[Avodah] R Tzadok-TSBP

[Michael Makovi]

I quoted RSRH:
> - Rav Hirsch, "Religion Allied to Progress": "The more the Jew is a Jew,
> the more universalist will his views and aspirations be, the less
> aloof... will he be from anything that is noble and good, true and
> upright, in art or science, in culture or education..."

R' Samuel Svarc replied:
> But what is the yardstick to measure it with?
> ...
> The perversion of truth, of taking a single quote out of context are
> awe inspiring. Contrast to another RSRH quote and tell me if he argues
> with RMF: "But the Torah and all its teachings must always... be the
> yardstick by which we measure all the results obtained by other
> spheres of learning. Only that which is in accordance with the truths
> of the Torah can remain true for us..." Vayikrah 18:4-5

My reply:
Everything you say about yardsticks is already present in the quote I
brought of RSRH. Rav Hirsch said:
> ANYTHING THAT IS NOBLE AND GOOD, TRUE AND UPRIGHT
> in art or science, in culture or education...

L'apukei that which is not "noble and good, true and upright". The
benchmark? The Torah.

But RMF says
> "My entire world view stems only from knowledge of Torah without
> any mixture of outside ideas (yediot hitsoniyyot), whose judgment is
> truth whether it is strict or lenient. Arguments derived from foreign
> outlooks or false opinions of the heart are nothing. . ."

Rav Hirsch accepts "anything that is noble and good, true and uprigth
in art or science, in culture or education"; as long as the Torah
approves, one may accept that secular knowledge. But for RMF, such
secular knowledge is almost ipso facto to be rejected, and it never
even has a chance to be tested against the Torah. Or, perhaps their
yardsticks are different; RSRH and RMF perhaps have different
conceptions of the Torah, and so even though both posit the Torah as
the benchmark, RMF's Torah-benchmark is far more critical of secular
knowledge than is RSRH's.

Similarly, R' Uziel says that we are not complete without secular
knowledge, but that secular knowledge does not affect our essence,
which is holiness ( = Torah, I presume). I see RSRH as being far more
similar to Rabbis Uziel and Halevy than to RMF. Indeed, most (AFAIK)
regard RSRH as having resurrected the pre-Expulsion Spanish
weltanschauung; remember that Rabbis Uziel and Halevy were Turkish
Sephardim with roots in Spain.

--------------

R' Svarc asked,
> You're joshing us, right? In all of O there are no rabbis that respect
> the President?

I'm sure there are, but I've never met them. I've simply never had the
opportunity to actually meet very many Orthodox Jews, rabbis or
otherwise. It isn't through lack of trying.

Michael Makovi