Renegade Chasidim [With Two Important Links Towards The End]

There is a growing phenomenon of religious people, even adults, going off the derech. How widespread is this phenomenon? There is no way to know. But it is safe to say that probably over 98 percent of all adults remain religious [with young people there is a higher dropout rate]. The problem is that the 98 percent don't write books in English about how they are still frum and how wonderful it is for them to have shabbos and yom tov and a stable family life etc. etc. The very-very vocal extreme minority writes books and gives interviews and gets a lot of great press. They openly and candidly talk about their terrible lives in their restrictive communities. One of the favorite topics is their physically intimate relationships with their former spouses. S-- sells. [That is why just about every movie and novel has some.] That will get tens of thousands of hits on you-tube while let us say a rosh yeshiva's complex explanation on whether מיגו להוציא אמרינן will get about 3 and a half. I GUARANTEE that there is faaaar more intellectual depth in what the rosh yeshiva is saying than what this renegade is saying but the world delights in the salacious and scandalous. A meshune-dike yetzer hara people have. We live in a generation that is characterized more than anything perhaps than by it's superficiality and lack of desire to toil in matters of the profundities of life and existence. Most people I know are not only superficial in their theology but in their level of self-awareness as well. It is frightening to see how little people understand about themselves. And of course the two are related. To delve into one's soul is to delve into G-dliness [kviyachol]. Today everything is about MONEY-MONEY-MONEY and the things it can buy. Matters of the spirit are relegated to an occasional visit to a shiva home. Sometimes not even that.    

צירוק צו אונזער רייד:). I have not heard about any of these people's deep theological searches that led them off the path. I have also not heard what their solution to the mystery of the world is. It is all a big accident?? Science itself admits that the odds of this world being an accident are much much less than the odds of me swallowing all off the water in the world's oceans in the next 18 seconds and then turning into a giraffe who starts giving a lecture in astro-physics. So what is the meaning of life?

Many of them don't really care. They are emotionally wounded and just want to be happy. They hope that throwing off the shackles of religion will help them reach their goal. I have yet to read of one who has been successful in this quest [although such a person may exist]. They are usually miserable, some commit suicide, others need many years of therapy. They lose their families, friends and the warmth and camaraderie afforded by a religious lifestyle that the secular world doesn't provide. OK - now they can watch TV on Friday night unfettered by any restrictions. Is that a recipe for happiness?? No. So what are they left with? Broken lives. It is actually quite sad.

I wonder. How many of these people studied the Kuzari with someone who understands it? How many of them read Rav Soloveitchiks philosophical essays? How many read the Sefer Ha-Ikarim of Rav Yosef Albo?? What about the Maharal who discusses matters of faith at length? Rav Hirsch was one of the great Jewish philosophers of the 19th century. What about him? And have I forgotten Rav Kook who dealt with most questions that bother people in an open fashion. How can I skip the maamarim of the Alter Rebbe who elevates his students to the upper worlds and reveals the secrets of creation?!

It is axiomatic that NONE of them ever pursued an in depth study of these books. So how does one risk losing his ETERNAL BLISS [there is CERTAINLY no heavenly reward for leading a hedonistic lifestyle] because he had a bad father or crazy mother? I for one am convinced that it is more emotional than anything else. Some say that they had questions. There has not yet been a question that doesn't have at least one but usually numerous answers. There has not yet been even ONE proof offered against the existence of G-d. Not one.

And once they reject the tradition what do they NOW believe??! Are all of their questions suddenly answered. Ah yes. There was one molecule. BOOOOOM!! It turned into a huge chulent. Then that chulent produced single celled organisms which eventually went to a Rov and converted to being monkeys. These monkeys got tired of eating bananas all day in the zoo [w/o wi-fi] so they evolved themselves into the most complex organism in the universe called a human being. So ingenious!!:-).

How did the first molecule get there? Hmmmmm. Well, they might say, we don't have the answers to EVERYTHING. One day we will discover the answers. PER-FECT!! Use the same logic for your questions on the Torah. Study everything you can and what you don't understand you eventually will. I promise:-).   

The news sites give these people far more attention than they deserve. If you ask me - better spend your time deepening your faith than read about these nebuchs with broken lives. For me, reading about them actually strengthens my faith. I see how empty a person's life becomes when he abandons Torah. As one thinker [not from our group:-)] put it - "When man abandons G-d, G-d is not alone, man is".

Here is a beautiful essay that I would teach the world if I could on faith and doubt.

This and others like it. I sadly only have the limited forum of a few thousand people who come to the blog but maybe one day. I want to start a revolution of faith but can't do it alone. In the meantime I will suffice with this. If Hashem is kind and keeps providing me and my family with bread I hope to continue. If He doesn't [we have bitachon that He will but we always remember that Hashem doesn't work for us and does as He sees fit in His infinite wisdom] then I hope someone else takes the baton [so to speak] and spreads "gadlus ha-emuna" to the world. Not the watered-down-twitter-level-superficial-feel-good-no-obligation-man-type-of-emuna that is so prevalent and pervasive.  

וצדיק באמונתו יחיה - All of a tzadik's chiyus and life-force stem from his faith.