Modern Orthodoxy

Aims:

Ø  To learn that Avraham was the first modern orthodox jew

Ø  To learn what modern orthodoxy is

Ø  To realise that the we might differ from the charedi world but that doesn’t mean we don’t get on with them

Modern Orthodoxy

Bnei Akiva defines itself as a modern orthodox movement, but this seems to be a bit strange to me as this whole concept of modern orthodoxy has been around for over 3,500 years, so it can’t be that modern! No I know you are thinking “what is this guy on about again” but again as usual I am talking sense.  In Parshat Lech Lecha, Avraham was the first Jew to make Aliya hence modern orthodox! OK slightly tongue in cheek that one but the rest does have much more basis.

Ø    How many tests did Avraham have?

Ø    What were they?

Ø    What was the last one?

Most people know the answer to the first question, 10. The middle one most people don’t know but the final one most people think is the Akeida and they are right according to most opinions. There is however one opinion of one of the Rishonim (commentators) the Seforno who believes the final test of Avraham was trying to find a burial place for Sarah (sorry about the dodgy translation).

Without going in to the grammatical details of it all, Avrahams essential test was could he manage to come down from his lofty level and interact with the people in Chevron in order to get Efron to sell him his cave as a burial place for his wife and future generations. What is this modern orthodoxy idea that we in BA always harp on about? It is essentially combining our ideals of learning with those of the outside world and synthesising them together, which is essentially what Avarahm did. Hence Avraham was the first modern orthodox jew! And if that isn’t enough of a proof that Avraham was a modern orthodox jew how about this?

What is Avraham saying in this passage? He was going out and davka took to non-Jews (the two lads were Yishmael and Eliezer) with him but when it came to the crux he sent them away. This is exactly what we believe, we should be involved with the non Jewish world for so many reasons, whether it to be an Or Lagoyim (light unto the nations) or because Yesh Chachma Bagoyim  (there is wisdom amongst the nations) for us to learn from, but at a certain point we have to say “No thanks” we have our boundary and stick to our Jewish roots. In this way we really do get the best of both worlds, we can learn and teach things from and to the outside world but we also have the Torah and our strong Jewish values.

A few weeks ago I was eating at someone’s house and I was asking the hostess about possible speakers for Manchester limmud and she was telling me about a certain woman but then proceeded to tell me that she was too frum for BA to which I replied “don’t you mean to Charedi?” Most people normally just accept the stereotypical idea that BA isn’t as frum as the charedi world but I honestly don’t believe that is true we are just as frum if not more so we just aren’t charedi.

Who out of the following people would you consider “frum”?

Ø     How do we define who is frum?

Rav Lichstenstein, one of the Rosh Hayeshivot of Gush, in his book ‘By His Light’ essentially defines it from the famous penultimate Pasuk of Kohelet:

What he is essentially saying is that there are two aspects to being “frum”, the internal aspect and the external aspect. One must be attached to G-d in the sense that they feel spiritual and experience a closeness to G-d and secondly one must also act in a certain manner i.e. keep his mitzvot. If either of these two is missing then you are not defined as “frum”. Look at the pictures above, in my opinion, all bar two of these people are frum, the two stereotypical frummest looking people, whilst looking frum and may very well feel frum, outwardly campaign with people who want to kill Jews, is that being frum? Yet on the other hand there is Rabbi Andrew Shaw who has no beard and wears a sruggy but has spent a good few years in Yeshiva and is trying his hardest to help Klal Yisrael, he may not look the conventional “frum” Rabbi, but he feels frum and practices Mitzvot and is thus considered frum according to our definition.

Look at the photos again - there is a range of different Hashkafot ranging from Rav Soleveitcheik (leadning Modern Orthodox thinker bottom left) to Rav Shach (fromer Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovitch top middle) and from Rav Amital (Rosh Yeshiva of Gush top left) to Andrew Davis (our Mazkir), but we can group these in to two different Hashkafot those of Modern Orthodox and Charedi!

The idea of being modern orthodox is based alot on the sources brought above and others from Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch etc so if we have all these sources why is there the other side of the coin i.e. being charedi? The answer in my opinion is quite simple and it comes up in conversation quite often with my charedi housemate, we are essentially walking a very narrow tightrope by joining both worlds together which is easily solved by being charedi. Take this anology for example, a hard boiled egg doesn’t break when dropped or thrown etc but you cant do much with it; on the other hand if you dont boil the egg you can make an omlette or fry it or boil it or scramble it or anything else but if you drop it, it breaks. What is this bloke on about again? Very simple to be charedi is much safer, it wont break but there isnt as much potential just like a hard boiled egg but to be modern orthodox gives rise to much more potential but you can easily fail and break just like a raw egg!

Truth is our aims are both the same, i.e. that of serving G-d and I am definitely not anti charedi, some of my best friends are charedi and there is a lot we can learn from their world e.g. the fact that they have gemachs to lend and give things to complete strangers is an amazing feat which we should try to emulate.

The point I am trying to get across is that we should be proud in what we believe in and not feel inferior to the charedi community but at the same time get on with them because:

“Kol Yisrael Ereivin Ze LaZe –

 All of Israel is responsible of one another”

Ideas

Aleph

·      If Avraham was around nowadays what would he look like?

·      Place the hat on the rabbi.

·      Make a fuzzy felt type thing before Shabbat of different types of clothes and people can make their own frummer.

Bet

·      Get people to describe different things e.g. a picturesque view of the Lake District and then a few other things similar and then ask them to describe what a frum Jew looks like and then ask them why they described a charedi (they always do)?

·      Do something along the lines of the egg analogy just don’t use eggs cos you won’t be allowed back to the shul!