A lot of times, movements are caused by perceived abuse of an existing system. Not that the newer system (that is promised) turns out so much better. It does not matter so much if the old system was really all that bad. What matters is that people got mad enough to decide to change it.
I am thinking of Communism for one example. Enough people were upset by the abuses they saw under capitalism. And to a large degree the abuses were real.
But then Communism did not exactly turn out the way most people expected in Russia. So they went back to capitalism. I was kind of shocked when I asked people in the former USSR how were things? And I always expected an answer "terrible." But instead they always said "Better than now.."
[Even today I asked one woman, "I guess you did not love the USSR?"
She answered me "What do you mean not love? Things were better. I went to school for free. I went to a technical college for free. All my brothers and sisters went to university for free, and families stayed together. Now I can barely pay for my daughter to go to a local college. People's children go off into foreign countries because there is nothing doing here. No work no nothing." And she went on but since my Russian is really rusty I did not get the whole gist. Sometimes they mention they got their homes for free or else bought a new home for $200. And as I was walking along one street today I looked across the river at the numerous and enormous buildings the soviets built for housing.I can not tells the differences in style. But I assume they were built after the 1960's.]
The same thing applies to Martin Luther. Enough people got upset with the Catholic Church to throw it out. But that is not to say that what they got instead was much of an improvement.
In the Middle Ages this dynamic existed in what was considered "fair price" of goods.
This dynamic still take place when people wander from movement to movement.
[The thing about Russia is that the abuses were bad enough for enough people to revolt against the czar. Better systems try to alleviate the abuses to the degree that people have less reason to be angry. The whole dynamic of Leftist movements is mainly to get people angry at real or imagine abuses in the USA. The main idea of Leftists is that whatever the USA does is by definition wrong. The reason why it is wrong always come after the aforesaid conclusion.]
But some systems there is real abuse that in fact deserves to be thrown out.
This dynamic I think is a good thing. The question.is how to tell when a system has gotten bad enough to need to be scraped? And what to replace it with? A lot of times people decide to go back to the old system they previously threw out because the abuses already have been forgotten.
[The Litvak yeshiva world certainly has a degree of trouble in it. But it seems much less than any other system I have seen. But it is not irrelevant. The question really is how much abuse is tolerable until you decide to overthrow the system and with what will you replace it with? Something better? Or worse?]
Thus my own kind of solution is to simply avoid the problem by learning Torah at home and minding my own business. And the few great Litvak yeshivas I have seen [like the Mir in NY and Shar Yashuv in Far Rockaway] to recommend them to anyone that will listen.
Of course Ponoviz I have not seen,-- but any place that could produce a masterpiece like the Avi Ezri has to have something gong for it.
[ Rav Silverman's yeshivas in Jerusalem that go by the Gra also are excellent.]
I am thinking of Communism for one example. Enough people were upset by the abuses they saw under capitalism. And to a large degree the abuses were real.
But then Communism did not exactly turn out the way most people expected in Russia. So they went back to capitalism. I was kind of shocked when I asked people in the former USSR how were things? And I always expected an answer "terrible." But instead they always said "Better than now.."
[Even today I asked one woman, "I guess you did not love the USSR?"
She answered me "What do you mean not love? Things were better. I went to school for free. I went to a technical college for free. All my brothers and sisters went to university for free, and families stayed together. Now I can barely pay for my daughter to go to a local college. People's children go off into foreign countries because there is nothing doing here. No work no nothing." And she went on but since my Russian is really rusty I did not get the whole gist. Sometimes they mention they got their homes for free or else bought a new home for $200. And as I was walking along one street today I looked across the river at the numerous and enormous buildings the soviets built for housing.I can not tells the differences in style. But I assume they were built after the 1960's.]
The same thing applies to Martin Luther. Enough people got upset with the Catholic Church to throw it out. But that is not to say that what they got instead was much of an improvement.
In the Middle Ages this dynamic existed in what was considered "fair price" of goods.
This dynamic still take place when people wander from movement to movement.
[The thing about Russia is that the abuses were bad enough for enough people to revolt against the czar. Better systems try to alleviate the abuses to the degree that people have less reason to be angry. The whole dynamic of Leftist movements is mainly to get people angry at real or imagine abuses in the USA. The main idea of Leftists is that whatever the USA does is by definition wrong. The reason why it is wrong always come after the aforesaid conclusion.]
But some systems there is real abuse that in fact deserves to be thrown out.
This dynamic I think is a good thing. The question.is how to tell when a system has gotten bad enough to need to be scraped? And what to replace it with? A lot of times people decide to go back to the old system they previously threw out because the abuses already have been forgotten.
[The Litvak yeshiva world certainly has a degree of trouble in it. But it seems much less than any other system I have seen. But it is not irrelevant. The question really is how much abuse is tolerable until you decide to overthrow the system and with what will you replace it with? Something better? Or worse?]
Thus my own kind of solution is to simply avoid the problem by learning Torah at home and minding my own business. And the few great Litvak yeshivas I have seen [like the Mir in NY and Shar Yashuv in Far Rockaway] to recommend them to anyone that will listen.
Of course Ponoviz I have not seen,-- but any place that could produce a masterpiece like the Avi Ezri has to have something gong for it.
[ Rav Silverman's yeshivas in Jerusalem that go by the Gra also are excellent.]
