Toronto Orthodoxy In "Uproar" Over New R. Slifkin Ban

The Canadian Jewish Tribune reports:

Toronto’s Orthodox community was in uproar this week following the circulation of a letter by one of the city’s leading Rabbinic authorities, Rabbi Shlomoh Eliyahu Miller, head of the Kollel Avreichim (an advanced institute of Talmud study for married men).

The letter condemned the books of Rabbi Noson Slifkin, the ‘Zoo Rabbi’ as “words of heresy and denial…and ignorance,” for apparently suggesting that scientific knowledge could ever take precedence over rabbinic lore in explaining the origin of the world, astronomy or the laws of nature. Rabbi Slifkin lectured to capacity audiences in the city this weekend as a guest of the ‘Torah in Motion’ program.

Rabbi Slifkin’s books, which discuss various aspects of zoology, evolution and the animal kingdom in the light of rabbinic tradition, stress the rabbinic authorities through the ages who have welcomed scientific thought as illuminating – not contradicting – traditional Judaism. As such, he has been under sustained attack for more than a year by ultra-Orthodox leaders in Israel and the United States.

The attempt to ban his books and ostracise him, further fanned by what have been identified as clumsy attempts to attack modern science, provoked a huge crisis of confidence in Orthodox circles. The attacks on Slifkin were criticized as attempted ‘thought control’ in the Orthodox community, aimed at enforcing one interpretation of tradition, and intimidating anyone holding – or approving – alternative views. The Internet, and particularly the ‘blogs,’ were major forums in publicizing and discussing the unfolding of events.

Local orthodox leaders expressed concern regarding both the content and the tone of Rabbi Miller’s letter. Rabbi Miller criticizes Rabbi Slifkin’s views, defines him as a heretic, compares him to the ‘wicked son’ of the Pesach Haggadah, and explains that it is obligatory for Jews to believe in Rabbinic traditions, giving as an example the belief that Cain and Abel were born on the sixth day of creation, without any gestation period.

He then says that he will “strengthen the hearts of those who may have heard the words of denial (divrei kefirah)” by giving examples (apparently unrelated to Slifkin) of how the Torah has proven astronomy wrong, and how the Talmudic rabbis knew advanced science from biblical exegesis.

He further points out that in discussing the nature of light, the rabbis define darkness not as the absence of light, but as a real substance, and that in this “scientists are wrong.” In the letter he refers to Galileo, Quantum Mechanics, ‘Non-local reality’ and Bell’s Theorem as perhaps offering confirmation of his views. A local Orthodox Jewish scientist termed the scientific content of the letter “perplexing.”

Comments

[yudel shain]

It looks like Slifkin is for the history books only-no more current events.

Yudel Shain

[Shmuel]

"For the history books only"? "No more current events"?
Say what, sister?
Are you kidding? He commands capacity crowds in Toronto. His books are selling briskly through Yashar Publishing; I myself learned of the ban and then did what any good Jew with a brain in his head would do: I immediately ordered up a copy of "Mysterious Creatures" over the web (oops, more treifkeit) which I'm enjoying immensely. It's totally mind-opening to learn that as a good Jew I have to believe in the impossible, like spontaneous generation of lice, half mud/half flesh mice, mermaids and unicorns, among other non-existent matters.
Slifkin lives. His views live. His fans support him. And, if they're like me, they're going to slowly disengage from monetarily supporting the embarassing and near-imbecilic chareidi world. Those yeshivas will lose tens of thousands of dollars; then maybe they'll understand that there is indeed a price to pay when you attempt to ruin a man's life and living: your own living gets ruined.
I expect hundreds more of those sniveling plea letters from the "moisdois" soon. They'll go straight in the trash. Now I support Edah, YCT, YU...all the treif stuff. At least they don't humiliate Judaism in front of the whole world.

[Shmuel]

And another thing:
You know what's just so ironic? Rabbis today deny the existence of dinosaurs, yet hundreds, if not thousands, of dinosaur fossils have been found worldwide. Yet those same rabbis believe in unicorns, mermaids, etc., which never were and never will be, and there are no fossils of them. Strange.
And why do they believe in the non-existent? Because the rabbis of the Talmud relied on the science of their day. Romans wrote about that stuff, the rabbis believed them. Why won't rabbis today follow the path of Chazal and rely on the science of their day?