Krum has 3 letters that are anti-Slifkin, or more precisely the works of Natan (Nosson) Slifkin. The works, which have been banned by some well-known Rabbonim, are available through Yashar Press - for more details, head over to Hirhurim and ask Gil Student how you can acquire them. The letters are from: R' Yaakov Perlow (the Novominsker Rebbe); R' Shmuel Miller; and R' Aharon Shechter, with R' Shmuel Kamenetsky's name underneath it.
The Godol Hador is not thrilled; he rephrases R' Perlow's letter as he feels it should be.
A blog called Presence points out something I'd noticed as well:
R. Perlow is incredibly erudite, demonstrating an unrivaled mastery of the English language, wheras whoever composed the second missive, not so much.Romach has a partial translation of R' Miller's letter.
More to come as this develops... including verification of the letters.
UPDATE: FailedMessiah has his opinion on this, and it's clear cut:
All the vitriol hurled at Rabbi Slifkin is misdirected.
UPDATE: FKM has reposted his arguments for the ban. Romach discusses a few points, then sums up the problems well:The 'gedolim' created this mess by their boorish behavior, disregard of halakha and downright ignorance of science, history and Jewish theology. Any animus on their part should be wholly self-directed.
Make no mistake about it. Being a haredi now means believing the entire universe is less than 6000 years old and that all of science is an elaborate fraud. And this applies to Aish HaTorah, Ohr Somayach, Discovery and Chabad just as much as it applies to Lakewood, Mir and Ponevitch.
The 'gedolim' have killed Judaism.
Let’s remember one thing. Modern science is relatively new. And yet, it explains a lot more than older science did. But, with modern science came a skepticism of religion. That skepticism, that science drives people away from religion (instead of towards) is one of the fuels for the ban.Ignorance may be bliss: But we cannot realistically expect - and hope - that everyone remains ignorant.
As for the works being dangerous, they aren’t dangerous because of inherent danger. They’re dangerous because of the failure of our education system. The ban is a self-fulfilling prophecy, refusal to responsibly educate can make information dangerous.
If anyone else is discussing this, please let me know and I'll link to it as well. Thanks.
BTW, you can catch a debate on Rabbi Slifkin’s book “the Camel, the Hare and the Hyrax at:
ReplyDeletehttp://fkmaniac.blogspot.com
See the sections (and especially the comments thereunder) entitled:
The Slifkin Ban- Why it happened and Why it is justified (IMHO)
Slifkin Wrap-up: Summary of the Critiques (Updated)
The Most Substantial Defense To Date- Updated
FKM is an ardent, though respectful (from what I've seen in the past) pro-banning Slifkin blogger. None of what is up now is new; he has just reposted the old posts in honor of the new letters. I'm specifically looking for new posts with thoughts on the new letters, not the old debates.
ReplyDeleteFkm is not respectful at all. And he's downright sick sometimes. He claims that R Slifkin deliberately looked for problems with the hare/hyrax topic so that he could give his own pshat in the Gemara. Mamash sick.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see that... I've only seen some of his posts.
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