And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12) A pdf version of this essay can be downloaded here [*] Years in brackets refer to an individual’s or book author’s year of birth Thought experiment for the day: Anyone born 1945 would be pushing towards 80 and mostly past their prime. So name any Charedi sefer written by someone born post war that has or is likely to enter the canon, be it haloche, lomdus, al hatorah or mussar. Single one will do for now — IfYouTickleUs (@ifyoutickleus) July 27, 2022 A tweet in the summer which gained some traction asked for a book by an author born from 1945 onwards that has entered the Torah and rabbinic canon or is heading in that direction. I didn't exactly phrase it this way and some quibbled about 'canonisation'. The word does indeed have a precise meaning though in its popular use it has no narrow definition. Canonisation, or ‘entering the canon’ is generally understood to...
In a rare act of public rebuke the full-page ad below was published in Hamodia anonymously but obviously by people in the communal educational sphere. The language and tone clearly shows that they had in their sights UOHC’s recent notice on Creationism which reportedly got UOHC into trouble with The Learning Trust for its extreme language. It definitely had many educational heads hopping mad that the UOHC which runs not a single educational institution should be making such crucial decisions without consulting anyone actually running one and is likely to be affected to the tune of millions of pounds.
The operative paragraph is translated below and the speeches referred to are a reference to a speech given by the rov of Satmar ‘86’. Notwithstanding the ad, the speech must have been intended for publication as it was delivered at shaleshudes and yet it was fully recorded.
Note the defiance in the final words of the translated paragraph calling to abide by the rulings of the rabbonim and leaders of the communities, in the plural, i.e. each community should follow its own rov and disregards the UOHC nonsense. Contrast that with UOHC’s notice addressed to ‘all who abide by our rulings’ to decline early-years funding. Apparently the total to date of those who obey UOHC and have declined funding stands at precisely zero. Including Satmar ‘86’!
According to the JC the early years funding is worth £7m+ to the community annually so don’t expect obedience to UOHC to increase any time soon.
And we therefore call on every single person to act with extreme caution not to be influenced by lone extremist operators who have the potential to cause irreversible damage, Heaven forfend. They are causing damage to the wider community and God forbid we should give in to pressure applied by various people to draw conclusions and make decisions based on a lack of knowledge and understanding in these matters. There is no purpose or justification for them to publicise speeches that were delivered privately, and we must follow the Daas Torah of the rabbonim and leaders of the communities
In all fairness to UOHC (something you thought I would never say!) it is completely anonymous.
ReplyDeleteIf there is any complaint it should be to the publishers of the journals that publish anonymous.pashkevilin etc.
Mr. Tickle.
ReplyDeleteMany of us do not (and as you know, cannot) have Twitter accounts. Please, for the sake of the Tzibbur, post some of your wonderful and insightful feeds on this site.
Thank you and Good Shabbos.