Jewish Action published a book review on the response to Reform.
Most important is the often-ignored need for soul-searching in response to the Reformers’ success.
Here’s an excerpt:
Particularly interesting are the various comments of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes (“the Maharatz Chajes”—1805-1856). Like Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch,1 Rabbi Chajes boldly places some of the blame for the success of the early Reform movement at the feet of the Orthodox. The failure of the Orthodox leadership to grapple with the challenges of modernity led to disaffection for traditionalism among the youth.
In one incisive passage, Rabbi Chajes writes sarcastically of the low qualifications for rabbinic positions in Galicia. Students study a few select portions of Shulchan Aruch’s Orach Chaim and Yoreh Deah, and “this constitutes their entire course of study. If one of them has a smattering of proficiency in these areas, even if he does not know that David reigned after Saul, he will be recommended by the Rabbis as the most qualified candidate for even the most prestigious cities” (46). Rabbi Chajes berated those of his contemporaries who, in Dr. Bleich’s words, completely failed “to understand the spirit that animates contemporary society and the very real social, ideological, and intellectual problems with which their coreligionists were confronted,” and their failure to establish appropriate educational institutions (47). Although the twenty-first century has largely improved in rabbinical training programs, many men’s yeshivot continue to provide no instruction in Tanach outside of Chumash.2
Read the rest of it here…
