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Jun 17, 2010
Being True to One's Purpose
A friend pointed out something to me last night, and it made me think and extended his thought...
He pointed out to me (thanks T for the insight) that the whole purpose of the hassidic movement started specifically to bring the simple, unconnected people, the ones who don't have the strong Torah background and ability, to serve Hashem b'simcha and effect that even the "weaker elements" can serve hashem as well as anybody else, even if by focusing on other methods of ruchniyus and kedusha...
Yet we see nowadays, many of the hassidic sects (not all) are very limiting. In the situation of Emannuel it doesn't really matter, for the purpose of this thought, whether the reason the Slonimers are rejecting the girls from the Sephardic track because they are Sephardic or because they are "less religious". The whole raison d'etre of the hassidic movement is to bring the weaker elements (and I am not saying sephardim are weaker elements -my personal opinion is just the opposite - but in Emannuel and other places they are so treated) forward, to attract the "hamon am", to deal with the "amcha" and raise them up. The hassidic attitude today, by large (with exception, is a total rejection of their raison d'etre. They have made themselves into elite groups that reject anybody they consider not at least on their level. That is the opposite of the purpose of the hassidic movement.
Another player involved here is the Bais Yaakov school movement. The purpose it was created for was to "save" yiddishe neshamos from being lost in a world in which even the girls needed to be educated. Without a high quality frum education, the girls would have gone to be educated elsewhere...The Bais Yaakov movement became part of the larger frum educational system in which all over the world was mostly concerned with giving a frum education to any child willing to get one.
Any child that would be registered in a religious school would be a source of immense joy to the Jewish community and was considered a success and a genuine salvation of a Jewish neshama.
How did it get to be that nowadays our school system is more one of rejection, and it doesn't matter whether the rejection in Emannuel was because they are Sephardim or because they are less religious, than of acceptance and teaching?
We have turned on ourselves, and we have failed in our purpose, if this is what we have become.
Is it perhaps advancement and progress? In a world that had few frum people, and the risk of losing the next generations was so great, they were overjoyed by anybody who chose to be educated in a frum school. Perhaps that was appropriate for the world back then, but it is considered progress today that we have advanced past that stage - the frum community has grown by leaps and bounds. We no longer need to save the "weaker element" because we have enough of our own. Nowadays, perhaps, we can afford to, because our community has grown so much, be more concerned with improving ourselves, making ourselves more and more frum, teaching more strict adherence and higher levels of being religious internally rather than being concerned with saving each and every young child possible and bringing them into our system.
That would be a progress that is not being true to one's purpose. To me that is not progress, but failure.
He pointed out to me (thanks T for the insight) that the whole purpose of the hassidic movement started specifically to bring the simple, unconnected people, the ones who don't have the strong Torah background and ability, to serve Hashem b'simcha and effect that even the "weaker elements" can serve hashem as well as anybody else, even if by focusing on other methods of ruchniyus and kedusha...
Yet we see nowadays, many of the hassidic sects (not all) are very limiting. In the situation of Emannuel it doesn't really matter, for the purpose of this thought, whether the reason the Slonimers are rejecting the girls from the Sephardic track because they are Sephardic or because they are "less religious". The whole raison d'etre of the hassidic movement is to bring the weaker elements (and I am not saying sephardim are weaker elements -my personal opinion is just the opposite - but in Emannuel and other places they are so treated) forward, to attract the "hamon am", to deal with the "amcha" and raise them up. The hassidic attitude today, by large (with exception, is a total rejection of their raison d'etre. They have made themselves into elite groups that reject anybody they consider not at least on their level. That is the opposite of the purpose of the hassidic movement.
Another player involved here is the Bais Yaakov school movement. The purpose it was created for was to "save" yiddishe neshamos from being lost in a world in which even the girls needed to be educated. Without a high quality frum education, the girls would have gone to be educated elsewhere...The Bais Yaakov movement became part of the larger frum educational system in which all over the world was mostly concerned with giving a frum education to any child willing to get one.
Any child that would be registered in a religious school would be a source of immense joy to the Jewish community and was considered a success and a genuine salvation of a Jewish neshama.
How did it get to be that nowadays our school system is more one of rejection, and it doesn't matter whether the rejection in Emannuel was because they are Sephardim or because they are less religious, than of acceptance and teaching?
We have turned on ourselves, and we have failed in our purpose, if this is what we have become.
Is it perhaps advancement and progress? In a world that had few frum people, and the risk of losing the next generations was so great, they were overjoyed by anybody who chose to be educated in a frum school. Perhaps that was appropriate for the world back then, but it is considered progress today that we have advanced past that stage - the frum community has grown by leaps and bounds. We no longer need to save the "weaker element" because we have enough of our own. Nowadays, perhaps, we can afford to, because our community has grown so much, be more concerned with improving ourselves, making ourselves more and more frum, teaching more strict adherence and higher levels of being religious internally rather than being concerned with saving each and every young child possible and bringing them into our system.
That would be a progress that is not being true to one's purpose. To me that is not progress, but failure.
Labels:
bais yaakov,
chassid,
haredim
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I happen to belong to one of those chassidic groups that davka IS inclusive. Chabad. Let me tell you from experience that while the sentiments you express about kiruv etc are true and important, nevertheless, there are down sides.
ReplyDeleteThe openness in my community's schools has caused many children from chassidic homes to go off the derech. To me it seems that using children as a means to kiruv entails too great a danger. Leave kiruv to trained professionals and religiously stable adults.
After experiencing both the more open school method and the relatively closed model, I totally support the chassidic patents from Emanuel.
.
I wasnt talking about kiruv in the modern sense of the word. today oru kiruv efforts are more similar to missionizing.
ReplyDeleteMy comment was rferring to what chassidus, and bais yaakov, was meant to be. And they are not that anymore.
anon,
ReplyDeleteIf the chassidish parents were in a private school and paying tuition, then your logic would be understandable. However, they are in a publicly funded institution. The receive (practically) free schooling for their children.
I personally don't see this as a racial issue, but more of a cultural issue. However, my above comments still hold true.
You really can't have your cake and eat it to.
anon,
ReplyDeleteIf the chassidish parents were in a private school and paying tuition, then your logic would be understandable. However, they are in a publicly funded institution. The receive (practically) free schooling for their children.
I personally don't see this as a racial issue, but more of a cultural issue. However, even if I understand the motivations of these parents, my above comments still hold true.
You really can't have your cake and eat it to.
I give more credence to just having to handle the immense growth rate. At a 4.2% a year population growth rate (among charedi society), every 18 years requires literally DOUBLE the facilities (of what was there previously, next 18 years requires double of that!)
ReplyDeleteSo how is EVERY school to handle that it's needs 2 new classrooms EVERY YEAR??? Compound growth is just difficult to manage, and B"H religious society has been undergoing it since WWII. So it grew from a remnant to a significant population, and is looking to grow from significant to majority in another 1.5 generations.
The facilities, resources, and ability to manage that are VERY challenging. And yes, that means individuals loose attention and lots of people fall through the cracks. And that stinks but is a natural result of such a growth rate.
Yes Rafi, you hit the nail on the head. It's a result of our own success. But they are wrong to say we've succeeded, we no longer need to save the "weaker element" because we have enough of our own. What's the assimilation rate What's the OTD rate? Most neshamos are not saved.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, it's a tough situation for parents who watch their frummer kids become less frum because of negative influences right in their own school or community. They say, "In the name of saving neshamos, my kid's should be lost?" They don't want their kid with kids who will be a bad influences.
Hopefully they'd agree that there is important role for more modern, open schools, to save neshamos. But that doesn't mean their kid has to go there.
For their kid, they want a school that is furthering their kid to a higher level. And that's what's appropriate for them. And that school may keep out a kid that's not appropriate for that school.
The argument is sound. School A is matim for kid A, and school B is matim for kid B. Where it goes awry is when a kid claims he's type A and wants to go to a type A school, but the school says, "You're a type B kid. You don't belong here, go to the other school." In some cases the school is right in their assessment and sometime the school is wrong.
BTW, sometimes it works the other way. You may have a type A kid who wants to go to a type B school. Such as when a yeshiva HS might be luring kids away from YK. That's where the Gedolim say not to send your kid there. They aren't saying NO ONE should send their kid there, they're saying no one who was going to send their kid to YK should send their kid to YHS.
The idea as a whole makes sense to me, but I agree it's often misapplied. Both ways.
I don't think Bais Yaakov isn't being true to their purpose. It's just that their purpose has changed. There are now other schools doing what Bais Yaakov used to do. What's wrong with that?
OTOH, it's a tough situation for parents who watch their frummer kids become less frum because of negative influences right in their own school or community. They say, "In the name of saving neshamos, my kid's should be lost?" They don't want their kid with kids who will be a bad influences.
ReplyDeletethen dont be chassidishe. that was the purpose of the hassidic movement,. you dont like it, dont be part of it.
I am not weighing in on whether there is or is not discrimination in Emannuel. I dont know. It seems to me to be a combination. It also seems to me that the Supreme Court overdid it and was stubbornly mixing in where they should not have (beyond a certain point).
This post is regardless of whether it was discrimination or just really less religious people..
Hear Hear. AM Yisrael is ALL of the people. In Cleveland in the 1930's Telz opened a talmud torah for the community, regardless of their level of observance. Thanks to Telz, I am religious today. Unfortunately, Today's telz separates from the community.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't we get back to accepting every jew and trying to make the whole a bit better.