Great irony

The great irony of the haredi rabbinate’s insistence that only the ultra-Orthodox know authentic Judaism is that their behavior would likely not be recognized as Jewish by the greats of Jewish history: Abraham, Moses, Gamliel, Maimonides and others.

People who have studied Judaism know that it is an evolved religion and has changed with time. Ritual practices in Abraham’s time were different from those in the time of Moses. They changed yet again with the destruction of the temples and have continued to do so ever since. There is no obvious reason, Jewish or otherwise, why the process should have ended in Poland 200 years ago.

By distancing themselves from non-haredi Jews, haredi rabbis abandon any serious prospect of influencing the debate on how that evolution will now proceed and the potential for educating non-haredi Jews to their way of thinking. By making each issue that arises one of demonstrating their power, they prove to the wider Jewish community that faith isn’t really what they are about.

If they don’t put the interests of Judaism and the Jewish people first, why should others? If this goes on long enough, they just might find themselves considered non-Jews by the rest of the Jewish people. YALE ZUSSMAN Framingham, Massachusetts