YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

Follows an involuntary guest-posting by three gentlemen in a style reminiscent of a Talmudic discourse.
I claim no credit for this other than liking what they wrote and gluing it together.

[The three are Dovbear (well-know blogger, here:
http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2007/10/recipe-for-reconciliation.html
blog here: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/ ),
Chaim G (aka The Bray of Fundie and several other alia, here:
http://dovbear.blogspot.com/ and here:
http://www.fundybaykeeper.org/log/Log_17_December_2006.html ),
and a commenting gentleperson from the ursine blog who styles him/her self 'Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise'.]


Dovbear said to the Modern Orthodox: [Teaneck, Brooklyn Young Israel, Much of YU]

STOP: Looking down your nose at anyone who isn't unreflectively Zionist/Pro-Likud.
START: Making it emphatically clear that you respect halacha as much as anyone else.
CONTINUE: Giving huge sums of money to Hasidic and Yeshivish institutions.


But Chaim G. said to them

STOP: Kowtowing to the radical religio-feminists in your midst and creating Shul environments that make others intensely uncomfortable.
START: Learning more in general in your discretionary time (being more affluent than Chareidi you have more disposable income AND time). In particular learn Hashkafa s’farim authored by G’dolim other than Rav Kook and Rav YBS
CONTINUE: Maintaining that the approaches of these two giants are valid and to be respected


Dovbear said to the Liberal Orthodox [UWS, Anywhere there’s egalitarian Orthodox, the rest of YU]

STOP: Mocking and attacking the sincerely held beliefs of people who don't know any better.
START: Making it emphatically clear that you respect halacha as much as anyone else.
CONTINUE: The respectful conversation about the difference between ikkar and toful in 2007 Judaism


But Chaim G. said to them

STOP: Mocking and attacking the sincerely held beliefs of people whom you’ve dismissed without ever bothering to analyze in depth. Also Kowtowing to the radical Religio-feminists in your midst as you are headed for the next official schism within Judaism. Keep it up and you will be official anathemas to the balance of Torah Jewry even sooner than the Elokist-Chabadniks
START: Making it emphatically clear that you respect Talmidei Chachomim as much as anyone else. Do not fancy yourself cleverer than they ESPECIALLY in THEIR areas of expertise.
CONTINUE: So sorry, not convinced that there is anything legitimate here worth continuing.
[I felt the same way about the two types of Hasidim, but in the interest of reconciliation I searched until I found something -- DB]


Dovbear said to the RW Yeshivish Orthodox [Lakewood, Baltimore etc]

STOP: Looking down your nose at anyone who isn't able to decode a tosfos on the first try.
START: Preparing your children to live b’toch h’air, in the world, and outside of the kolel bubble.
CONTINUE: Emphasizing the primary, non-negotiable importance of limud torah.


But Chaim G. said to them

STOP: Tolerating youth that smokes, never exercises and is as skeptical and dismissive of all but a few of their "anointed" TKs (e.g. AJ Soloveitchik and Rav Ela Ber) as the most egregious of old time Maskilim were of ALL TKs without exception.
START: Preparing your children to date for middos Tovos, and even beauty and not exclusively for money in the bank.
CONTINUE: Emphasizing the primary, non-negotiable CENTRALITY of limud torah.


Dovbear said to the LW Yeshivish Orthodox [Flatbush, Monsey, Cedarhurst]

STOP: Running to copy and embrace everything Hasidic at the expense of everything else the tradition has to offer.
START: Giving the religion of the head equal emphasis with the religion of the heart
CONTINUE: Acting as a moderating influence on the RW yeshivish, and as safe passage for those wishing to move between MO and YO


But Chaim G. said to them

STOP: Running to copy and embrace thinly veiled knockoffs of Goyishe values and esthetics in your music, decorating and recreation, especially on Chol HaMoed. Either embrace or completely reject the genuine (Goyishe) articles but maintain your havdala sensitivity instead of the mixed-message mish-mash that you’re bequeathing your children.
Also stop sabotaging your less academically inclined children’s future with the incessant message that if they pursue degrees and/or don’t learn for 15+ tears after the Chasunah that they are abject failures.
Start: learning and teaching Aish Kodesh, Sifrei Rav Tzadok , Nesivos Shalom et al to reinvigorate your Chumros de jour with a little warmth and light. Also doing chesed to those different from you. It’s not for women and Chasidim only.
CONTINUE: Learning the Daf, influencing co-workers and donating time and human resources to Partners-in Torah et al.


Dovbear said to the Hard-Core Hasidic [KJ, Willy, Boro Park]

STOP: Treating the rest of us, and by extension our customs, teachings and the rest of the tradition, like we're chazer treif.
START: Allowing your children to learn English and vocational skills.
CONTINUE: Proving that acts of fabulous chesed are possible, even when you’re (nearly) flat broke.


But Chaim G. said to them

STOP: Treating EACH OTHER (Satmar vs. Belz & Ger, everyone vs. Breslov and Lubavitch, Eruv Carriers vs. Eruv non- Carriers) and by extension their customs, teachings and the rest of their traditions, as chazer treif .It is a modest first step but a necessary one before we can ever begin to hope for recognition and reconciliation between you guys and the rest of us.
START: Decentralizing. Instead of having constant inheritance fights let some of the brothers move out of town and start new urban and suburban Kehillas elsewhere. You should have the institutional confidence to do this by now.
CONTINUE: Learning Tur and Bes Yosef and providing the rest of us with the lions share of our local-look-it-up-in-the-sources Poskim, Shochtim, Sofrim Mohalim and Bikur Cholim volunteers.


Dovbear said to the Soft-Core Hasidic [Anywhere there's a rebbelah with a shteible]

STOP: Trying to impose Hasidic ways on the non-Hasidic communities you've joined
START: Learning the history of your own customs and your own sect. It may temper your triumphalism.
CONTINUE: Spreading your traditional niggunim. Nothing brings us all together like a good kumsitz.


But Chaim G. said to them

Stop: Just stop. You disgust me!
START: By scrapping everything Heimish and beginning from square one with any of the other groups. You have no legitimate right to exist.
CONTINUE: Deluding yourselves NOOOOOOT!


Chaim G. said to the Kehillarized BTs [Passaic, Baltimore Ramat Bet Shemesh]

STOP: Ostentatious Yuharo external displays of piety. Some of you are the embarrassing spiritual equivalent of the Nouveau riche.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_riche) Also don’t take the omud before you’re ready. Sadly for some of you this will mean never taking the omud.
START: By going slower in your ascent up the frumkeit ladders. It is a healthier and longer–lasting way to grow. Learning more before penning your first parenting book and/or going on a lecture tour.
CONTINUE: Reinvigorating the rest of with probing questions, contagious enthusiasm and sublimating (re; raising the sparks) of the educations, skills, sensibilities and hobbies that you acquired in your pre-T’shuva states.


Chaim G. said to the Amnon Yitzchaki-Harav Yagen-niks [KGH, Hancock Park BP Lakewood]

STOP: Wearing 2 pairs of T’filin simultaneously shaving your heads and growing long simanim after being mehalelei Shabbat 2 weeks ago. Also stop scaring the rest of us by dressing and thinking like Wahabists who venerate Moshe instead of Mohammed
START: Co-opting the chilled-out calmness and high esthetics of the Syrians and Iraqis.
CONTINUE: Returning to observance in droves. What do Amnon Yitzchak and Harav Yagen know that Chabad and Aish don't?


Chaim G. said to the Yekkes [Washington Heights, Paramus Monsey]

STOP: Incessantly correcting the manners and pronunciation of others
START: Finding a new locale for the Kehillo and a Charismatic new leader. You are losing your youth and minhagim to intra-Jewish assimilation
CONTINUE: Maintaining perfect fidelity to minhagim of the most impeccable provenance.



But related thereto.....


Rav I.M.Wise said to the Reform

STOP: Looking down your nose at anyone wearing a black velvet kippa, black suit and white shirt with tzitzis hanging out. Naming rooms, buildings, institutions, etc. after your big-money donors.
START: Developing a liturgy that doesn't cut everything out.
CONTINUE: Your dayschools, youth groups, and social action activities.


Rav I.M.Wise said to the Conservatives

STOP: Looking down your nose at your members who want to be frum in accordance with the Conservative interpretation of Halacha. Naming rooms, buildings, institutions, etc. after big-money donors.
START: Making it emphatically clear that your halacha is just as good, if not better, than the halacha dreamed up by the Orthodox.
CONTINUE: The Tzedek hechsher, JTS and other high-level critical scholarship.


Rav I.M.Wise said to the Reconstructionists

STOP: The hour-long lectures about ritual acts given right before the act that take 15 seconds to do. Recon services can sometimes last longer than Carlebach services, but are much more boring.
START: More shuls in Brooklyn and Monsey. The people there really need it.
CONTINUE: Active congregations is small towns where you otherwise find little organized Jewish life.


Rav I.M.Wise said to the Renewal Movement Jews

STOP: Smoking pot in the lavatory during Shabbat. Get an Orthodox friend to bake it in brownies so that the entire community can enjoy them during kiddush without worrying about kashrus.
START: Having your rabbis quote some classic Jewish texts occasionally.
CONTINUE: All the good neo-Chassidic stuff, so that we can have the fabrengen experience without excluding women and having to deal with rebbes.


Rav I.M.Wise said to the Post-denominationals

STOP: Dissing all the other denominations. Where do you think you get your material from?
START: More independent minyanim in more locations
CONTINUE: the good work


Rav I.M.Wise said to the Seculars

STOP: Trying to convince us that Jewish identity can be had without at least some religious content
START: lighting candles on Friday night
CONTINUE: To identify as a Jew despite your skepticism.


--------------------------------------------


All of the above was pursuant a recent post on Dovbear's blog (see here: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2007/10/my-not-so-modest-demands.html) in which much of the difference in attitude and custom reflected upon above were brought up. The discussion is worthwhile.
You could head over to the ursine's lair to see if there have been any more developments.