Hidden Tzaddikim: What a BT should know
There is, as many of my readers probably know, a tradition in Judaism that at any time, there are thirty-six righteous men. One of the stranger parts of this tradition is the expectation that they are usually hidden…their righteousness and importance unknown.
It seems to me that this tradition is itself a warning. That the people in power within the Jewish community are often not the most morally worthy candidates, and that the infrastructure of traditional Judaism is moved by other forces besides righteousness.
The disparity at haredi institutions between what is preached and what is practiced is worse in the baal teshuvah communities, where skepticism must often be relearned. I have found that many staff members at institutions which preach humility, downward social mobility, and even poverty to baal teshuvahs are beneficiaries of significant wealth, and therefore, communal power,
This is hardly a secret in the haredi world. But it is so utterly nauseating, it is amazing to me that there aren’t many more BTs who visibly recoil in utter disgust when this is finally understood, at least in the U.S., where such things are much harder to hide, because everyone speaks English, and the wealth of institutional leaders and macher families is less hidden.
Many frum skeptics spend a lot of time on the net talking about hashkafa and philosophy. I think it is the former BTs who spend disproportionately more time talking about the corruption and nepotism. We aren’t used to such behavior like the haredi FFBs, or even the MO. And the haredim rule their world like a suspicious Bedouin tribe.
Some BTs try to explain away this problem, and try to swallow it when others claim that these are flawed individuals, that they aren’t really frum. If they were really frum, they wouldn’t behave like this.
They are really frum. They just aren’t tzaddikim. The frum world is not run by tzaddikim, who are very few compared to the average frum. The frum world is run by those with money, power, and connections, i.e., nepotism.
The secular world is relatively much, much better about such things. It is like comparing England to tribal Iraq. Why would any of you want to switch to tribal Iraq?
16 comments
You mean if tribal iraq had a 21st century living standard?
yes.
your right the secular world is never run with power connections and money
Simmy,
It is, but such things are not condemned. People are encouraged to achieve all of these things to some degree.
And the nepotism of the Anglo world is not as intense or as sweeping as it is among Middle Eastern people. Not at all.
why do you automatically assume that your culture is better than any other?
I personally like chasidish culture better than american 20th century.
mohammed,
Chassidic culture for someone born into it is quite a different experience than for someone born in middle America who literally doesn’t know the language.
there are actually people who manage to learn foreign languages. or appreciate cultures other than the one they were born into.
so?
sew buttons!
so there are probably people that find tribal iraqi culture subjectively better for them than american, whether they were born into it or not. assuming that no one would want to leave your culture for another is just closemindedness.
mohammed,
I think that if more people understood what they were getting into beforehand, fewer people would attempt to join the haredi world in the first place.
It would be nice.
Most of the ones who join without understanding are assholes.
It is impossible to understand the haredi world without being in it to some degree.
but thats with anything you may be very different from, not just those wackos
Simmy,
Correct, but people are sold the false impression that they are welcome in the haredi world, and part of the same tribe.
They are not really. Not at all. The “defected” ones from the liberal and secular world are not really all that welcome in the haredi world.
My dear DK, Munsey(spelling in Derschowitz book “Chutzpa”) is a very COMPLICATED place, more then chareid capital of Borough Park.
Give you an example: you know horrible place called “Kol Eisav” on Maple.
As I stated on different blogs, the place’s residents belong to Bellevue Mental Ward.
Why?
For them black-hat wearing, children in the most extreme yeshivas, Monsey Orthodox buisnessman, WHO WEARS GOLD WATCH ON SHABBOS, is a…goy!
There are probably half-dozen EIRUVIN in Munsey(love the spelling), but kol eisavs do not recognize any of them.
Hence the attitude.
P.S. I was worried that NCSY Stuyversant kid went to that “institution”.
Anywhere but there!!!
Lev,
Sending a kid to Kol Yaakov was indeed a raw move. This is exactly the type of behavior that shows why NCSY has no business anywhere NEAR our public schools.
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