I know this "Orthodox" Rabbi [and there are many like him] who is a FANATIC!! Super-extreme. Hyper-fundamentalist. He brooks [a rather stuffy way of saying "puts up with"] no compromise or disagreement. It is his way or the highway.
Yet he is very lax in his Halachic standards. No issur of Kol Isha or Negiya. Girls in his community dress in very not modest ways [and not a kerchief or even sheitel to be seen for the marrieds]. His congregants send their children en masse to the worst institutions of lower learning such as Harvard and Columbia where znus and kfirah are rampant. The level of Torah knowledge among his followers is very very low etc. etc. He hates "chunyuks" and loves to inveigh against them. You get the idea.
So how does that square with his own religious fanaticism?
Oh, his fanaticism is not about following Torah and mitzvos but about .... Zionism. So he is ALSO a close-minded chunyuk. Just not about our tradition but about modern Zionism.
There are also fanatics about sports teams and movies. That is why they are called "fans".
Mussar Haskel: Passion is very important. We must be careful to direct it to the right places.
