The Mashgiach
Many have asked me why I am so obsessed with BTs attending a good college. Well, I saw some ugly, ugly things in the haredi kiruv world, and heard some very bad advice and guidance dispensed. Very bad.
Like this:
In his article, “Inside Le Affair Le Marais” Failed Messiah writes,
Yitzchak Bitton’s story is sad. He is one of the very best rock drummers in the world. In France, before becoming Chabad, he led a band, Jackie and the Variations, which kept the Beatles out of the top spot on the French pop charts. He gave up his ’sinful’ life and moved to Crown Heights. He learned, and he eventually formed a band Raya Mehemena, which was one of the best live bands I ever heard, religious or not[...]But the haredi and Chabad worlds (apart from BTs) were not ready for real musical talent. Bookings were not frequent enough to pay the rent, and the Rebbe would not give his blessing for the type of shows Matisyahu now does, surfing mosh pits and dancing in front of and sometimes with women. (This is a problem many BT musicians faced in the 1980s and early 90s.) So Yitzchak Bitton sold cameras for a living. He apparently went from that to serving as a mashgiach.
The Orthodox Union is in a big fight with Mr. Bitton over accusations they are not frum enough. The Orthodox Union is the parent organization of NCSY.
Update: Radloh of Seven Fat Cow (and only Radloh, others distanced themselves from his post either because they disagreed with him or just for fun and spite) challenges Failed Messiah’s analysis based on his own personal knowledge of Mr. Bitton.
11 comments
“…the Rebbe would not give his blessing for the type of shows Matisyahu now does, surfing mosh pits and dancing in front of and sometimes with women…”
I’m shocked!?
Is it truly a problem that people who have done teshuvah are told to avoid the characteristic sins of the industry they work in?
Is your solution to have people do partial teshuvah only?
Bob Miller,
If it is a choice between working in a camera shop or only doing partial teshuvah, of course I would advocate partial teshuvah!
This was the little-known tool that made the Spanish Inquisition so fearsome. They threatened to send any really stubborn monotheists to work in a camera shop.
Bob,
You’re implicit point is correct. The haredi baal teshuvah movement is better than the Spanish Inquisiton. Thank you for setting the bar so very high.
It must have been a struggle for you to invent that as my implicit point. Nothing stands in the way of obsession.
Try again.
Then what was your point?
1. People with principles live by them and perform the associated duties willingly.
2. When people who are sincerely committed to Judaism come to know that certain conduct is sinful, they do their utmost to avoid that conduct in the future.
3. This can include conduct on the job.
4. Then it may be their duty to change how they do that job, or to switch employers, or to take a different, less problematical job in the same or another field (Obviously, retraining may be needed).
5. If the only acceptable job alternative available for the time being is to work in a camera store or the like, they do not regard this as so lowly as to make it preferable to continue to sin as before.
6. Many Jews in the past were threatened in really violent ways to renounce their faith, yet proudly stood up and suffered beatings, death, or exile.
7. By comparison to this, having to work in a camera store to put one’s ideals into practice does not stack up as a world-class sacrifice.
“4. Then it may be their duty to change how they do that job, or to switch employers, or to take a different, less problematical job in the same or another field (Obviously, retraining may be needed).”
Obvious to you, maybe. The answer and guidance offered to far too many is to work in a camera shop or something comparable.
“6. Many Jews in the past were threatened in really violent ways to renounce their faith, yet proudly stood up and suffered beatings, death, or exile.”
So did and do people of many faiths, like the Mandaeans today. But working in a camera store still sucks.
“7. By comparison to this, having to work in a camera store to put one’s ideals into practice does not stack up as a world-class sacrifice.”
Bob Miller,
First of all, that isn’t the comparison. The comparison is to other, more lucrative and satisfying vocations. You are advocating the precise reason I called you out on earlier, when you claimed I “invented” this specious line of reasoning.
I will explain to prospective BTs and their parents how certain dominant kiruv groups leads to underemployment, and you can explain to them why underemployment is okay for them or their child.
Plenty of Baalei Teshuvah have kept or found good jobs consistent with their convictions.
Have you not noticed because of your obsession? Or because do you not relate to the very idea of religious convictions?
I spoke above of a newly religious Jew’s free decision in a situation (that can, but generally does not, arise) where some change in work behavior or employment was necessary.
You have confused this again with your conspiracy theory of evil Kiruv fanatics impoverishing the helpless, gullible masses.
DK, this is such a straw man. First of all, he was a musician. Most musicians don’t make a living. He was hot, for a while, in France? Not proof of much. Chances are he was going to have to get that camera store job sooner or later.
But in general you are just so over the top on this college thing. Bob covers a whole set of points that, as you know, I agree with. But you know, while some of my Princeton friends are gazzilionaires, quite a few of us aren’t. I had lunch with one today who is my age — 44 — and knocked around for decades until figuring out that he wanted a civil service job, which he now happily has. He’s lived off his parents most of the way and recognizes that he will probably live the “good life” off his inheritance, not his earnings.
What I don’t get is how someone who is so against “big kiruv” because of the “groupthink” it promotes is so mindless — so much, really, the American version of a ghetto Jew — on this “go to a nice college and be a doctor or a lawyer” thing. It is so inside-the-box, David.
Ron,
I don’t think an education is just important to be a part of the professional classes. I think it is important to have vocational options. This is not enabled by Pace University. or a BTL.
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