Baruch Pelta

UKRN S-122

Response Paper 1

In the paper “The Eastern European Era in Jewish History,” Abraham Joshua Heschel
attempts to describe the spiritual life of historic Ashkenazic Jewry and why that life is deserving
of emulation by modern Jews.1 Heschel’s narrative regarding the society he is describing is an
imaginary one and his argument for identifying with the society’s lifestyle does not take
important facts into consideration.

According to Heschel, rabbinic commentaries “democratized” otherwise inaccessible

texts such as the Talmud. Heschel describes Eastern European Jewish society as full of rabbinic
scholars who care for nothing mundane but only rabbinic scholarship: “For recreation one goes
not to the tavern but to the House of Study.” They live completely within the standards set up by
legal writings and do not waver from Biblical and rabbinic laws as textually proscribed. “To live
according to the Shulhan Aruk became second nature.”2

In actuality, Menachem Friedman and Haym Soloveitchik have separately shown how
Jews by and large acted based on mimetic familial traditions which were not based completely in
the rabbinic texts.3 Moreover, Saul Stampfer discusses how Jews in Eastern Europe were by and
large unable to read Talmud.4 In Professor Stern’s class, we learned how there were among these
Jews those who gambled and how a significant amount were militarily trained; this was not a
people which was solely focused on pietism.

That pietistic model which encourages a life of learning and concern only with Biblical
and rabbinic texts is essentially a Haredi model.5 This model’s apparent rigidity attracts those
1
Abraham Joshua Heschel, "The Eastern European Era in Jewish Social History," in Studies in Modern Jewish Social History, ed.
Joshua Fishman (New York: Ktav, 1972), 3-23
2
Idem, 7
3
Menachem Friedman, "The Lost Kiddush Cup: Changes in Ashkenazic Haredi Culture - A Tradition in Crisis," in The Uses of
Tradition, ed. Jack Werthaimer (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), 175-186 and Haym Soloveitchik, "Rupture and
Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy," Tradition 28, no. 4 (Summer 1994): 64-131
4
Shaul Stampfer, "Heder Study, Knowledge of Torah, and the Maintenance of Social Stratification in Traditional East European Jewish
Society," Studies in Jewish Education 3 (1988): 271-289
5
See Yoel Finkelman, "An Ideology for American Yeshiva Students: The Sermons of R. Aharon Kotler, 1942-1962," Journal of Jewish
Studies 58, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 314-332 and Menachem Friedman, "Haredim Confront the Modern City," Studies in Contemporary Jewry
2 (1986): 74-96. Note however that there is an increasing trend in Israel of those students of this model identifying with and to an extent
being a part of secular Israeli culture; see Nurit Stadler, Yeshiva Fundamentalism (New York: NYU Press, 2009).
who are looking for an authentic religious experience.6 Like the Ashkenazi Jews in Heschel’s
model, it can be said of haredi society that “there is no desire to solve actual problems, merely to
continue the study of [Talmudic rabbis].”7 Heschel counts this as a merit, seeing the focus on
pure study as a positive aspect of society. He contrasts it with the approach of Sephardic Jewry,
which encouraged a synthesis of secular and specifically Jewish learning, often at the expense of
the latter. What Heschel fails to realize is that modern issues make the approach he characterizes
as Sephardic absolutely necessary. Haredi leaders are indeed unconcerned with “actual
problems,” to the point that they utilize superficial apologetic explanations in order to
demonstrate that Talmudic sages were never wrong about the nature of the universe.8 People who
are knowledgeable about the issues cannot accept such a worldview, but the rabbinic authorities
declare their views heretical.9 Rabbis who have adopted the approach espoused by Heschel have
decreased their relevance to the best and brightest of modern Jewry. Modern Jews whose views
are declared outside the pale thus are forced to act as individual culture-brokers, negotiating their
theological boundaries based on their opinions and cultural knowledge.10 It would benefit Jewry
to reject Heschel’s proposal, associate with what he identifies as the Sephardic approach, and
ultimately take secular scholarship into account in order to better understand what traditional
Jewish literature is actually saying, with the critical understanding that these writings may often
contain incorrect assertions.

6
David Singer, "The Case for an 'Irrelevant' Orthodoxy: An Open Letter to Yitzchak Greenberg," Tradition 11, no. 2 (Summer 1970):
74-81, esp. 78
7
Heschel, 9
8
See for example Aharon Feldman, "The Slifkin Affair -- Issues and Perspectives," Zoo Torah,
http://zootorah.org/controversy/SLIFKINARTICLE.doc (accessed June 30, 2010). Cf. Yehuda Gellman, "A Response to Rabbi Aharon
Feldman's 'The Slifkin Affair -- Issues and Perspectives,'" Zoo Torah, http://zootorah.org/controversy/
Gellman%20Response.doc (accessed June 30, 2010); Meir Ben-Tzvi, "A Response to Rabbi Aharon Feldman’s Article: The Slifkin
Affair -- Issues and Perspectives," Zoo Torah, http://zootorah.org/controversy/Feldman,%20Rav%20Aharon,%20Second%20Version
%20Response.rtf (accessed
June 30, 2010); Josh Waxman, "How Did Chazal Know That 'Drop Exudes From the Brain and
Develops Into Semen'?" Parshablog, entry posted April 11, 2010,
http://parsha.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-did-chazal-know-that-drop-exudes.html
(accessed June 30, 2010); and Josh Waxman, "How Did Chazal Know That Hemophilia is Transmitted by the Mother's DNA?"
Parshablog, entry posted May 4, 2010, http://parsha.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-did-chazal-know-that-hemophilia-is.html (accessed June
30, 2010).
9
See for example G. Safran, "Gedolei Yisroel Condemn Rabbi Nosson Slifkin's Books,"
Yated Ne'eman (Bnei Brak), January 12, 2005, http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5765/bo/aslifkin.htm (accessed June 30, 2010).
10
Nehemia Stern, "'Post Orthodoxy': An Anthropological Analysis of the Theological and Socio-Cultural Boundaries of Contemporary
Orthodox Judaism" (master's thesis, SUNY Binghamton, 2006). Stern overreaches on 71-72 in asserting that this individualistic culture-
brokerage is so pervasive as to have splintered Haredi Orthodoxy to the point that the Haredi label is now largely meaningless.
 Bibliography

Ben-Tzvi, Meir. “A Response to Rabbi Aharon Feldman’s Article: The Slifkin Affair -- Issues and
Perspectives.” Zoo Torah. http://zootorah.org/‌controversy/‌Feldman,%20Rav%20Aharon,
%20Second%20Version%20Response.rtf (accessed June 30, 2010).

Feldman, Aharon. “The Slifkin Affair -- Issues and Perspectives.” Zoo Torah.
http://zootorah.org/‌controversy/‌SLIFKINARTICLE.doc (accessed June 30, 2010).

Finkelman, Yoel. “An Ideology for American Yeshiva Students: The Sermons of R. Aharon Kotler, 1942-
1962.” Journal of Jewish Studies 58, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 314-332.

Friedman, Menachem. “Haredim Confront the Modern City.” Studies in Contemporary Jewry 2 (1986):
74-96.

———. “The Lost Kiddush Cup: Changes in Ashkenazic Haredi Culture - A Tradition in Crisis.” In The Uses
of Tradition, edited by Jack Werthaimer, 175-186. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Gellman, Yehuda. “A Response to Rabbi Aharon Feldman’s ‘The Slifkin Affair -- Issues and Perspectives.’”
Zoo Torah. http://zootorah.org/‌controversy/‌Gellman%20Response.doc (accessed June 30,
2010).

Heschel, Abraham Joshua. “The Eastern European Era in Jewish Social History.” In Studies in Modern
Jewish Social History, edited by Joshua Fishman, 3-23. New York: Ktav, 1972.

Parshablog. http://parsha.blogspot.com/

Safran, G. “Gedolei Yisroel Condemn Rabbi Nosson Slifkin’s Books.” Yated Ne’eman (Bnei Brak), January
12, 2005. http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/‌archives5765/‌bo/‌aslifkin.htm (accessed June 30,
2010).

Singer, David. “The Case for an ‘Irrelevant’ Orthodoxy: An Open Letter to Yitzchak Greenberg.” Tradition
11, no. 2 (Summer 1970): 74-81.

Soloveitchik, Haym. “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy.”

Tradition 28, no. 4 (Summer 1994): 64-131.

Stadler, Nurit. Yeshiva Fundamentalism. New York: NYU Press, 2009.

Stampfer, Shaul. “Heder Study, Knowledge of Torah, and the Maintenance of Social Stratification in
Traditional East European Jewish Society.” Studies in Jewish Education 3 (1988): 271-289.

Stern, Nehemia. “’Post Orthodoxy’: An Anthropological Analysis of the Theological and Socio-Cultural
Boundaries of Contemporary Orthodox Judaism.” Master’s thesis, SUNY Binghamton, 2006.