On Listening to Gedolim and the Internet Ban

Harry Maryles writes:

There is a video at Rafi’s Life in Israel blog of an anti-internet event that occurred in Israel a short while ago. The Charedi newspaper Yated Ne'eman apparently reported that 300 people attended this event. However - as can plainly be seen in a 45 second video - that was hardly the case.

Of course the ‘defenders of the faith’ who always rush to defend the indefensible will say that one cannot really tell how many people actually attended the event from a 45 second video. Perhaps this was the beginning as people were beginning to trickle in - or just a small section that the videographer chose because of an unblocked angle - that the hall was actually much fuller but out of camera range.

Well that’s possible. But I really doubt it.

Indeed, Harry is right. There were very few people at that meeting. In this case, however, Harry is wrong as well. I think this will showcase why Harry sometimes views things with a very broad stroke, thought due to no fault of his own.

In this particular case, the reason for such low attendance was because a Gadol refused to join. The irony!

What happened here was that after the ban on Internet websites was announced, one of the managers of Bechadrei Chareidim paid a visit to Rav Steiman. In the visit, Rav Steinman told him that he never signed the ban.

Rav Steinman then explained why. He was approached by the askan to sign on the ban. He didn't like the way the ban was worded for several reasons, so he refused to sigh until he personally revised much of the text. He indeed did so, but buy the time it was ready, the activist had already submitted the bad to the leading newspapers with Rav Steinman's signature, against his permission. This is now part of the claims in a pending lawsuit.

Rav Steinman therefore did not support the conference, and therefore it was quite empty, as Rafi noted.

The exact reasons why Rav Steinman didn't sign and participate is for a different post.

Lets read some more of what Harry wrote:

The truth is that number of people who attended this or that meeting about the evils of the internet is by now unimportant. If you think about it, this is about the fact that 'Gedolim' are becoming completely irrelevant. And events like this are accelerating the process. Less and less people are paying any attention to them. They are being increasingly ignored. People are beginning to realize how ridiculous their 'answers' to the internet problems are. The louder they scream the more they are ignored.

To an extent its true, I agree.

So many Charedim use the internet (and not only for business but for pleasure - like participating in blogs or e-mail lists) that the constant haranguing about it being Assur is becoming one big joke.

Yes!

As I recently wrote - Jonathan Rosenblum wrote a column explaining why Gedolim do not deal with the many challenges he has written about that face the Torah world today. His response was that they do not want to be called fake Gedolim. (Apparently they feel that their constituents will disagree with them to the extent that they will be ridiculed. And that in future situations they will therefore not be listened to.)

Any individual who says something like that proves to me that he absolutely NOT a Gadol. A real Gadol wouldn't care about his status as a Gadol. He would in fact be an Anav - humble about it shying away from the title. He would certainly ‘tell it like it is’. A real Gadol does not need the title. A real Gadol does not need to be elected by a committee on Agudah. Nor would he ever even strive to be a member of any kind of Moetzes. He is a Gadol with or without them.

What Harry writes here can best be summed up with what Natan Slifkin wrote here:

First of all, what does it mean that Gedolim are “afraid” of saying that which they consider true and important for helping people?! I say things that I believe are true and considerably less important for helping people, even at great personal cost (and even requiring me to file a police complaint about threats to my family). And I am not a Gadol – merely someone who was taught by his parents that integrity is of paramount importance. Rosenblum is apparently not afraid to say these things, either (at least on Cross-Currents). If someone refrains from saying something that needs to be said, on the grounds that he is afraid of people, does that not show that his yiras bnei adam exceeds hisyiras Shamayim? This would be a severe deficiency in any person – kal v’chomer for someone in a position of leadership. And if the Gedolim sometimes are motivated by fear of the kanna'im, how can anyone trust their leadership? If what Rosenblum says is true, this is an extraordinarily damning indictment of the Gedolim.

Second, with regard to Rosenblum’s comments about how people only respect and follow Gedolim insofar as they say things that they can agree with – this is true. People always claim that the Gedolim agree with them, and are loathe to say otherwise. But perhaps this is equally true of Rosenblum himself. In this article, Rosenblum claims that the Gedolim secretly agree with him that the kollel system is deeply problematic and should be radically changed. How do we know this to be true? I think it is entirely likely that this is only true of the more Americanized Gedolim that Rosenblum is in touch with – people such as Rav Aharon Feldman and the Novominsker. But I highly doubt that Rav Shmuel Auerbach, Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel and Rav Michel Lefkowitz feel the same way.

 In other words, if Gedolim can only do what the people want, then essentially the people are their own Gedolim. With Gedolim being just puppet (living room) images. And something to hide behind.

Disturbing, in any case.

Can anyone imagine any of the previous generation saying that they will not deal with a challenge because of the fear of being called a fake Gadol? R' Yaakov? R' Pam? R’ Moshe? The Rav? Rav Ahron? …and many, many others?

I thing that its the generation that chooses its Gedolim, and therefore gets what they deserve. We don't deserve better, it seems.