This is not an endorsement of R' Slifkin's views. I am simply posting it as a summary of how this saga is playing out from a non-chareidi point of view. It is not as R' Tropper likes to say that I have a personal vendeta against him or his absurd claim that I have manipulated the Bedatz and Rav Sternbuch to attack him in order to defend R' Slifkin. There is a more fundamental question being addressed here, why is it necessary - in the pursuit of universally accepted conversions - to create major divisions amongst the segments of the Orthodox Jewish socieity?
R' Slifkin
One problem, which unites such disparate forces as the Badatz of Jerusalem and the Roshei Yeshivah of YU against EJF, is the charge that EJF encourages proselytization. This has been discussed at great length by R. Daniel Eidensohn on his blog Daas Torah. [...]
"There is a more fundamental question being addressed here, why is it necessary - in the pursuit of universally accepted conversions - to create major divisions amongst the segments of the Orthodox Jewish socieity?"
ReplyDeleteThe answer is simple. Because rabbis Tropper and Eisenstein are from that group of fanatics that believe they can single-handedly destroy and crush Modern Orthodoxy and Religious Zionism that they hate with a great passion.
Their hate for Modern Orthodoxy and Religious Zionism is so powerful that they will go to any lengths to slander, undermine, attack, savage, forge, all for the sake of what can be called nothing less than their version of "jihad" against the "enemies" of Judaism, sadly not much different to the type of Islamic fundamentalism coming out of Iran that views anyone not like them as "infidels" not worthy of existence that should be fought by all and any means.
This narrow-minded bigotedness is not the creation of Rabbis Tropper and Eisenstein, it is a manifestation of a wider trend of religious extremism and fanaticism, partly rooted in the polarization of societies into exterme camps of kulturkampfs, partly pulling in bullies and people with power lusts with various delusions of grandeur, it's a kind of "pesoles" or "klipa" of a genuine "messianic fevor" that is springing up worldwide.
It's the same mentality that has Charedim beating women on buses in Israel who don't want to move to the back, or that throw acid into the faces of girls who dress more modern in partly Charedi neighborhoods, or like those who boycott Orthodox singers and concerts, and while they do all this, there is massive defection from frum life as kids drop out, the OTD population rises, families crumble due to divorces and infidelity, and on top of this heaving mass and mess of suffering dance the likes of Rabbis Tropper and Eisenstein wielding hatchets for the "purity" of the Jewish race as if they were Charedi versions of the Gestapo.
It is all very sad and destructive and will achieve nothing but more bitterness and hate. And to think that Rabbi Tropper and EJF now want to portray themselves as leaders and paragons of the "kiruv" movement is to heap insult upon injury.
They are bullies and they must be opposed.
If you want to know what Tropper really thinks about Modern Orthodoxy go to kol yaakov "beis midrash" and ask any of the weirdos there what they thinks about Modern Orthodoxy, they are very likely to tell you that modern orthodox are "shekotzim" people who support the state of Israel are idolatry worshipers and their women are zonos.
ReplyDeleteAll this from people who year ago were consuming bacon cheeseburgers.