Tonight on the way home I listened to a Rabbi Berel Wein tape, part of a series on the confrontation between traditional Judaism and modernity that has taken place over the past 250 years. Rabbi Wein said something that, even though I must of heard it before, shocked me.
The Berlin-based Hildesheimer rabbinical seminary decided to move leave Germany in 1933. Hitler, y'sh, had just taken power and the yeshiva's leadership, headed by Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, the Seridei Eish, thought it best to leave Germany.
Where did the Hildesheimer yeshiva want to go? Jerusalem. But the move was never made. Here's why:
- Rav Kook and "all the rabbis" of Palestine vehemently opposed the move. Why? The Hildesheimer yeshiva encouraged the study of secular subjects and many, if not all, of its students pursued advanced secular education. The rabbis of the Holy Land did not think this type of school would be good for Israel.
- Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, the rabbi of Vilna, strenuously opposed the move as well, presumably for the same reasons Rav Kook and the other (haredi) rabbis did.
Because the opposition to the move was so pitched, the yeshiva gave up on the idea of moving to Jerusalem. Soon after, the doors to most countries would close. Most of the yeshiva's students were murdered in the Holocaust. In other words, those students and rabbis of the Hildesheimer school died because of Rabbi Chaim Ozer's, Rav Kook's and the Jerusalem rabbis' 'da'as Torah.' These 'guardians of Jerusalem' in effect condemned dozens of Jews, rabbis and scholars, to death because they dared to learn secular subjects.
Rabbi Wein tries to put this ghastly decision in the best possible light. While his language is by far less strenuous than mine, the key points remain.
Undoubtedly, most of these rabbis would have welcomed the Hiedisheimer yeshiva with open arms after Kristallnacht. My point is not that these men were cruel or heartless. My point is that their judgment was flawed, they made grievous errors, and they did so in the name of 'preserving' the 'purity' of Judaism. People – kind, caring, brilliant people; real people; men, women and children – were tortured and butchered as a result.
When your local Orthodox rabbi claims da'as Torah for Rabbi Elyashiv, prophecy for a hasidic rebbe, or profound insight for Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu or Rabbi Hershel Schachter, remember this.