I wrote in my book that I wanted to insert an
autobiography chapter to provide more personal background about it. After I wrote the
chapter, I realized that it was too long and distracting to be published in
full but the book would lack some depth if I totally left it out. I
“compromised” by choosing some excerpts that were the most significant and
printing them in an Appendix at the back of the book.
In one of these excerpts (Excerpt 4 page 276) I related
that the local Jewish day school that I attended in my early years was more of
a Modern Orthodox, Religious Zionist type. It did not begin to teach Chumash
until third grade and when it did, it only began teaching from Parshat Lech
Lecha and skipped the previous two Parshas. I am not sure why, but I remember
being told that this is when Avrohom Avinu and the promise of Eretz Yisroel
come on to the scene, so that’s where they want to start.
As a result, I passed through third grade being totally
clueless about our tradition of Creation!
To make things worse, I wrote that by that point, I had
already been fully indoctrinated to the concept of evolution from the numerous magazines,
TV shows, museums or what have you. Thus, when a year or so later, my father
finally sat me down to fill in the blanks and teach me Parshat Breishis, I was
intellectually (not emotionally) traumatized.
Here is what I wrote in the concluding lines of that
excerpt:
The trauma of the event was not that I will have to shift gears, but rather, this is what initiated me to the fact that there are more than one set of gears to shift to. To this point I was not aware that religious people and irreligious people do not share beliefs on fundamental issues.
Religious people think very differently than
irreligious ones and conservative people think very differently than liberal
ones. It doesn’t stop there. I have observed that there are even liberal
thinking religious people and conservative thinking religious people – and they
think very differently.
Likewise it seems to be an established fact that males
think very differently than females.
As for me, aside from being religious, conservative,
and a male, I also happen to be left-handed. I am of the opinion that
left-handed people think very differently than right handed people.
Left-handed people are vastly outnumbered. We are
forced to live in a right-handed world. This gives us a bit of an advantage
because we can see the world from the perspective of the righties and work with
right-handed devices (except for those @#$%^& can openers), because we are
forced to, as well as from our own
perspective. Since righties are the overwhelming majority, it is very hard for
them to understand how lefties see things. As such, it is hard for them to even
acknowledge that there is another way to see things.
Let’s carry this up to the other discrepancies. In the
Western world, secular people vastly outnumber religious ones and liberals
outnumber conservatives. (Let’s keep males and females at even odds and disregard
this factor.)
If we follow our trend, the minority group is certainly
aware of the majority opinion. They understand there is more than one style of thinking.
They are also aware that the way they think is the less popular style. In the face of
all this, they consciously choose the one that makes most sense to them. There
is a distinct aspect of conviction in the perspective of the minority.
As for the majority (secular, liberal) group, there is
no dispute that they are also thinking in the way that makes most sense to
them. The question is: is this likewise a matter of conviction or is it a
matter of expediency? More accurately, have they chosen this way of thinking
out of a group of alternative options or are they unaware that there even are
any alternatives?
It’s very hard to tell.
When I wrote the excerpt in my autobiography chapter,
the message I was trying to send is that it took me until I was about ten years
old to realize that there are different tracks of thinking on fundamental
issues. I was being a bit apologetic. I thought I was a late bloomer. But after
ten years in the blogosphere, I learned otherwise. Not only was I a bit
advanced to make this observation and to “get there” ahead of the competition,
but a good portion of the competition still hasn’t gotten there even now!
The liberal thinkers just cannot understand that there
is another way to look at things. And so, anyone who doesn’t think like them is
not merely a minority opinion, he is totally wacko. He can’t be rational. He
must be meshugga, insane.
As I have written repeatedly in the past posts, this is
most of the feedback that I receive from the outside world. "Moron. Retard. Idiot. Twisted." "How can any rational person even consider that Chazal’s 'solutions' can solve today’s problems???" This is how a popular “Rabbi” originally from New Zealand can call
me a “lunatic”. (This was on Facebook but has since been removed).
A lunatic is somebody who is out of touch with reality.
The most recent example appears in the comments section
of a recent Emes V’Emunah post. Rabbi
Maryles seemed to feel there is a toelles to laud the words of some anonymous “chareidi”
who thinks that the Jews of the Yeshivish/Chareidi sector are not truly genuine.
In other words, this “chareidi” feels that everyone is just like him.
I proclaimed otherwise. We do not impoverish ourselves
in schar limud for our children and more mehudar hechsheirim to impress
anybody. And kollel people do not stay in kollel to impress anybody.
In the course of this give and take a commenter broke
in to contribute nothing except a reference to the controversy over my writings
on the Malka Leifer episode. His reference revolved around the Judging the Judges Part II post. He did not link to it, so I did. He promptly volleyed (emphasis
mine):
I doubt many sane people will have a higher opinion of you after reading that.
I promptly responded:
Depends on how you define a "sane person".
I highly suspect that you use the conventional "rosh kattan" definition of a "sane" person: "one who thinks just like you do".
There are people who like what I write. Not that many,
but they are there. And there are people who do not like what I write (a much
larger number). Those who like what I write will (and do) continue to respect
me after reading posts like that. Those who do not like what I write will not
change their minds from such a post. That is, unless they are willing to change the
way they think - which is why I wrote the post.
That would be a tall order and too much to expect from
the average reader. They cannot handle the intellectual trauma.
I don’t think like this commenter and he doesn’t think like me. This
much is clear. But, it’s not just that he doesn’t think like me. He is certain that no sane person
would think like me. Anybody who thinks like me must be insane.
When I was a teenager there was a television series
called Masterpiece Theater and my mother wouldn’t miss it. One series, titled I
Claudius, was about the reign of the deranged Roman Emperor, Caligula – the ultra-perverted
madman who fancied himself a god. In one bit of dialog, Caligula asks his uncle Claudius, “People, say
that I am mad. Am I truly mad?”
The wise Claudius, one of the few insiders who actually
stayed alive long enough to outlive Caligula, discretely answered, “Oh no, Caesar, that is not possible. You
set the standards for sanity!”
So this commenter lives in a liberal, secular-minded
world and, for him, his peers set the standards for sanity.
People like me, have a different set of standards for
sanity. We define sanity as one who thinks like HKBH wants us to. In more
practical terms, one who thinks how the Torah and Chazal instruct us to. This
is why I wrote the post about Thinking Like a Jew before I wrote any of the Malka
Leifer posts. In order to understand how
I think, take a look at how Chazal think. It’s really the same.
Of course, some misguided Australian “rabbanim” can
call this list of marei makomos “fundamentally flawed” though, thus far, none
has been able to reveal any of the fundamental flaws. The one who called me a
lunatic on Facebook may be way more in touch with “reality” than I am, but he
is hardly as in touch with Shas and Poskim.
I am a religious, conservative-minded, (left-handed)
male thinker. I am a very small minority. But only religious,
conservative-minded people think like Chazal (even if they are not left-handed).
Truth is not in the majority.
The whole world believed in self-gratification and gay
rights for ten generations. Only Noach thought differently (was he left-handed?).
Everybody thought he was insane. Building a big boat in the middle of the
inland for 120 years! Nuts!
But he thought differently. He thought like Mesushelach
taught him to think. Everybody knew Mesushelach, but nobody emulated him. He was
an old fogey. Of course, he was the only one in town who personally learned at
the feet of Adam HaRishon, but he wasn’t up to date. A bit senile by now, don’t
you think? Insane.
Only Noach withstood the test of time (and of the Tahom Rabba).
After the flood, the masses were a tad better behaved
in the debauchery department. But they were big on paganism and idolatry and
human sciences. We can hold up the sky and control world events. A New World
Order!
After another ten generations, only one person thought
differently. He stood on the opposite side against all popular opinion. Avram
the Ivri!
Nobody thought like him. He must have been insane (or,
at least, fundamentally flawed). “We can’t let some unseen G-d or some ‘Torah’
tell us what to do. It’s way too imposing on our personal agendas. Let’s see
how much heat this fellow can handle…”
להודיע...שכל
הדורות היו מכעיסין ובאין עד שבא אברהם אבינו וקבל שכר כולם!
This tells us that all of the generations were [increasingly] angering HKBH until Avraham Avinu came and received the [potential] reward of them all.
There is power in numbers. But truth, and sanity, is
with the few and the brave. Noach and Avrohom Avinu were not trying to win any
popularity contests. They won much better things.
Likewise, I do not write my posts to win any popularity
contests.
There are better things to win.
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