Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum Lies About Evolution

Am Echad was founded by Agudath Israel's Rabbi Moshe Sherer to fight the idea of "streams" or denominations in Judaism. Only one legitimate form of Judaism exists according to Rabbi Sherer's ideology – haredi. Everything that is not ultra-Orthodox is therefore treife, including, it would seem Modern Orthodoxy.

Am Echad's chief spinmeister is Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum, a convert to haredism. (Yes, I know this is politically incorrect; Rabbi Rosenblum is a ba'al teshuva, and, as the haredi dogma goes, a Jew cannot convert to haredism – he simply "returns" to his natural state. This dogma is false, but here is not the place to explain why.) Rabbi Rosenblum, a product of the Ivy League, is a talented polemicist. His latest effort is a broadside against evolution, in which Rabbi Rosenblum sets up several straw men and then – effortlessly! imagine that! – knocks them down. He does this by selecting statements from evolution's scientific critics and buttresses them with out of context quotes from evolution's scientific supporters.

What Rosenblum does not tell you is the scientific critics of evolution number proportionately fewer than the number of academics who deny the Holocaust. It is like taking a minute sample of Americans who support a Stalinist takeover of America and representing them as a significant force in American politics. He also insists on labeling evolution as random, when only the most radical scientists (helpfully quoted by Rosenblum to misrepresent the scientific mainstream) would describe it that way.

Further, Rosenblum avoids entirely recent findings in genetics that confirm findings in other disciplines dating human presence on this earth to tens of thousands of years ago – much earlier than the Torah's 6000-year-old universe allows.

Haredim, fresh from their ban on Rabbi Nosson Slifkin, are now engaged – with the help of Christian fundamentalists – in an effort to promote Intelligent Design, the pseudo-science created by Christian fundamentalists after their earlier pseudo-science, creationism, was laughed out of court and out of the nation's public schools. They want ID taught as science in public schools, even though ID has no peer reviewed science and is nothing more than religion thinly, if at all, veiled.

Rosenblum will argue his misrepresentations are not lies and, while drawn brashly for effect, his points are not invalid.

But truth matters. As does context. As do one's political bedfellows. Science has taken us from donkey carts and witches brews to airplanes, space flights and modern medicine in less than 200 years. It did so in large part because it was freed from the restraints of religion enforced by a state-supported church and a rabbi-dominated Jewish community. Rosenblum would return us to those days of yore to preserve his fundamentalist reading of the Torah. We must not let him.

Comments

[Detective]

I am interested to know if you are willing to help me in my quest to find out where exactly did "Rabbi" Yonason (formerly Jonathan) Rosenblum receive S'micha?

Thank You

[SS]

Who says he has semichah? I assume he can't read a Mishnah Berurah.

[Isa]

Dear Detective:
I give a short discussion on S'micha about the various levels. Very unfortunitly, people have received S'micha under dubious circumstances. Even then even unordained people have used the title rabbi, especially if they are teaching at some religious school. Then they get a job and they keep using the title rabbi. This happens more often than one would think.

We have a system today in which there are really 3 levels of smicha and a 4th category that we allow to use the title Rabbi even though they don't really have a smicha and can't give smicha under our system.

All 4 from lowest level to highest:

1) Rav u'manhig
Really just permission to use the title Rabbi. Just a community leader/teacher. No permission to give wide psak and likely no right to give smicha to others.

One caveat, such an individual may have been given a very narrow right by their teacher to give psak in a very narrow area to a very limited degree. Beyond that, they must forward questions to a recognized posek.

The following 3 groups can give smicha at their level and below:

2)
Yoreh Yoreh can give psak except in more specialized areas like Dinei Nidah and can't be a judge.

3) Yadin Yadin can be a judge and rule in dinei Nidah.

4) There is a level of smicha that deals with making rulings in regard to Temple work. Obviously, not as practical an area (for now) and as far as I know is not widely given. Usually, people giving/receiving such smicha today are people who have strong emunah in regard to the immediate coming of the Moshiach.
This is called Yechachin Yechachin

[Shmarya]

I believe he learned for many years in Ohr Somayach and then got smicha from someone at the Mir. Perhaps Rabbi Rosenblum will clarify this for us.

[rebeljew]

The premise that charedi is the only "real" Judaism is not incorrect. Modern Orthodox, like Conservative before it, was reactive. No one in the shtetl was modern Orthodox nor Conservative. No one claims that they were. The problem is the reason why MO and Conservative came into being in the first place. That is, it became impossible to defend some of the philosophy of fundamentalist charedism. Some big names joined this fight as MO's but that does not change the fact that they were trying to keep Jews frum, not to promote what was traditionally called frum. There was no reason for the uneducated masses to be MO in the middle ages shtetl. The only question was how best to reatin the youth.

While this admits that MO is not authentic in the last 1000 years (not to say that it is not defendable, just not traditionally authentic), it also admits that charedism was incapable of holding the lion's share of Jews philosophically. If Mo was what they did rather than frei-ing out, imagine how quickly they were frei-ing out.

[rebeljew]

The levels of smicha come from Sanhedrin 5 or 6. They would ask the court about a particular sage Yoreh? (Is he allowed to teach dinim of issur v'heter?) They would respond Yoreh! He is indeed allowed. Hence, yoreh yoreh and yadin yadin, which deals with money matters. The other level mentioned there is Yatir yatir, which allowed him to paskin mum on a bachor animal. I can not find a source for yachanin.

[Shmarya]

Rebel –

Remember haredism was not the normative Judaism pre-1800. Haredism is a response to modernity, just as the Torah im Derech Eretz movement (i.e., Modern Orthodoxy) and, yes, the Reform movement. The Conservative movement is a response to the excesses of early reform and the refusal of haredim in America to accomodate American-born Jews who spoke English and had secular educations. In many ways, clasical Conservative Judaism is closer to the Judaism of the Rishonim than any other.

[Shmarya]

Rebel Jew writes in response to Isa: The levels of smicha come from Sanhedrin 5 or 6. They would ask the court about a particular sage Yoreh? (Is he allowed to teach dinim of issur v'heter?) They would respond Yoreh! He is indeed allowed. Hence, yoreh yoreh and yadin yadin, which deals with money matters. The other level mentioned there is Yatir yatir, which allowed him to paskin mum on a bachor animal. I can not find a source for yachanin.

Let me correct you. There are five types of smicha, not four:

1. Yoreh Yoreh.
2. Yadin Yadin.
3. Yatin Yatin.
4. Yachanin Yachanin.
5. Meshuggena Meshuggena.

The latter allows one to paskin on the identity of mashiach. Many Chabad rabbis have this.

[Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky]

B"H
Shmarya do you realize that this joke is an insult to someone like Rabbi Akiva who proclaimed Bar Kochba the Moshiach not just to Chabad Rabbis you dislike?

[Isa]

To all those that contributed to explaning the levels of S'micha- I thank you
ISA

[Nachum]

Erm, Ariel: He was wrong, wasn't he?

[Un-Orthodox Jew]

The vast majority of Orthodox rabbonim do not have any formal s'micha, except for
YU, which has an official program mostly for those who choose rabbonus as their life's work.

[ma rabbi]

To Un Orthodox Jew:
You are wrong in stating that only YU rabbis have Orthodox Semicha. I am a Chabad rabbi who,on the advice of the Rebbe, learned in MTJ and received Semicha from Rav Moshe in 1974. Most of my chabad peers received thier semicha from United Lubavitcher Yeshiva. My not chassidic peers received theirs from Ner Yisroel, Chofetz Chaim, Torah Vodaath, and many other fine Yeshivas. YU is not the only show in town.

[ma rabbi]

I will say one thing about the YU semicha. They teach their students practical rabbinics. They teach them how to officiate at a wedding or G-d forbid a funeral.I had to learn these matters on my own I wish the other yeshivas would emulate YU in this regard.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

Ariel wrote: "Shmarya do you realize that this joke is an insult to someone like Rabbi Akiva who proclaimed Bar Kochba the Moshiach not just to Chabad Rabbis you dislike?"

Ariel: I sometimes wonder if the fate of Rabbi Akiva, our sage of blessed memory, is perhaps telling in this regard. Let us not forget that failed revolt may have cost more Jewish lives than any other event until the Shoah.

Shmarya wrote: "Remember haredism was not the normative Judaism pre-1800."

It may perhaps trace its roots to the end of the sixteenth century, as a reaction to the chaos following the expulsion from Spain and the Shabbatai Tsvi debacle. Much rational halachic progress seems to have stopped at that point. "Shtetloxy" may be begun with those events and then been codified as a reaction to the constant danger from the various charming "locals" who plundered Jewish settlements on a regular basis.

"In many ways, clasical Conservative Judaism is closer to the Judaism of the Rishonim than any other."

So true, and a painful reminder of how far the movement has careened off the path set by those great men. Shmarya, JTS could use a few good men such as yourself to help them find their way back to those roots. How about running for the Chancellor position? ;-)

[Yochanan Lavie]

The Union for Traditional Judiasm, www.utj.org, is a group of disgruntled Conservative rabbis who want a progressive, yet halachic Judaism. Rabbi Weiss-Halivni is one of their scholars. They also include Modern Orthodox types who feel alienated by the chareidization of Orthodoxy. That might be more to your liking, Shmarya.

[Shmarya]

I'm familiar with Rabbi Halivni's work. He's in a very difficult spot, caught between an increasingly ahalakhic Conservative Movement and a MO moving ever rightward. It's hard to sell shades of gray when your competition offers black and white.

Thanks …

[David N. Friedman]

It is sad no one has responded to the falsehoods spread about Jonathan Rosenblum in his straight-forward piece on the Aish website. If someone wants to call someone a liar, it is a good idea to have at least a bit of reason. I am offended by the person who wrote such a posting on a Jewish website.

"What Rosenblum does not tell you is that the number of scientific critics of evolution are proportionatley fewer than the number of Holocaust deniers"--- what kind of cheap shot is this? Please. Must I say that Holocaust denial is rubbish while the number of critics of evolution is a distinguished group of over 500 scientists who will publicly acknowledge the truth while perhaps another 5000 do so privately. Then analogy of disbelief in evolution and disbelief in the Holocaust is truly stunning and off the charts.

I invite the reader to scan through the list of those distinguished scientists who believe that natural selection and random mutations offer nothing of value to explain the realities of the world. Please open your eyes to the current understandings. It is fine if you wish to believe if myth and fantasy but you cannot say that all scientists swallow the Darwinian line whole because they do not.

Rosenblum did not indicate that he believes that the universe is 6000 years old. Please stop this canard. On the same website, at least to Aish lecturers easily accept the age of the universe as our sages stated as 15 billion years old.

It is a good idea to stop blaming religion in general and Judaism in particular for keeping our society down when it has been Jews in particular who have been so prominent in modern science and Judaism that has been redeemed by the modern scientific discoveries predicted by our Torah.

[Shmarya]

"Must I say that Holocaust denial is rubbish while the number of critics of evolution is a distinguished group of over 500 scientists who will publicly acknowledge the truth while perhaps another 5000 do so privately"

Bull shit.

On an earlier post, I thought you were sheltered. Delusional might be the better term.

"Rosenblum did not indicate that he believes that the universe is 6000 years old. Please stop this canard. On the same website, at least to Aish lecturers easily accept the age of the universe as our sages stated as 15 billion years old."

No, not any more they don't. Ever hear about the Rabbi Slifkin excommunication? If you have not, shut up an learn. If you have, stop lying.

[Shmarya]

I should also add that Rosenblum is a hired shill for the rabbis who banned Rabbi Slifkin.

[David N. Friedman]

Your response to my criticism that you compare Holocaust denial to criticism of Darwinian evolution is to curse me and throw me an expletive.

How many scientists are necessary to convince you that natural selection and random forces fail to explain life and its complexity? You might say that the list compiled by the Discovery Intitute is honest and as I istated, for everyone on this list there are countless others who believe that Darwin is a failed philosophy and not a working theory--but if you simply acknowledged facts you would have to apologize.

I believe you surely owe an apology to Rosenblum.

Further, I cannot understand your anger. Is it a problem that scientists cannot offer any proof and other scientists mistrust the hypothesis? Is it that Rabbis believe in God as Creator? Please tell me what "Failed Messiah" means.

[Shmarya]

You will not address the Rabbi Slifkin Ban, because if you do, you lose.

The Discovery institute is not an unbiased source. Further, most opf their scientists are NOT biologists, geologists, evolutionary biologists, etc. They are NOT in the field.

And again, either address the Rabbi Slifkin Ban or go away.

[David]

Unorthodox Jew:

Only YU? What planet are you living on? There are numerous formal semicha programs out there - what about the Israeli Rabbinate which has programs for yoreh yoreh and yadin yadin, plus an additional level for the chief rabbi of a city. As a result, almost every orthodox rabbi in Israel has formal semicha. And chabad has one, and the soleveitchiks, and... and... and... most of these have similiar requirements in terms of the materials covered. In fact YU's semicha for yadin-yadin, while perfectely sound, convers less material than the Rabbinate yadin-yadin in Israel.