Cross-currents, TheTorah.com and an ongoing controversy

Recent weeks have seen an explosion of online discussion and debate concerning theTorah.com, a website which describes its purpose as “Torah study informed and enriched by contemporary scholarship”. A provocative article last month in Ha’aretz, an Israeli newspaper, celebrated the primary mission of Torah.com as “introducing religious Jews to contemporary biblical scholarship, which assumes that the Torah was written by people over time and should not be taken literally”. Most controversially, the article repeatedly identified the website’s content and authors as Orthodox – a description which has caused a stir.

This drew strong responses on the Cross-Currents.com website, which comments on Jewish thought from a more a traditional perspective. R’ Avrohom Gordimer argued that “TheTorah.com is a website run by Jews who for the most part refer to themselves as Orthodox, but who have rejected paramount Orthodox beliefs”. What particularly bothered Gordimer, however, was that unlike other clearly non-Orthodox websites which present embrace the conclusions of biblical criticism, “TheTorah.com cleverly masks its true nature, due to the self-proclaimed Orthodoxy of its management and many of its writers”. A more measured follow-up from R’ Yitzchok Adlerstein wrote that “no one has come up with anything resembling “proof” of the non-existence of G-d, or the non-Divinity of the Torah…there are multiple and competing ways of interpreting evidence… What should happen at that point to anyone who had a good relationship with HKBH, is that loyalty to Him should take over.”

This latter point was also the subject of a post by the prominent and prolific YU blogger and social media personality, Steve Gotlib. Gotlib criticises TheTorah.com’s typically condescending contention that “the contemporary educated world approaches the Torah as a composite work”, writing that “the view of the Torah as a composite work is NOT universally held in the academic world. Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman (himself an Academic Biblical Scholar) has loudly made this point many times and has been actively fighting against this false-portrayal of the academic world”.

One important difference between the articles however is in their proposed solutions. While Gotlib suggests improving the Orthodox educational framework in order to help it rise to such challenges, R’ Adlerstein seeks to reaffirm the prohibition against involvement in study of biblical criticism.

Judaism Reclaimed analyses these two contrasting approaches to thorny theological questions in its introductory chapter (fully available on the JudaismReclaimed.com website), noting they are both reflected in early debates in Jewish thought. I proceed to argue however that, in a modern era of widespread and uncontrollable discussion of Torah fundamentals through blogs, internet forums, and other social media, the option of secluding oneself from troubling questions and viewpoints has become increasingly difficult to maintain. Support for this assertion is drawn from R’ Shimon Schwab, who presented a similar conclusion, even in an earlier, pre-internet generation.

In this atmosphere of open debate and inquiry, refusal to engage with such issues is liable to be interpreted by the perplexed of today’s online generation as a sign of weakness—or worse, as a concession that one has nothing to say and that those who propound views that are hostile to the received Jewish tradition are right.

Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman wrote a few years back (Q and A on TorahMusings.com) that:

“When a young mind is first introduced to anything relating to the Torah and the ancient Near East by a beloved and trusted rebbe, it sends the message that we need not be afraid. 90% of the battle is already won on this front, and the chances that the student will experience a crisis of faith later on are greatly diminished. We get into trouble precisely when our young men and women…realize that they went through their entire day school career with the wool pulled over their eyes.”

It is in this spirit that Judaism Reclaimed dedicated a number of its chapters to addressing some of these challenges to Orthodox Jewish faith. These chapters are not intended as exhaustive resources, but rather a brief summary of the range of approaches to these matters including thinkers such as Rambam, R’ S. R. Hirsch, Malbim, Netziv, R’ J. B. Soloveitchik, R’ Mordechai Breuer, R' Amnon Bazak and of course from R’ Berman (whose upcoming book on the subject is greatly anticipated).

This is certainly not to suggest that involvement in such study is without risks. Our opening chapter emphasises how such study should be supported and underpinned by the spiritual dimension of Judaism which can provide support when the intellectual route fails to offer immediately satisfactory answer to all challenges.

The final word goes to R’ Soloveitchik, who wrote in an early footnote to Halakhic Man:

“And when the Torah testified that Israel, in the end, would repent out of anguish and agony…it had in mind not only physical pain but also spiritual suffering. The pangs of searching and groping, the tortures of spiritual crises and exhausting treks of the soul purify and sanctify man, cleanse his thoughts and purge them of the husks of superficiality and the dross of vulgarity. Out of these torments there emerges a new understanding of the world, a powerful spiritual enthusiasm that shakes the very foundations of man’s existence. He arises from the agonies, purged and refined, possessed of a new heart and spirit…”

First posted on Facebook 8 December 2019, here.