We have discussed the chareidi chiloni divide the Ashkenaz Sephardi split FFB vs Bal tshuva, young vs old, American vs Israeli, Litvaks vs Chasidim as well as Orthodox vs non Orthodox. The real question is who thinks they belong and are not only see themselves as insiders but the transmitters of the true mesorah
I was told the only people who feel that they truly belong are the grandchildren of gedolim - everyone else feels like an outsider.
I was actually thinking about the "grandchildren of gedolim" only last night -
ReplyDeleteIf we look at Rav Kanievsky's children/grandchildren, they are from the ancestry of great Rabbinic line: Karelitz; Kanievsky; Elyashiv; Levine - essentially Gedolim and Tzaddikei hador. So far as we know, none of them are major Gedolim.
The same in the Kotler family - offspring of Kotler and Meltzer families, but today they are "CEOs" of the yeshiva.
Even in Ponovezh, there are several generations of Gedolim eg the Kahaneman fmaily, the Povarsky family , etc, but the Gadol hador is not from any of these families.
So they are "insiders" to the aristocracy, but not necessarily transmitters.
An even more surprising phenomenon exists in some sephardi communities, especially in the Morrocan world; Although many are now modern/traditional/secularised , they still are grandchildren of rabbis and even great rabbis - and they hold that pride and aristocracy. See the difference between Sephardim andashkenai seculars who don't (all) take pride in their heritage ( Herzog apparently is very proud of his grandfather).
Not so different from the Communists. In Communist society you had three groups - the great unwashed masses, the majority of the party who worked hard but never went anywhere and the tiny aristocracy at the center where all the privilege was.
ReplyDeleteAnd so here too - you have the great unwashed masses, the prominent figures who write books or run small yeshivos and then the small circle of Gedolim and their families.
Corruption always seems to follow the same pattern.
Any comment on the Kanievsky family fight where his will is now being challenged because "he'd been mentally unfit for almost 10 years"?