[Avodah] Tinok Shenishbah today - opinion of GedoleiHaposkim

[Michael Makovi]

Just after I sent my previous message, I saw that the following two
quotations PERFECTLY summarize what I'm saying:

Rn' Ilana Sober Elzufon
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol26/v26n084.shtml#10
> I don't really understand the reasoning here.
> etc. (see there; I'd quote the entire message she wrote, but that'd be too redundant)

R' Micha Berger
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol26/v26n084.shtml#01
> Starting from first principles, the Rambam's position is compelling. How
> does knowing about the existence of something that he were taught by
> his upbringing to be prejudiced against make him not anoos to follow
> them? (One might even argue that since he has much to unlearn, teshuvah
> would be harder for him than someone who encountered Yahadus for the
> first time.)

R' Ben Waxman also makes a great point:
> Secondly, where do secular people
> see Shomrei Torah and Mitzvot in any way that makes a difference? They see
>some guy at work with a kippa who goes to Mincha for 10 minutes?

Indeed. I can personally testify that I did not meet any Orthodox Jews
until a year AFTER I became a BT. And even then, it's because I went
out of my way to go meet some! If I hadn't gone out of my way, I doubt
I'd have met a single Orthodox Jew in my life until I made aliyah. And
no, I do not live out in the boondocks. I actually live about 15
minutes by car from Kemp Mill, which has a large Orthodox community.
The issue, however, is that except for a chance meeting at the
supermarket, it simply isn't very likely to meet an Orthodox Jew, at
all. My public school certainly had very few Orthodox Jews attending!
As for meeting Orthodox Jews at work: as far as I know, neither my
father (a traveling salesman, selling primarily to car dealers) nor my
mother (a chemist for the USFDA) have any Orthodox coworkers (mother)
or customers (father).

Also, I don't know NY very well, but I'll say that when I visited the
Upper West Side recently, I didn't meet a single Orthodox Jew on the
streets. I was only there for three days, but I didn't even meet a
single Orthodox Jew. And even if I had, it would have probably been
the two of us standing at a cross-walk together, waiting for the light
to change. Not exactly a promising venue for intense and involved
philosophical discussion.

I have a friend living in Florida, that she lives in a city (no, not
the boondocks) where she wasn't even sure she could buy matzah at the
stores, so rare are Orthodox Jews. Even my hometown's local gentile
supermarket had an entire Pesah aisle, and even there I never met any
Orthodox Jews! (Actually, once or twice in my life, I did see an
Orthodox Jew in the checkout line, but I didn't actually speak to
him.)

What R' Feinstein said was probably true for his time, for Eastern
European immigrants. But I doubt it applied well to Western European
Jews - after all, Germany was the heart of Rabbi Ettinger's and Rabbi
Hirsch's philosophy of TsN! Certainly, it does not apply to today's
Jews.

-- 
Michael Makovi
מיכאל מאקאווי
mikewinddale at gmail.com
http://michaelmakovi.blogspot.com