Towards a Working Theory of American Gadolim in the Post-truth Era

The study of Torah is built on a fundamental bedrock concept that the Torah is knowable. This underlies the whole institution of Gadolim. Moshe Rabeinu received the Torah and he knew the Torah. This is why it was possible to ask him a question about the Torah and he would answer it. This is why, when he couldn't answer a question, as by Pinchas, that the whole nation was in peril.

In every generation there are leaders, who study the Torah and know the Torah. Collectively, they are the Moshe of that generation. If there is only Torah scholar leader, then he, individually, is the Moshe of that generation.

Moral relativism has undermined that concept.

Moral relativism means that there is no absolute right or wrong. Thus, a moral relativist will maintain that the Torah is unknowable.

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky appears to be the synthesis of Torah with moral relativism. He studies Torah. But ultimately, he holds it's unknowable. He is unwilling to state, for example, who Tamar Epstein is married to. He points to Rabbis who have different answers.

Rabbi Kamenetsky represents a new kind of Gadol. What shall we call him? Perhaps we will coin a new term: Apikoros Gadol, or Api-Gadol.

An Api-Gadol can never be reasoned with nor swayed by Halachic arguments. An Api-Gadol holds that Torah is unknowable. He embodies this unknowability. His pronouncements are thus perfect because they can never be challenged. His statements are "true" by dint of coming from him, not because of any Mesorah.

What crystallized this idea of Api-Gadol for me was a series of stories I received from multiple sources about the power that Rabbis in a certain city hold over many of the Torah observant inhabitants there.

The Rabbis apparently wield this power in an arbitrary fashion to suit themselves. There is no formal mechanism to challenge, question, or in any way change their decisions.

True Gadolim can be challenged. The daughters of Tzlapchod challenged Moshe. Respectfully, with great deference, asking but not demanding -- yet, still with all that, challenging. And that is because G-d Himself can be challenged, as Avrohom challenged G-d regarding the Five Cities. The right to challenge a Gadol stems from the very belief that the true Gadol knows the Torah, the Word of G-d.

And the unchallengeability of an Api-Gadol stems from his not knowing, by definition, the Torah. For if an Api-Gadol claims to know the Torah, he would cease being an Api-Gadol. An Api-Gadol's status rests on his refusal to be challenged.

The stories told to me about this certain city were nigh unbelievable to me. I will share one, and only in vague outline. I was told that this city allowed the Yeshiva where these Rabbis hold sway to obtain some city land. Part of the land was then given over to build a ballpark. Some complained that the Yeshiva had contributed to a ballpark in the midst of the city that might draw in Jewish kids.

So the Yeshiva issued a letter that if a child in any family was caught going to a ballgame in the ballpark, then the child would not be welcome in any school associated with the Yeshiva. Furthermore, none of the siblings of the child would be welcome in any of the schools.

Collective punishment.

This ruling could be challenged in many ways from a Halachic perspective. But apparently, the leaders of this Yeshiva are Api-Gadolim, the pseudo-Moshe of the city.

These are just some of my thoughts. My intention in sharing them is to explain the necessity for pulling back from communities where Api-Gadolim rule. This is not sepsrating from the Tzibur. It is the opposite. This is creating a Klal that has rid itself of Apikorsos and that clings to true Gadolim.