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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu |
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| Former Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi & Yeshiva Head Yaron Yadan |
2001.09.20 Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal & The Jerusalem Post, p. 11 – The facts that brought Yaron Yadan to question medieval interpretations comprise the working knowledge with which ta•lᵊmid•imꞋ Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ must develop a working familiarity to be effective. No ta•lᵊmidꞋ should be hesitant to make these points.
"He had also begun to feel plagued by theological doubts – to question whether the Talmud, the source of halakhic law, was indeed the literal word of God as passed down by sages through the generations, as he had been taught by his ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Rather, he wondered, was it written by ordinary if very learned men, with no direct line to the Almighty. If the answer was the former, Yadan reckoned, then Talmudic knowledge, particularly in areas requiring understanding of human and animal biology, would surely stand up to modern scientific scrutiny. On the other hand, if God played no role in inspiring the writing of the Ta•lᵊmudꞋ, then why view Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ as holy and make it the fulcrum of one's life?
But for Yadan, whose knowledge of Judaism was acquired in the narrow, doctrinaire confines of ultra-Orthodoxy, there was no wiggle room. Studying modem human and animal biology in search of answers, Yadan found what he deemed to be too many clashes with Talmudic texts to support the idea of a divine link. Talmudic laws, and their subsequent refinements, he came to believe, were based on error, or shaped by the biases and attitudes of Jews who lived in ancient times." (Jerusalem Report, 2002.06.17, p. 20-22).
There's an elementary, irrefutable and inescapable logic here, and this is the line of reasoning that Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ should apply in responding to challenges from anyone, even the most Ultra-Orthodox rabbi:
It's very easy to expose the imperfections of Ta•lᵊmudꞋ that former Rabbi Yadan cites. One cannot, then, escape the conclusion that Ta•lᵊmudꞋ (and resulting modern halakhic interpretations) contains errors and, therefore, cannot be "the Word of é‑‑ä." It is, rather, legal opinions – often spin – of above-average Jewish lawyers of various Bât•eiꞋ-Din interpreting Scripture. This, in itself, has great value and is often correct – however, it must never be confused with Scripture.
"… Yadan is not the fIrst Ultra-Orthodox dropout to tread the activist path. Key activists in groups such as Hillel, which says it assists hundreds of Ultra-Orthodox Israelis who leave their community annually, have also come from that world…"
Yaron Yadan was raised in a secular home. How was he sucked into Ultra-Orthodoxy in the first place? "In 1978, Yadan dropped out of high school and drifted to Tel Aviv, where the return-to-religion movement was just taking hold, and soon found himself attending classes at a small Ultra-Orthodox returnee yᵊshiv•âhꞋ of the Lithuanian school. "Suddenly my life had meaning and purpose," he recalls. "I liked the rhythm and structure of Ultra-Orthodoxy. I felt God's presence. At least that's what I thought." In retrospect, Yadan says, he thinks that those outreach pioneers understood that "most of us returnees were there because the yᵊshiv•âhꞋ and the community answered our emotional needs."
The factors that drew Yadan into Ultra-Orthodoxy are widely-felt human needs that RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa taught that Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ must address: "Care for the weak, raise the dead, make the mᵊtzor•âꞋ tâ•horꞋ and throw out the demonic-forces" (The Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ Reconstruction of Hebrew Ma•ti•tᵊyâhꞋu (NHM) 10.8; also 17.14-20; 24.45-47; 25.31-46). Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ understand that all of these things are actually do-able, and indispensable mi•tzᵊw•otꞋ.
What's good about it? "Yadan retains a measured view of his Ultra-Orthodox years, and says he admires the respect the community has for the written word, and misses the warmth of the society. "We were happy in a kind of deep, mystical way," he says. … The pressure to have a large family, he says, "came from the women themselves. It was their way to prove they were righteous."
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