New Voices on Chabad
Josh Nathan-Kazis, the editor of New Voices, is a daring young journalist. His newest issue takes on the MacRebbe of fundamentalist Jewish outreach organizations. He takes on Chabad in, “The Lubavitch Issue,”
Chabad’s sleight of hand is in combining traditional Jewish ideas with radical chassidut, and declaring them all part and parcel of one’s “authentic” Jewish heritage. One article specifically falls into that trap.
In his editorial, “The Trouble With the Chabad Rabbi’s Wife,” Josh Nathan-Kazis writes,
It should come as no surprise that at the Chabad house on a Friday night, the rabbi’s wife prepares the meal while the rabbi leads prayers and delivers a brief sermon, or that this arrangement trickles down to the experience of students who attend the dinner. According to “Home Away From Home,” which surveyed students at five campus Chabad Houses, female students attending the Friday night service would sometimes join the rabbi’s wife in the kitchen, while “Male students would often be asked to lead services or conduct blessings.”
Such a strict, institutionalized division between the role of the Jewish man and woman, with one toiling in the realm of prayer and the other in the kitchen, is anathema to the egalitarian ideals of the less traditional denominations. This is not to say that there’s anything wrong with the way the emissaries have chosen to live their lives. But as a Jewish experience to be shuffled into Cohen’s iPod, the message is problematic.
This is especially true because the Jewish student who attends a Chabad dinner is not just visiting the home of some nice religious couple. The theory of Chabad’s outreach relies on the idea that the emissaries exist as examples of an authentically Jewish way of living. A Chabad rabbi doesn’t invite you to his house to show you how he celebrates Shabbat. He invites you to his house to show you how it should be done. One message of a Friday night dinner at a Chabad House is that the role of the Jewish woman should be confined to making dinner.
Is this the trouble with Chabad? This is the editor’s primary concern? How many of us have enjoyed traditional Jewish shabbos and festival dinners, replete with our fathers making both Kiddush and motzei in our own family celebrations, even those of us from traditional, but not Orthodox, families? Is it really a problem if we discard ( or merely, don’t assume) some aspects of egalitarianism at certain times in our religious and social lives? Or is this part of negotiating the Jewish experience? Not everything in traditional Judaism can be convincingly transformed into an egalitarian expression. And Josh Nathan-Kazis should know better. How serious are we about allowing for any serious engagement with Judaism if we are always to insist that contemporary attitudes override and must qualify all Jewish experiences through an overly strict socially liberal filter we created mere decades ago?
And this plays right into the false dichotomy that all ultra-Orthodox outreach groups prefer. That in fact, the choice is between ultra-Orthodox varieties of Judaism versus the most liberal Jewish branches. This conflates traditional paradigms with ultra-Orthodox one — but it is the traditional paradigms that are the history of most of Jewry. And it is the ultra-Orthodox kiruv organizations that so frequently and inaccurately seek to promote themselves as one and the same.
The debate of egalitarianism is also one between Liberal Judaism and traditional Judaism, not just Liberal Judaism and the ultra-Orthodox. And anyway, there are far, far, more devastating questions with which to interrogate Chabad. 
By instead focusing on how a traditional shabbos dinner should be run, well, with just a bare minimum of wiggling, they can hide their contemporary radicalism and outright theological deviance behind a debate that is almost in-line with a right-wing Modern Orthodox position, and ancient traditional Jewish practices. And in such framing, they are legitimized to the best possible position for a debate that they can be.
They have you right where they want you.
13 comments
Nulla salus extra Chabad?
Well, they’ve ALWAYS said that.
I find it supremely ironic that the Rebbe ztz”l encouraged everyone to learn Rambam yomi, which includes the Rambam’s specific reasoning, in hilchot mlachim, why the Rebbe could NOT be proclaimed Moshiach after having died.
Then, suddenly, whoops, they tell us that what a straightforward reading would seem to be truth, was, in fact, not. All those years snickering at the christians, and the chabadnicks turned around and played that same old game.
Then, suddenly, whoops, they tell us that what a straightforward reading would seem to be truth, was, in fact, not.
It’s as I said the other day - we have to abide by the Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch, until they say something we don’t like - then, all of a sudden, we don’t “hold by them”. Yeah - hold this.
David, I just read the article. I think he’s trying to say that the gender segregation issue is representative of a larger problem. I agree with him that the answer is not “to throw Jewish experiences indiscriminately at young Jews”, but “to challenge the community to rethink and to innovate”.
But then, I’ve got such a huge problem now with Orthodoxy in general and Chabad in particular that it may simply be that I’m a sucker for any criticism of it.
There are stronger questions to ask. In many ways, Josh took the Jewschool route, instead of the Failed Messiah one.
Whom do you think they consider a more formidable opponent?
He did also include interviews with Sholom Keller, Rabbi Jacobs and Stephen Bloom, all of whom were critical.
Let’s see if he responds to you here. I’m curious to hear what he has to say.
I find the “women want it that way”-comments in response to the article particularly amusing. They beg the question, “Do those young women really want it to be that way or do they want to be perceived that way, being as much of a lil’ Ms Homemaker as the rebbetzin (note: the Russian balebostah, or whatever spelling one prefers, refers to “the lady of the house (of higher class, that is)”, not a woman that would necessarily get her hands dirty with housework) to leave a good impression on the possible mates in attendance?” If those women really wanted it that way, wouldn’t they be hosting their own Shabos dinners? Or wouldn’t they, at the very least, arrive before Shabos sets in and contribute dishes they’ve prepared at home (the most effective way to help out a hostess entertaining a larger party)? Maybe it’s my experience of being a chef while I was living in Britain (agreed, British diners are so easy to please
), but I have a tendency of asking people that don’t have a distinct task to fulfil (which I know they can fulfil) to leave the kitchen while I’m working.
I agree that there are stronger questions about Chabad. We dealt with many of them elsewhere in this issue of the magazine. The editorial that you refer to was not specifically a critique of Chabad, but a critique of non-Orthodox Chabad supporters. The role of the rabbi’s wife at the Chabad Friday night dinner seemed an appropriate example of how non-Orthodox Jewish values don’t necessarily coincide with Chabad’s values. As a statement of fact, non-Orthodox Judaism has been officially egalitarian since at least 2002, and practically egalitarian since the early 80s. I argued that it should concern non-Orthodox Jews that the same does not hold true for Lubavitch, and that they should consider this when making decisions about funding.
I’ve been somewhat disappointed that much of the response to the article has focused on the way I describe the Chabad Friday night dinner - a description which relies entirely on the study that I cited - instead of on the actual argument of the piece.
Thanks for the link. I appreciate the critique.
Josh
DK asks “Is it really a problem if we discard ( or merely, don’t assume) some aspects of egalitarianism at certain times in our religious and social lives?”
It is for me.
okay so the guy is brainwashed by pop culture what a woman should be and what she wants, like he knows what a woman wants. and the fact that for hundreds of generations women have been filling the role that chabad still asks them to fit is not relevant? oh wait, the old gens were backwards and we are living in a really enlightened time right?
oh wait, the old gens were backwards and we are living in a really enlightened time right?
Relatively, yes.
the fact that for hundreds of generations women have been filling the role that chabad still asks them to fit is not relevant?
The fact that SOME women are happy with the role doens’t mean it is right for ALL women.
The development of gender roles in Judaism is a pretty interesting part of Jewish sociology; suffice it to say, Sara wasn’t the last one to boss her hubby around. My former exegesis prof advised the male students based on that pericope to always abide by what their girlfriends / wives say as that would make their lives much easier.
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