light of 12 Heshvan 5781
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| This is the picture on the "Fourth Revolution in Torah Learning" article. |
The question, on the Tomer Devorah blog in her article "'Fourth Industrial Revolution' or Fourth Reich?" was:
I know this question will be off-putting to many people, but my inquiring mind needs to know, is the The Fourth Revolution in Torah Learning somehow part of all this, too? If anyone has a serious answer to this, please respond in the comments section below. Thanks!
I ended up with a post-sized reply, so I got permission to put it here instead. I don't actually think I can answer it; but I am pointing out some signposts I found along the way.
Whether she finds something here or not, I pray that Devash will find what she is looking for. After all, I believe she is asking whether the Jewish People (or people who are perceived to be Jews and may or may not be) are contributing to the world's domination and demise by evil people who wish to be worshiped and obeyed as god, when our mission is the repair of the earth and all who live on it, when HaShem is openly King of the domain He created and made. It's a really important question!
You might want to read the articles linked to above before coming back to read mine. Or read them in reverse order. Whatever will help you understand better and help answer her question.
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To attempt even a l-i-t-t-l-e bit to answer your question, Devash: First of all I probably had this question too, but in a different form. I have a post coming up that takes on at least part of what it will take to bring us back from the brink of utter submission to the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" — or Fourth Reich.
I think we have to examine each "revolution" along with the path all of them take, and ask ourselves whether we'd arrived at the place we were meant to. Or were we deviated just a little bit each time? Maybe a lot?
The justification for each one of them is "The time has come “to act for God [by their] transgressing Your Torah." I think a hint to the answer to your question is found in this sentence. What kind of statement is this? Can we really act for the One who defined transgression (averáh) by transgressing? Is this a challenge, to see how far H' can push us away and still have us struggling to find our way back, or praying for help to find the way?
Or, maybe it's an opportunity for others to try to pick off the ones who have deviated from the path. And this is where the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" may come in, if it does. If we have deviated too far, or our goals meshed sufficiently with theirs, even accidentally, it might be easier for the NWO people to demand of those among us what they want from the rest of the world. And what if they are really among us, living where we live and so on? I shudder to think about it.
Back to the path our revolutions took. It seems that each revolution was an answer to an exigency:
1. Transcribing the Oral Torah: We're about to lose our land and be scattered all over the world. How are we going to cling to our oral understanding of Torah without ending up completely different from where we started? Like the author of the article, I'm not sure we had a choice in the matter. And it may have contributed to a certain lack of ease in how we understand Torah from the Talmud that was created. The "Jewish Body of Knowledge" does keep getting bigger and bigger...and bigger...I'm wondering who the next contemporary sage is, to have his interpretations considered like part of the Talmud, after R' Moshe Feinstein, or maybe after R' Ovadia Yosef.
2. "His Torah is his Trade": We're in a dilemma: Can we balance Torah study with a profession in our country of exile and still do both well enough to keep each one, and still teach our children and otherwise engage with our family? And where are we now? In the end some of us were shamed into giving up Torah study and working harder (I'm looking at you, Christian Europe.). Some of us were ashamed to even go out at all because of all the humiliations (I'm looking at you, Muslim countries, mostly in the Middle East and North Africa.). Some of us may not have had enough Jewish women to marry, the exile we were in loved us so much (I'm looking at you, Kaifeng, China.). All these took place over vast periods of time. And earning money for teaching Torah was eventually permitted, as the article states.
Someone has to teach the children...if Abba can't do it, he has to hire someone. The more Abbas that can't, the more the moréh can make while charging each one less.
3. Torah Study for Women: A very real issue: With non-Jewish girls getting education around them, were Jewish girls expected to continue to receive almost none, and meanwhile have the strength to withstand the temptations to go outside our boundaries? Has it turned out to be good for the Jewish people until now? (Please take this in the best sense: I do wish that the sages responsible hadn't been so quick to lower us in their opinion. If we weren't smart enough to avoid belittling important Torah teachings, then HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO TRUST US TO RAISE YOUR (really OUR) CHILDREN??? After all, it takes intelligence to prioritize according to importance. And our children are really our most important priority when it comes to the future.)
I don't think that is really why women weren't educated: It costs money. The more school education the girl receives, the less children the grown woman ends up bearing. (Bill Gates pointed that out when speaking of the poor women of Africa (and India?), but I don't have time to find where he said it right now. It applies to all of us.) We kept needing to make up for all the slaughters and still maintain a holy people while we were in exile (and for many, while we ARE in exile)! But the real question here is whether the quality of Jewish education, both for boys and for girls, is better today or worse, is more appropriate or less so, and is even available or not (you'd be surprised at how many Jewish children have no opportunity for Jewish education! Chabad to the rescue — in many places.).
And there are other reasons I can't think of right now. But this has proved to be an open door for sneaky organizations with a hidden motive to steal away Jewish women from true Judaism! I'm looking at you, Open Orthodoxy, Tikkun Olam and others as well.
Now, to bring up the theoretical revolution, #4, Torah Study for Gentiles — which hasn't really arrived yet in the manner our author (whoever he may be) seems to be writing about. He acknowledges "...modern Judaism is suffering from a deep crisis. Many individuals (and even groups) have distanced themselves from Torah study and even from their Jewish identity." Maybe it's because they were taught by the Gentiles, or even the Jews, who secretly want to further divert their path?
And the author of the article you asked about really believes that by teaching Gentiles our Torah beyond the laws of Noah it's going to help Jews who are far from HQB"H? We have to take a few steps before going there:
1. Make sure we start that only when non-Jews in general have the proper respect for the people who have been carrying Torah and living by it as best we can for close to 3,500 years, despite all their machinations and conspiracies — from Ephron the Hittite until this very day.
Hidden antisemitism will come out if it's there. It shouldn't embarrass us to expose them, no matter how much a fuss they make of it, once we decide they have crossed a line they shouldn't have.
2. Are they firmly grounded in Noah's Laws? They should be. The Seven are the basis of ALL LAW on the earth, as we both, and our readers, know well.
Further, it is dangerous for them to learn Torah before derekh eretz, the basis of Noahide law. It is poison to the person who lacks it, whether s/he be Jew or not. We all needed to learn to say "please" and "thank you" before we reached the age when we would learn any Torah precept.
There may be more steps. If I think of any more, I may update them here in the body of the post. Take this as a call for comment on the part of others who think of more!
