Ironic Orthodoxy, Charisma, and Rabbinic Authority
ADDeRabbi posted a much-commented upon post Ironic Orthodoxy. It is worth and read even to those who don’t identify with Orthodoxy since many, although not all, of his observations apply to any religious community. My unscientific observation is that “Ironic Orthodoxy” is where no small number of our Orthodox friends are probably situated, and it seems that some of them may be waiting for the right person(s) to come along and give a loud voice to their feelings. Also see this post by AIWAC at QED.
On a similar note, Tomer Persico has posted an article on charisma and religious authority from the most recent issue of Deot which dealt with the status and authority of the rabbi. An interesting aspect of charisma and rabbinic authority is the status of charismatic female religious authority within a religious world. Some examples are Rebbetzin Jungreis (America), Rabbanit Kook (Israel) and Rabbanit Yemimah Mizrahi (Israel). He has also published a number of selections from other articles in the issue which I have translated below.
Rabbi Benny Lau:
The silencing of religious authorities is spiritual violence which has given birth to a shallowness and dependency which affect our religious lives everywhere…We have arrived at an ugly abyss of hanhagah ḥaredit (I wonder if Lau may mean a “scared leadership” and not an “ultra-orthodox leadership.”-MM) and our only option is to rebel against it: this is not our Torah, this is not our worldview, and these are not our sages. Our children need to hear us rising up against the violence and the silencing. We need to shout at the top of lungs: this is not the way of the torah! We believe in God and His Torah and refuse to bow our heads before this evil papacy. We must strengthen one another in believing in God and His Torah and to strengthen our belief in the uprightness and goodness of all of our children.
For a further elaboration on Rabbi Lau’s opinions on this subject, see his Shabbat ha-Gadol derasha here.
Rabbi Ariel Pikar:
As it has been understood until today, the rabbi is the last remnant of a hierarchal approach which is pre-modern and pre-democratic…The modern religious society needs to grow up: men and women who make important decisions in their private lives and in the lives of the community and society, are unable to leave the religious and halakhic realm to the exclusive authority of rabbis, no matter how intelligent and moral they may be.
Update I: An abridged version of Rabbi Lau’s article can be found here (Hebrew).
June 9th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Thanks for the link.
That reminds me that I have a timely post about R. Lau.
June 10th, 2010 at 5:53 am
Do you advocate anarchy? I agree that is the situation in the non-ihirarchical communities that have given up the tools of social control and imposed conformity, but is it really a setting conducive to religious growth or successful education of the young?
June 10th, 2010 at 6:24 am
Avakesh,
I do not think that anarchy is what people are striving for. A community can set its own norms with or without rabbis. The problem in my opinion is rabbis being too authoritarian and not authoritative. Rabbis should gain their legitimacy from a community and not force a community, which may not even be their own, to accept their authority.