For Dark Light Rabbi, Getting Modern Orthodox Jew to Become Haredi and Blow Off College/Career Makes It All Worthwhile
July 5, 2009 BT, Ohr Somayach/Dark Light
An inordinate amount of time on this blog is spent railing against Kiruvniks who convince middle class Jews from secular and liberal backgrounds to become ghetto-penguins. But this is really selling the Dark Light short. After all, they also set confused Modern Orthodox young people on the path for underachivement and fundamentalism. And when that happens, it warms their dark hearts.
Rabbi Ullman writes,
Not long ago I was napping on Shabbat afternoon, having had a very trying and tiring week with a few couples I was working with. When I awoke, I was seriously questioning whether I was really doing what G-d wants, or perhaps I should be devoting my energies to family and myself. Lying there debilitated by these thoughts, I heard a knock at the front door. My kids said a student so-and-so from five years ago said he’d come back to visit. I didn’t recognize the name and my first reaction in that mood was to tell them to tell him go away. Of course I didn’t, but rather got up. At the door was an impressive looking young Torah student with a large smile on his face. I didn’t recognize him at first until I changed his appearance in my mind: I took off the beard, added long hair, put in an earring, dressed him in a tee-shirt and torn jeans and voila – it was him!I couldn’t believe my eyes. This was a kid from an American modern Orthodox religious family who, before dropping Judaism entirely, decided to make a last-ditch effort to find inspiration in a baal teshuva yeshiva. He made me personally responsible for the task. We met one-on-one for many hours, but by the end of his stay he said I had one last chance, and then he was off to experience the world. I didn’t seem to succeed, and he was off. Five full years went by until he showed up on my doorstep. He said our conversations kept ringing in his ears through his travels and wouldn’t let him rest. Not much time passed before he entered a yeshiva in America where he spent the next five years, becoming the serious student standing before me. He came all this way, he said, in order to thank me and give me the joy of knowing that, unknown to me, all this had happened as a result of our conversations.
The amazing confluence of my doubts and the arrival of this visitor and his message was a clear answer from G-d to my questioning what He really wants me to be doing.
I’ll say! Five years in a yeshiva, with a black hat, black suit, and white shirt, I presume? Well, that’s a good start…but is he on the government dole yet? Does he accept food stamps? In other words, is he a true ben Toyrah?
6 comments
For DK For ignoring the rights of select Americans (homosexuals) but taking religious jews down a peg who are violating no one else’s rights in this county makes it all worthwhile
Freely, shouldn’t you be fighting for gay marriage in Israel? Since you feel so strongly about it, why don’t you fight for the Israeli homosexual community?
I’ll say! Five years in a yeshiva, with a black hat, black suit, and white shirt, I presume? Well, that’s a good start…but is he on the government dole yet? Does he accept food stamps? In other words, is he a true ben Toyrah?
DK,
The above is not the qualification anymore if someone is a ben Toyrah. Nowadays, true ben Toyrahs also have to riot in Jerusalem and spit on female reporters. The bar has been raised again.
I took off the beard, added long hair, put in an earring, dressed him in a tee-shirt and torn jeans and voila – it was him!
I used to do that with an Etch-a Sketch.
The amazing confluence of my doubts and the arrival of this visitor and his message was a clear answer from G-d to my questioning what He really wants me to be doing.
A clear answer – right. Seriously, the evangelicals tell stories like this all the time – some synchronicity is always occurring that convinces them they’re doing God’s work. The thing is – they also believe the Hareidi guy isn’t. In fact, they believe he’ll be going to hell for his all his trouble. (Although I understand some of them make allowances for those who vote Republican.)
So, as a preemptive strike, in case one of these guys shows up here to tell you how lost your poor yiddishe nehomoh is (or if your protege comes to protest your use of the term “ghetto penguin”) – why should I believe the kiruv guy and not the evangelical missionary?
Of course, I already know the answer – if I really study, and really REALLY believe, and place all of my trust in the gedoylim – I’ll understand how wrong they are and how right we are.
(Is is true that, a là Peter Pan, every time a Jew becomes an apikoros, a godol dies?)
First of all i’m talking about American rights, because I am an American not an Israeli. Second of all Israel is in some form a theocracy, America is not.
Third and most importantly I am against the oppression of homosexuals in EVERY country but I am talking about America here, a place where everyone is supposedly equal. Stop trying to change the subject. While I am addressing your obvious hypocritical attitude when it comes to homosexuals you are deflecting the question without actually answering it. Your a hypocrite. You attack haredim for their treatment of the non-frum and yet are against gay marriage for no reason and are willing to sacrifice their rights for the advancement of the liberal party. How dare you
> Five years in a yeshiva, with a black hat, black suit, and white shirt, I presume? Well, that’s a good start…but is he on the government dole yet? Does he accept food stamps? In other words, is he a true ben Toyrah?
Don’t worry. If not him, then his children for sure. Just give them time.
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