Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Opinions From Whence

To expand on this post:

It is a churban when people, especially rabbis and educators, turn to secular websites and cite them as sources for their [non-Torah] opinions. Every few years, attitudes and opinions change. Our pride is that our values are timeless. We don't need or want attitudes from the outside [and often "dark side" - סטרא אחרא]. [I don't mean that all general knowledge should be shunned. Just that random opinions that contradict Torah are irrelevent]. 

F'rinstence, if I am discussing a halacha in hilchos lashon hara with my friend and I say "It is permitted to say that about someone else because Donald Trump says it all the time and says that he is completely justified in doing so" then I should be gently lifted up and thrown out - preferably on my head:-). Maybe, MAYBE for a Purim shpiel but not for real life.

Opinon pieces in the "Times Of Israel" and those of various pundits, male and female alike, have no place in the Beis Medrash [unless it is for the purpose of contrasting the truth with their falsehood]. If anyone brings them into the Beis Medrash, then it doesn't matter who he is, how long his beard may or may not be, how many degrees or titles he has - it must be condemned. It is a bizayon ha-Torah ובמקום שיש חילול השם אין חולקין כבוד לרב.

If someone has an opinion and wants it to be considered then it must stem from the Torah and/or the G-dly soul with which we are all endowed - אני בראתי את האדם ישר. But not from the contemporary feminist-misandrist*-liberal-secular-post-modern gibberish that pervades the Internet.    


ישמע חכם ויוסף לקח.   


*man-hater - the oppposite of misogynist.