Dear Everyone,
In yesterday’s shiur we discussed one of the most sensitive issues affecting the Jewish people. Rabbeinu Bachya in chapter five of his discussion on אהבת ה’ wrote that one thing which can stop the development of אהבת ה’ is misguided love. Specifically hatred towards those who love Hashem and love for those who hate Him prevent a person from loving Hashem.
Rabbeinu Bachya provides an example from the Tanach to explain his position His example is the relationship between two kings, יהושפט and אחאב. Yehoshafat was one of the greatest and most righteous kings of Judea while Ahab was one of the most evil and wicked kings to rule over the ten tribes of Israel. When we study Tanach we see that there was usually tension if not outright warfare between these two Jewish kingdoms. The exception to this state of affairs was the relationship between Yehoshafat and the family of Ahab. They were so close that Yehoshafat took Ahab’s daughter as a wife for his son.[1] Yehoshafat fought as an ally with both Ahab and his son Yehoram. He also participated in maritime ventures with another son of Ahab, Ahazyahu. Hashem did not approve of Yehoshafat’s collaborations with these evil kings and sent prophets to Yehoshafat to make this clear.
After surviving the war in which he fought along with Ahab (who was killed in battle) Yehoshafat was told this message:
דברי הימים ב פרק יט
(ב) וַיֵּצֵא אֶל פָּנָיו יֵהוּא בֶן חֲנָנִי הַחֹזֶה וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל הַמֶּלֶךְ יְהוֹשָׁפָט הֲלָרָשָׁע לַעְזֹר וּלְשֹׂנְאֵי יְיָ תֶּאֱהָב וּבָזֹאת עָלֶיךָ קֶּצֶף מִלִּפְנֵי יְיָ:
After Yehoshafat’s fleet was destroyed he received this message:
דברי הימים ב פרק כ
(לז) וַיִּתְנַבֵּא אֱלִיעֶזֶר בֶּן דֹּדָוָהוּ מִמָּרֵשָׁה עַל יְהוֹשָׁפָט לֵאמֹר כְּהִתְחַבֶּרְךָ עִם אֲחַזְיָהוּ פָּרַץ יְיָ אֶת מַעֲשֶׂיךָ וַיִּשָּׁבְרוּ אֳנִיּוֹת וְלֹא עָצְרוּ לָלֶכֶת אֶל תַּרְשִׁישׁ:
Yehoshafat was a great tzaddik. He must have had very good reasons for working with the kings of Northern Israel. Perhaps he thought that by working with them he could influence them to do teshuvah. But whatever his motives may have been Hashem did not approve of this cooperation and his joint ventures ended in failure.[2]
These stories in the Tanach about Yehoshfat are of course lessons and we need to learn form them. The failure to treat Hashem’s enemies (and there can be no doubt about Ahab’s character) as our enemies displays a sort of confusion within our value system. Rabbeinu Bachya says over and over that true love for Hashem is an all-encompassing emotion and can leave no room for other loves, and certainly not for any love towards people like Ahab.
The Poskim applied the lesson of Yehoshafat towards our relationships with non-observant Jews. In the Gemarah there are discussions about dealing with non-observant individual Jews, This sort of cooperation is referred to מחזיק ידי עוברי עבירה. There are fewer discussions about dealing with groups or movements of non-observant Jews. Groups such as the Saduccees/צידוקים or early followers of Christianity (to whom the label מינים was attached[3]) were viewed as enemies of the Jews and cooperation with them was apparently unthinkable to the sages.
In the 19th century with the triumph of the Haskalah , Reform and other such movements the observant Jews found themselves to be an embattled minority within the Jewish people. This change in the composition of the Jewish people has made the question of how we should relate to non-observant Jews one of the most important issues facing us today.
The 19th century authority, the Netziv[4] adopted a nuanced approach to the question. In one teshuvah, the Netziv wrote that it is absolutely forbidden to cooperate with a group known as “Beit Ya’akov[5]” in anything having to do with prayer. This group’s members did not observe Shabbat. And even though the Halacha permits us to pray with non-observant individuals there is no basis for assuming that this group will do teshuvah en masse. The Netziv, basing himself on a verse from Mishlei says there are two realms in which we may be called upon to cooperate with non-observant Jews and each realm has its own appropriate response. If we are called upon to cooperate with non-observant Jews in commercial or other secular ventures then we may do so if we are careful not to allow this business relationship to evolve into a personal one. The other realm for cooperation is the religious one. Here it is absolutely forbidden for us to cooperate with non-observant Jews since the religious habits of non-observant Jews are totally incompatible with the Halacha and are destructive. The Netziv writes that Yehoshfat was fortunate in that Hashem brought an immediate end to his venture Ahab’s son. Even though the goal of the partnership was profit their relationship was a friendly one[6] and thus culpable.
On the other hand the Netziv opposed a policy of Orthodox Jews seceding from the larger Jewish community. In the United States there is separation of church and state but in Czarist Russia (and this is still the case in certain countries for better or for worse) the government recognizes religious groups and deals with them on an official basis. When Rav Shimshon Rephael Hirsch zt”l revived Orthodox Judaism in Germany he petitioned the local authorities to recognize his Orthodox community as a separate religious group, unaffiliated with the “original” recognized Jewish community which was by that time dominated by Reform Jews.[7] This sharp demarcation between observant and non-observant Jews became the model for other communities in Germany and Austro-Hungary. The Netziv opposed this tendency. He refers to it as “a sword-blow to the body of the nation.” The Jewish people are a persecuted minority and our only hope is to maintain our unity when facing the Gentiles. We must do all we can to strengthen the observance of the Torah, but this can only be done by the strengthening Jewish education and separating ourselves into competing communities will not further this goal.
In the 20th century this question arose in the United States where Jewish communities established community-wide institutions such as the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. The leading Halachic authorities of the time (with one exception) forbade Orthodox Jews from contributing to these funds. Supporting non-Orthodox institutions simply empowers those who transgress the Torah.[8] In Mexico where apparently the government dealt with ( and subsidized) the organized Jewish community , Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l forbade Orthodox Jews to sit on committees with non-Orthodox Jews if those committees have any influence over matters such as education or “culture.” If there needs to be a committee to deal with the government on these matters the Orthodox Jews need to have a committee of their own. On the other hand , he ruled that there is nothing wrong with cooperating with non-Orthodox Jews in purely civic matters.
The decision that Orthodox Jews need to abstain from cooperating with non-Orthodox Jews caused a tear in the Jewish community that still exists. In one respect it helped the struggling Orthodox community to maintain its way of life when assimilationist tendencies were threatening to lead to the demise of Halachic Judaism in the United States. On the other hand it made cooperation on topics of community-wide concern fraught with tension.
As I mentioned there was one authority who held that Orthodox Jews should contribute to community-wide philanthropic funds. Rav Lichtenstein שליט”א describes the opinion of his father-in-law , Rav Soloveitchik zt”l, on this matter. Rav Soloveitchik zt”l who forbade entering a Conservative synagogue in order to hear the shofar on Rosh Hashanah nonetheless permitted Orthodox Jews to contribute to the community-wide philanthropic fund in Boston, Massachusetts..[9]
The question of how observant Jews should interact (if at all!) with non-observant Jews has tormented us for hundreds of years. In Israel Rav Kook zt”l was the victim of vicious attacks because of his willingness to embrace secular Zionists.
The need to separate between cooperating and endorsing is of course essential. The Netizv’s call for unity between all Jews regardless of their level of observance while insisting on the truth of the Halacha seems to me at least to be the key to our survival.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the shiur. Stuart Fischman
[1] This had very unfortunate results for Yehoshafat’s son, Yehoram.
מלכים ב פרק ח
(טז) וּבִשְׁנַת חָמֵשׁ לְיוֹרָם בֶּן אַחְאָב מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל וִיהוֹשָׁפָט מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה מָלַךְ יְהוֹרָם בֶּן יְהוֹשָׁפָט מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה:
(יז) בֶּן שְׁלֹשִׁים וּשְׁתַּיִם שָׁנָה הָיָה בְמָלְכוֹ וּשְׁמֹנֶה שנה שָׁנִים מָלַךְ בִּירוּשָׁלִָם:
(יח) וַיֵּלֶךְ בְּדֶרֶךְ מַלְכֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ בֵּית אַחְאָב כִּי בַּת אַחְאָב הָיְתָה לּוֹ לְאִשָּׁה וַיַּעַשׂ הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יְיָ:
[2] The interesting exception is Yehoshafat’s successful war which he fought along with Ahab’s son Yehoram
מלכים ב פרק ג
(ז) וַיֵּלֶךְ וַיִּשְׁלַח אֶל יְהוֹשָׁפָט מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה לֵאמֹר מֶלֶךְ מוֹאָב פָּשַׁע בִּי הֲתֵלֵךְ אִתִּי אֶל מוֹאָב לַמִּלְחָמָה וַיֹּאמֶר אֶעֱלֶה כָּמוֹנִי כָמוֹךָ כְּעַמִּי כְעַמֶּךָ כְּסוּסַי כְּסוּסֶיךָ:
[3] http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%AA_%28%D7%99%D7%94%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA%29
[4] MESHIV DAVAR
Rabbi Naphtali Tzvi Judah Berlin (Netziv) was born in Mir, Russia, in 1817, and died in Warsaw, Poland, in 1893. He was renowed primarily as head of the yeshivah of Volozhin in Russia, the “mother of modern yeshivot.” Berlin wrote commentaries on the Bible, the halachic midrashim, the Talmud, and the She’iltot, as well as many responsa. During his term as head of the Volozhin yeshivah, the student body of that institution included more than 400 students, who received close personal attention from him. Berlin was active in communal affairs, and he supported the Chovevei Zion movement, which advocated Jewish settlement in Israel.
[5] I don’t know anything about this group, but it should not be confused with the network of school for girls.
[6] Yehoshafat was accused of being a friend to Ahab’s son
דברי הימים ב פרק כ
(לז) וַיִּתְנַבֵּא אֱלִיעֶזֶר בֶּן דֹּדָוָהוּ מִמָּרֵשָׁה עַל יְהוֹשָׁפָט לֵאמֹר כְּהִתְחַבֶּרְךָ עִם אֲחַזְיָהוּ פָּרַץ יְיָ אֶת מַעֲשֶׂיךָ וַיִּשָּׁבְרוּ אֳנִיּוֹת וְלֹא עָצְרוּ לָלֶכֶת אֶל תַּרְשִׁישׁ:
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Raphael_Hirsch
[8] Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l allowed Ortodox Jews to contribute to community-wide funds on the condition that Orthodox institutions would receive more disbursements than non-Orthodox instittions.
[9] For a long, if rambling discussion of the matter of the Rav’s attitude towards working with non-Orthodox rabbis see the Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_B._Soloveitchik
and the Google search page: