… The dictionary defines a fad as "a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal." This could just as well be a description of congregational life of many Jewish synagogues today.
There is a new book, a new program or a new emphasis every year or so. It’s all anyone can talk about; - for a while. Then, as quickly as it came, it's gone. As eagerly as it was received, it's abandoned and forgotten.
The trouble is the religious world is filled to the brim with false teachers and people that consult with the dead and bring proofs that that is supposed to be OK and in accord with Torah. Almost as soon as you get to an authentic Litvak yeshiva there is some one there to try to convince you that some alternative cult is better.
Welcome to Fad-Driven Synagogues.
At first this might not sound like a problem. Some Jews can remember when the synagogues didn't jump from bandwagon to bandwagon every year or two. But for others, this is all they have ever known. For them, it is hard to imagine what the synagogues would be like without the constant ebb and flow of fads. For them, the long list of fads represents their personal history. Some fads come and go, some come and stay. A few are genuinely harmless; most contain serious error. All are popular - while they last In the fad-drive "exaggerated zeal” has replaced simple plain Gemara, Rashi, Tosphot.
I've examined the recent fads. I am always surprised - not by the fads themselves, but by something else. I am always surprised by how uncritically people accept a fad, how enthusiastically they embrace a fad and how carelessly they abandon a fad. That is why this article isn't about the fads themselves, but about the kind of people that accept, embrace and abandon fads.
The Life Cycle of a Fad
Every fad has a life cycle. The fad is first accepted, then embraced and finally abandoned. For the fad driven, this life cycle is a way life.
The cycle begins with acceptance. The fad-driven person is practiced at this. Too close an examination of the fad at the outset might raise too many questions. "After all, this book is a best-seller!" "Thousands of people are doing it, how can we go wrong?" Accept first, examine later, if at all. This acceptance may come through the active promotion of some or through grassroots popularity. Either way, the fad spreads like wildfire in the congregation.
The cycle continues with enthusiastic embrace. By "enthusiastic" I don't mean excitement or emotion, although those things may be involved. What I mean is that the fad-driven synagogue embraces its latest fad with creedal intensity. While the fad has currency, it is an article of faith. Belief in the fad becomes a mark of loyalty. During this phase of the fad's life cycle, critics of the fad may be dismissed as unloving, judgmental or unconcerned for others. At the very least, they are viewed as troublemakers and obstacles to the mission. During this phase, in some cases, the fad may dictate what is taught, the content of study or even the focus of congregational life.
The life cycle ends with the abandonment of the fad. Some fads have a built-in expiration date... most simply linger until something better comes along. The fad-driven person may cling with a martyr's fervor to the fad while it lasts, but everyone knows that its days are numbered. Sooner or later it will have to be abandoned. Accept the fad, embrace the fad and abandon the fad. This is the life of a fad-driven person. There are exceptions to this life cycle. In a few cases a fad doesn't die; it grows into something bigger than a fad. It grows into a movement... I have often been critical of fads at the height of their popularity. After several encounters with fad defenders, I noticed something. The seasoned member of the fad-driven congregation will defend his fad today. But he will happily abandon the same fad six months from now. I realized that the fad itself is inconsequential; everyone knows that it will be forgotten sooner or later. People caught in the cycle of fads must defend a particular fad, because by doing so, they are defending their willingness to accept, embrace and abandon fads in general. They are defending their fad-driven-ness.
A Lack of Discernment
The need of discernment about idolatry is one of the most frequent admonitions in Torah.\
The Torah is supposed to stand immovable against “every wind of doctrine." By contrast the fad-driven Jewish synagogue is a windsock. If you want to know which way the wind is blowing, the latest teachings, the newest programs or the most current methods, just look at the fad-driven Jewish synagogues. If you want to know what the fad-driven Jewish synagogues will be doing next, just walk through your local Jewish bookstore or page through a Jewish publisher's catalog.
In the fad-driven synagogues, books, programs and seminars are evaluated primarily by their sales, popularity and attendance records, rather than on their merit "False teaching? Why would so many people be reading this book if it contained false teaching?"… Can millions of Jews be wrong? Yes, they can.
Ironically, the fad-driven Jewish synagogue often excuses its lack of discernment in the name of saving souls. It justifies its appetite for fads: "Whatever it takes" is the creed of the fad-driven Jewish synagogues. "Whatever it takes to reach the lost" is supposed to be a courageous new strategy. But "whatever it takes" is not a strategy. "Whatever it takes" is an admission that you have no strategy. "Whatever it takes” is just another way of saying, "Whatever people want," or "Whatever everyone else is doing." Rather than seeking the lost, the fad-driven Jewish synagogue is just seeking its next fix.
Some advocates of Jewish synagogue fads take the "Eat the meat, spit out the bones" approach to false teaching. They claim that practicing discernment means spiting the “bone?” of error while eating the "meat" of truth. There are several problems with this approach. First, it assumes that a fad contains only isolated false teachings, like so many bones in a fish. But many fads don't just contain false teaching; they are based on false teaching... Second, the "bone spitting" approach assumes that the errors of the latest fad will be obvious to everyone.
The "inexperienced" are still infants in the Torah. Would you give an infant a fish to eat knowing that there were bones in it?
Finally, the "bone spitting" approach fails to recognize that a continuous stream of fads will erode the synogogue 's ability to discern truth from error. With every new fad, the fad-driven Jewish synagogue grows less able to recognize the truth. In time, the fad-driven Jewish synagogue is unable to discern the true Torah.
This is the bottom line. A Jewish synagogue willing to tolerate some false teaching will eventually tolerate any false teaching - even a false Torah, a false spirit.
Desperation
The idol of relevance accurately describes the mentality of the fad-driven Jewish synagogue:
Rather than making the Jewish synagogue more relevant, this mentality only makes the fad-driven Jewish synagogues more susceptible to fads and more desperate;
Relevance without truth encourages “the herd" mentality and the "age of the crowd"
Feverishness is the condition of an institution that has ceased to be faithful to its origins. It is then caught up in "a restless, cosmopolitan hunting after new and ever newer things.
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. [Jeremiah 2:11-13]. This explains the short life span of so many fads. It is the result of desperation. The fad-driven Jewish synagogue's new cisterns are broken. They can't hold water. Even while the last drops drain from the old cistern, the fad-driven synagogue must desperately dig a new one. But the new cistern is as leaky as the old one, so the digging must go on.
Nothing to Offer; Nothing to Say
"Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next." Take away the fads, and what is left in the fad-driven Jewish synagogue? In some cases, what's left isn't the Torah at all, but a collection of principles, practices and ideas that don't add up to anything resembling the Torah faith. Rather than Torah there are only the remnants of past fads.
In the name of saving the lost, the fad-driven is trading the Torah for the newest gimmick. If such a Jewish synagogue does reach the lost, will it have anything to say? ...Will the fad-driven Jewish synagogue give authentic Torah, or the latest fashion?
And for the member of the fad-driven Jewish synagogues who has known nothing but fads, will these fads leave her a Jewess on her deathbed (or will she be left wondering what that whirlwind of best-sellers, seminars, video sermons and three-ring binders was all about?)
The Jewish synagogue that wraps its identity and mission around the evanescent desires of finicky consumers, will run the risk of creating a Jewish synagogue as ephemeral as those desires. In its "exaggerated zeal for things new, will it hold fast to the unchanging message of the Oral and Written Law?"
Fad or Faith
We live in an age of pious distractions. We live in an age of fads. The fad-driven Jewish synagogue has structured its life around the trends and innovations of the day. Jewish publishers and the gurus are ready to provide something new as often as the masses demand it.
The Torah has something better than any fad. The time has come. Ears are itching. Ears are turning. The Jewish synagogues must take up authentic Torah. -And throw out all the books of pseudo Torah.
