I’ve felt a little besieged recently because of my hashkafic affiliation which is with Chofetz Chaim, headquartered in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, NY. In the old classification system of LWMO, RWMO, LWUO, RWUO, Chofetz Chaim was in the Left Wing Ultra Orthodox segment, almost indistinguishable from the Right Wing Modern Orthodoxy of much of Yeshiva University, with perhaps a few differences in halacha and hashkafa. But in the new classification system you’re either Charedi or not, and in the blog and social media world that I mostly inhabit, Charedi is a pejorative word.
But then comes Sunday morning and a group of YU and Chofetz Chaim guys gather for our weekly Halacha and Machshava shiur which has been going on for over 10 years. We’ve been fortunate to have Rabbi Daniel Stein (currently of YU and Passaic) and Rabbi Yakov Haber (of Darche Noam) from YU among our distinguished teachers.
On Sunday morning, clarity sets in when we get together and learn. It’s an intermediate level shiur and when we delve deeper there’s often something to incorporate in our understanding of Torah or practice of halacha. We hock and we debate and we clarify, but we’re there to learn and it’s clear to all that when we’re involved in spiritual growth there’s no significant difference between the RWMO of YU and the LWUO of Chofetz Chaim.
That’s the unity principal for our time. Learning and growing spiritually is what unites us as one people under G-d. I see it on Sunday, I see it when I learn with my non-Observant chavrusa, and I see it when I learn with any of my chavrusas.
It’s Elul, a time when we push a drop harder on the growth pedal. It might also be a good time to reflect that our growth and our fellow Jew’s spiritual growth is what’s important, it’s what unites us, it’s what we should continue to focus on.
As one of those who has participated and still does in the shiur that Mark referenced, I should mention that we have surveyed a wide variety of Hashkafic approaches and Halachic topics.
I would add that too often we use the misleading terms machmir and meikil without realizing that the more proper term is Mdakdek, and that one of the major themes of the Yamim Noraim is that we demonstrate our Ahavas HaShem by showing our willingness to go beyond the letter of the law ( Meikar HaDin) both in the realms of Mitzvos Bein Adam LaMakom and Bein Adam LChavero.
Shiurim such as the shiur that Mark mentioned illustrate why R Saadya Gaon wrote that our adherence to Torah study and observance is the key definition of Jewish nationhood, and why the Talmud in Brachos emphasizes that since the Churban, the Shecinah is found in the four cubits of Halacha.
Mark,
I agree 100% with the learning of Torah/growth as being the “Unity Principle”. You should submit this post to both print and social media outlets.
Shmuel and Bob,
My experience has been that most Orthodox Jews consider themselves to be an oved Hashem, and it’s true at some level.
I think categories are helpful and the Ramchal in Sefer Hagiyon (the book of logic) describes categorization and making distinctions as the most basic function of the human mind. The problem is when you make mistakes in categorizations or their applications, which is what happens often and is what is happening in much of the Orthodox world now.
But more importantly, I think we all agree on the conclusion, which states that when two or more people are learning and growing together, categories are not relevant to the productive and important task at hand.
Now it seems time for a moratorium on acronyms and other cliched descriptors. There are better ways to find out if you would benefit spiritually from some some level of association with an actual person, activity, institution, or community.
I agree with the principle wholeheartedly. I assume that the first paragraph of the post was meant tongue-in-cheek (i.e. the use of the term “hashkafic affiliation”, the references to new and old “classification systems”). But if not, I would suggest trying to stop thinking about such categories altogether or as much as one can. I prefer to think of myself as someone trying to be an oved Hashem, and I prefer to assume about others that they are trying to do the same.
I understand that there are different approaches and different communities, and some approaches and communities are going to be more “for” some people, and others will be for other people. I don’t think that everyone is or should be the same, or that these kinds of differences are necessarily unimportant. But When I encounter another person to whom trying to serve HKB”H is at the center of their life, I’d like to think that we have so much in common that acronyms would be irrelevant. The differences in approach themselves might be important worth thinking about, but the labels I find unhelpful.