re: Why Are Darda’im and Anti-Zionists Treated So Differently?!

We recently wondered why members of the Dor De’ah movement, on the one hand, and Satmar/Munkatch on the other, are treated so differently. The former are vocal unbelievers in the Zohar, who accuse generations of Jews of being quasi-idolaters for believing in a pleroma, the latter similarly regarding anyone not sharing their Satanism as denying the Final Redemption (and so on). Both freely refer or referred (Dor De’ah is past its heyday) to millions of Jews as heretics, but only the Darda’im were seriously treated as sectarians.

I gave my own answer above. Here is Rabbi Grossman’s answer:

In my experience, the major difference is that the approach of the Darda’im (and the Rambam, BTW) is inherently subversive and therefore a perceived threat to the rabbinic establishment. As you have read in my recent article, Rambam could dismiss an established custom, endorsed by centuries of practice and by the Geonim, if he was convinced of its heretical source. I will dub this “Rambam’s Razor,” and in recent discussions with older scholars, I could clearly perceive their subconscious realization that such a methodology could radically change halachic practice. Of course, from an objective standpoint, the truth is the truth, and we should not take matters of Issur and Hetter personally, as though we have a vested interest in maintaining certain opinions in practice, but for many, they are just too uncomfortable with it.

The Darda’im, as the Rambamists par excellence, represent undermining tradition, even if we know they are really just trying to restore older traditions. Anti-Zionists, however, have appearances totally on their side, and from any point of view but the most perceptive, represent the strictest adherence to tradition in practice, and their opposition to Zionism is tolerated because of Zionism’s perceived novelty and therefore suspicion.

May God grant us the ability to properly analyze and fully understand each approach and its consequences.

‘Empty Vessels Make the Loudest Sound’ Is Probably From Bava Metzia 85b

There is an expression of doubtful provenance: “Empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they with least wit are the greatest babblers.” (See Shakespeare.)

I say it comes from Bava Metzia 85b (according to Rashi):

אמר רב חמא מאי דכתיב בלב נבון תנוח חכמה ובקרב כסילים תודע בלב נבון תנוח חכמה זה תלמיד חכם בן תלמיד חכם ובקרב כסילים תודע זה תלמיד חכם בן עם הארץ אמר עולא היינו דאמרי אינשי אסתירא בלגינא קיש קיש קריא.

 

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s Endorsement of the Smallpox Vaccine

We have written about Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s opposition to 18-century medicine. But what about vaccination? He was all for it!

The following essay was sent to me by a reader:

This disfiguring and often fatal disease [Smallpox] was then prevalent throughout Europe and Asia. A primitive form of inoculation had been in use for some time in Turkey and spread to the rest of Europe in the 1720s. However, it was not without its dangers, and the best that most people could do when there was an outbreak of smallpox was to flee.

It was not until the 1790’s that the English country physician Edward Jenner observed that those who had been infected with cowpox did not become infected with smallpox. In 1796 he performed the first vaccination on a young boy, and found that, despite the boy’s subsequent exposure to smallpox, he did not become infected. Knowledge of the new technique spread rapidly throughout Europe, and immunization against smallpox soon became a standard medical procedure. At first it was a subject of heated controversy within the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, but in 1804 a Dr. Shimon of Cracow printed a broadsheet entitled “A New Remedy,” in which he encouraged all Jews to have their children vaccinated as a preventive measure. Within a short time, hundreds of Jewish children were being successfully vaccinated, including those of leading rabbis and Torah scholars (Sefer HaBrit I, 17:2).

In the midst of this controversy, Rebbe Nachman came out in favor of vaccination in the strongest terms:

“Every parent should have his children vaccinated within the first three months of life. Failure to do so is tantamount to murder. Even if they live far from the city and have to travel during the great winter cold, they should have the child vaccinated before three months” (Avaneha Barzel p.31 #34).

Rebbe Nachman’s championship of vaccination is clear proof that his opposition to doctors and medicine was in no way bound up with some kind of retrogressive attitude of suspicion towards modernity and innovation per se. Here was a newly-discovered technique with a proven power to prevent a dangerous disease, and within a matter of a few years Rebbe Nachman came out emphatically in favor – Jenner first discovered vaccination in 1796, and Rebbe Nachman’s (undated) statement must have been made some time before his death in 1810.

See the rest here.

Note: Not all vaccines are the same!