[Avodah] R' Angel & Geirus Redux

[Michael Makovi]

>  Gevalt! Apparently we do travel in different circles - such words I
>  have never seen in my life!

A further remark: Reb Moshe seems to be operating up the assumption
that parents brought their children up with explicit mocking and
castigation of Judaism and Torah. Now, even if this were so, I'd say
as I say above, viz. that not everyone can be expected to be so
insightful so as to throw up when he has been taught and learn new
points of view.

But, the fact is, that most nonobservant Jewish children are not
raised as such. Rather, there is simply little or no mention of
Judaism in the home at all, and so the child does not think lowly of
Judaism, seeing it as old-fashioned or disgusting, but rather, it
seems arcane and irrelevant, just as Buddhism and basket-weaving do.
He sees no reason whatsoever to even consider Judaism and Torah, as
they are simply not on his radar b'klal. And what little he does know
of Judaism is extremely superficial - he probably simply thinks that
Jews wear all black and don't use electronics, like the Amish - he
knows so little, that it is almost impossible to disprove what he
holds, because it is all so vacuous! Moreover, whatever weltanschauung
he does have, is most likely not an explicit one, but rather a taught
via subtle day-to-day experience and intercourse with his parents and
society, and so it is much more subtle and insidious, and not so
explicit that he can readily identify it and critique it. Due to these
factors, Reb Moshe's analysis is all the more suspect, as far as I can
tell.

Mikha'el Makovi