[Avodah] Jewish Action 2000 review of RYBS book

Micha Berger via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Thu Jun 25 08:10:02 PDT 2015


On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 09:54:58AM +0000, Kenneth Miller via Avodah wrote:
:> This is far from unique to RYBS.

: Here's my guess about what made RYBS unique in this regard: On the
: one hand, he did have his opinions about many things. But that was NOT
: what he tried to pass on to his talmidim. In fact, he is famous for NOT
: answering many of the questions posed to him. What RYBS wanted was for
: his talmidim to be able to decide for themselves. He never wanted to
: teach his talmidim WHAT to think, but HOW to think.

I realize that this is about to get meta, because I'm about to disagree
with RAM about RYBS's position and why people disagree about what it
was.

I thin this is overplayed. Yes, he pushed fledgling rabbis to assert
themselves as LOR and not defer every halachic question. But he didn't
do this with every talmid, nor with every question. I think people are
taking a pedagogic technique used for talmidim to scared to pasqen and
turning it into a principle.

Im kein ein ladavar sof, and there is no way to say he took positions
for anyone but himself and his mispalelim in Boston and Moriah. No
Qol Dodi Dofeiq promoting Zionism, no attack on RERackman's beis din,
etc...

And besides, we aren't talking about whether his talmidim vary, but
why the talmidim's understandings of the rebbe's position varied.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Never must we think that the Jewish element
micha at aishdas.org        in us could exist without the human element
http://www.aishdas.org   or vice versa.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                     - Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch



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