Is nothing sacred? – The Shame of Orthodoxy
Heavy criticism of the Orthodox establishment coming from Shmuly Yanklowitz, Founder of Uri L’Tzedek and YCT rabbinical school student:
According to the Talmud, the very first question one can expect to be asked at the gates of heaven pertains not to belief or ritual, but to whether one acted honestly in all of one’s business dealings (Shabbat 31a). How many members of our community could pass that admissions test?
See the rest here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1104222.html
http://shabot6000.com/archive.php?id=131
That’s pretty smack on.
Unfortunately the orthodox community has become one where look and image matters more then what you do behind closed doors. Hide your TV behind the mirror, put on a skirt and a wig and all of the sudden you are orthodox – regardless of business dealings (many of my frum peers are proud of their scams) and regardless of how you treat other non-orthodox and non-Jewish humans. All it comes down to is what yeshiva you went to and how many times you wash your lettuce for bugs.
You’re fucking kidding me right? The shame of Orthodoxy? Like Madoff was Orthodox? Michael Milken? Ivan Boesky? The financial fraud these people alone perpetrated makes nickle and dime bullshit perpetrated by the Orthodox look like child’s play.
I think Uri L’Tzedek is a great organization. I applaud the work it does and the business ethics it promotes that are a reflection of the way Judaism ought to function.
Yanklowitz’s call “for a new moral order” is just as relevant to secular as it is to Orthodox Jews. More relevant perhaps given the sheer scope of the business crimes perpetrated by secular Jews. This is really no cause for smugness.
Ck nail it smack on. I suggest the author find another soapbox to stand on.
ck, no one’s saying that there aren’t secular Jewish crooks too. However, Uri is a religious organization, so if they’re gonna clean house, it’s gonna be with religious folks–their own house.
And in any case, when you subscribe so publicly to a moral order the way a hyper-Orthodox Jew does, there’s a whole other layer of hypocrisy involved.
“And in any case, when you subscribe so publicly to a moral order the way a hyper-Orthodox Jew does, there’s a whole other layer of hypocrisy involved.”
“Hyper-Orthodox” Jews do not publicly subscribe to a moral order any more than any one else, in fact in some regards even less. While the non-orthodox movements publicly emphasize morality over ritual and tradition, the “Hyper-Orthodox” hold themselves to an ideal with para-moral standards. A few examples of which; obsessive fashion styles, upholding tradition without rational, allegiance to tribal and symbolic needs regardless of individual and social implications. For the Hyper Orthodox, life is more than just his relation to his fellow man, more than just his ethics – it includes his Master in heaven who’s desires are more than human, and often beyond reason – beyond question. There is no extra layer of hypocrisy within him, besides the normal run of the mill, utterly pervasive hypocrisy that is the human being. If there is an extra layer of hypocrisy it belongs chiefly with the hyper-justice Jew who so exclusively makes that claim and fails in such a miserable way, like the rest of humanity.