment, which they would not have been if they listened to the sages.
Dont you see how ridiculous this is?
In every generation, tghere is always a nisayon. Something which challenges us to have emunah in our leaders, to look to those who are closest to hashem for guidance; first it was avodah zara in the bayis rishon era, then it was tzedukim in the bayis sheni, karaism during galus bavel/yishmael, reform/conservative/haskalah tides in europe, and countless other threats to our people – they guided us through all that, not to mention leading us during WWII; dont you think it’s the least we owe them, to have respect for them, and keep our arrogant mouths shut, being modeh to those who are above us?
If one wishes to argue with the chachamim, my answer to them, is to beocme one – become a rosh yeshiva, a posek, learn for years, have the vigorous lives these gedolim led and lead, open a ketzos instead of your laptop, and then, when you have your own yeshiva and your own daas torah, then you may argue, but by then you’ll agree with them, becauyse you will have seen how right they were all along.
If you were taking your child to have an operation, you would make sure the doctor was trustworthy and knowledgeable in his field, to say the least. You also would not be foolish enought o rely on your own daas in that field, since you know practically nothing compared to the doctor – you certainly would not be dumb enough to take the scalpal away from the doctor and operate in your own, unless of course, you felt that you couldn’t trust the doctor, nevermind his years of education and experience.
Same thing here – we, are not anywehre near the madrega of the gedolim – we think we are, which is probably the greatest indication that we are not, but anyway, we think we know torah well enought o argue with the ‘doctors’ so to speak – and in the end, we end up wanting to do surgery on uor own, which results in norman lamm’s baseless idea, and letters to a website from a man who violates the words of pirkei avos(no surprise then, that he feels comfortable arguing with Rav Belsky) putting down gedolei yisroel.
Gaiva is a poison indeed, and it will lead an otherwhise intelligent person to insanity – all because humans(especially us) have a teva to not admit wrongdoing, or being wrong in one’s opinions.
No one’s talking about questioning gedolim – lo habayshan lomayd. It’s fine to question – to the rov, in order to learn, not behind his back to your balabatishe pals; writing this kind of lashon hora and sinas chinum befarhesya, all while thinking one is correct over a gadol, has nothing to do with wanting to learn. It stems from a feeling that these people feel they have more knowledge than the gedolim, or that they are superior to them in their opinions. People with this attitude think that they are doing what is right for klal yisroel..but rememebr, so did th baryonim, and it was as clear to them as it is to you that the gedolim are wrong and you are right – it’s a nisayon to humble one’s self to daas torah, but it is a chiyuv, and a part of being a ben torah.
Also, I did not say rabbiofberlin was an apikores – sounidng like an apikores has little to do with being one – I was pointing out that apikorsim have a similar if not identical outlook.
Pashuteh yid – you are mistaken. Many people do not sleep in the sukkah, because of the heterim in the shulchan aruch – the controversy with the rebbe had nothing to do with that, he made up a new reason, saying that lubavitcers do not have to sleep in a sukkah, with zero halachik reasoning; he said that they were patur because they are lubavitchers. That is not the heter of the shulchan aruch. That has nothing to do with it being cold outside or the other heterim. the shalosh seudos issue was similar – he changed halacha, and this was part of the reason why so many were against him – it should be known though that rav avugdor miller zt’l said that all of this happened after the rebbe was no longer in his right mind. He himself was a good man – however, the opposition to him was based on outlandish things he said after not being in his right mind(case in point, his quote that a rebbe is ‘the essence of g-d in a body’, which is pure kefirah) – his chassidim did not pick up on this, or they were afraid to oppose him, whatevrt it may be, he himself did not make these mistakes, and it is unfortunate that so many terrible things were and are being done in his name that he was not responsible for.
Rav Hutner famously said, after these and other things came to light in chabad, “Chachmah, Binah, and Daas, they say! Yes, but of course they have no sechel”
The rebbe also said that bais moshiach will be at 770 – you do not have to be a lamdan to be shocked by this, since I am shocked by it, and his other statements, and I am no lamdan.
The satmar Rov in divrei yoel(parshas tzav) calls him, and his followers, tipeshim for believing that moshiach will come when the whole world learns chassidus(since the besht said that moshiach will come ‘when your torahs spread out’, however this was clearly meant relative to that time, as the gemora says about one of the tannaim who met eliyahu hanavi and the latter told him that moshiach is coming today, when he didnt come, eliyahu replied ‘today, if you listen to the torah’)
(of course, I meant nothing against the rebbe himself, but only his statements and ideas after he, according to Rav Miller, was no longer in his right mind)