[Avodah] Letter of RSRH

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, April 30, 2008 3:09 pm, Joseph C. Kaplan wrote:
: "TK:  Both you and SBA insisted that Hirsch would have been Neturei
: Karta or Satmar...."

: I simply don't understand how anyone can predict how the Holocaust and
: the actual creation of the State of Israel would have affected RSRH's
: thinking about Zionism....

I agree wholeheartedly. Even if I think Toby is quoted above as
thinking I said otherwise.

However, that is a discussion of what RSRH would have believed. What
he actually did believe was that the data at his disposal implied that
he should be against the Zionism of his day. Austritt implied
anti-Zionism (which again can only mean Zionism as it existed then).
He might have changed his definition of Austritt had he lived at a
later time, but that's guesses about change, not his position.

:                         One can as easily say that he would have
: become the Honorary President of Mizrachi as say that he would be NT,
: Satmar or RWO.  Oh, sorry, that was a different gadol who switched
: from being a member of the presidium of Agudah to the Honorary
: President of Mizrachi after the Holocaust.

RYBS was raised by a Zionist - Rn Peshka. R' Moshe became a Zionist
too, after she worked on him for a while. The Rav only joined Agudah
once he got to Berlin, and saw the Yekkish version of the clique. So,
it's not quite as clear cut that he really changed ideology as much as
realizing the dimensions of their umbrella.

But that's also speaking of change. Real change rather than guessing
at how someone might have changed, but still a shift in position due
to extraordinary changes in the world being assessed. When we speak of
RSRH's position, there is something to discuss -- as long as we
remember that we're discussing the person as a product of his times
judging only the movement as it existed in those times.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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