[Avodah] Torah Only - Hora'as Sha'a

[Yitzchok Levine]

 From page 209 of Rav Breuer - His Life and Legacy

A perusal of his writings makes it abundantly clear that R. Hirsch 
held that Torah im Derech Eretz was never intended as a temporary 
measure introduced because of a specific problem during a specific 
historical period and in a specific geographic area. On the contrary, 
R. Hirsch held that Torah im Derech Eretz was not only a valid Torah 
hashkafah; it was the lifestyle of choice. Thus, in his Commentary to 
the Torah [16] he writes:

Only in using the mind and the freedom of will which God has given us 
in the earthly sphere to which he has appointed us, in the most 
complete faithfulness to God, with deliberation and the clearest 
human insight, do we ourselves attain the height of human perfection 
and our earthly management of life gains the holiness that makes us 
worthy of the nearness to God.

If anything, in R. Hirsch's view, the choice of following a 
Torah-only agenda, as per the decision of the Eastern European 
rabbanim, was a hora'as sha'a, for it was an unnatural scheme called 
for because of the impossibility of life in the ghetto. Although 
justified by harsh reality, it could not be seen as the optimal way 
for the Jew to live, for it denied him the opportunity to use his 
life to serve as a kiddush Hashem.

Rav Breuer also decried the decision of his contemporaries to deny 
the validity of Torah im Derech Eretz as the path of choice for the 
Jew in the modern era.

16. See Bereishis 9:27.

For more please see 
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/r_breuer_legacy_13.pdf
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