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DEBATES AND ARGUMENTS

The Talmud and in fact the Tanach itself is full of debates and disputes. In fact, the given and accepted method of Talmudic study is to debate and discuss each point thoroughly and logically. Throughout Jewish history, great issues have been debated and argued. These issues, moral, spiritual, national and practical were all brought into sharp focus and relevance by the presence of these ongoing debates. The debates were meant to shape a clearer image of the Jewish future and through discussion and debate, no matter how heated and virulent as it sometimes became, to hammer out a greater unity of purpose and amity within the Jewish people. In terms of basic beliefs in God and the divinity of Torah, there was little debate for centuries. However, in terms of the relationship of the Jewish people to the outside non-Jewish world and its values and mores there was almost always intensive debate in the Jewish world. And if there was general agreement on what the goals of Jewish life were to be, there were sharp differences regarding the tactics to be employed to achieve those goals. Even though the process was one of friction and sometimes even heartache, the end result was usually one of clarifying the issues and eventually dampening the fires of the disagreements.

This was true in the strong and contentious debate of Rabenu Saadia Gaon and Ben Meir regarding the proper calculation of the Hebrew calendar in the ninth century. It also occurred in the strong and even violent controversy regarding the philosophical writings of Rambam in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In later times, the open debate between Chasidut and its opponents eventually led to a change in the position of both sides and a begrudging but permanent reconciliation between the two schools of thought and philosophy. When the Mussar movement in Lithuania began to conquer the yeshiva world of the late nineteenth century there was a heated debate as to whether it should be included in the curriculum of those study halls of Torah. An entire literature of that debate has been published and studied. The Mussar movement was able to successfully explain itself to its opponents and remained dominant in the Lithuanian yeshivot for almost a century. The Haskala/Enlightenment was also the subject of debate within the religious world and the newly arising secularists debating their views of the Jewish future often on the pages of the very same publication. The same was true regarding the rise of Zionism in the early twentieth century. The varying forms of Zionism hotly debated their programs and viewpoints with each other with the debate again, in spite of its heat, often generating light on the problems and difficulties that the movement faced. Those who opposed Zionism also debated it and many of their arguments had to be taken into account even if Zionism appeared to emerge the victor in those twentieth century debates.

With the creation of the State of Israel and especially over the last few decades, the place of debating ideas, programs and a viewpoint of our future has gradually disappeared. It has been replaced by arguments over budgets, jobs, power and personalities. There is really no debate over our future, our goals. Most of our major decisions and actions are taken on an ad hoc basis.. The country has a history of political leaders who are "strong" men (and one woman) who brook little debate and are loath ever to really explain their decisions to the public let alone debate the wisdom of those decisions. The Supreme Court rules as a completely independent fiefdom, self-serving and self-righteous. The religious and secular sections of our society do not deign to debate each other. They either ignore or simply denounce each other without really ever listening, explaining and debating their different visions of what the Jewish people and future should look like. Within the religious Jewish world there is also very little room for debate. Either we cover our differences with slogans and a false sense of conformity of mind and appearance or we engage in the sterile conflicts of political parties, patronage and unnecessary disputes. Disputes exist but there are very few moments of serious and revealing debate. Without debate we will never be able to formulate a true, practical and correctly Jewish vision of our future as a people and as a nation. We should not shrink from nor fear a debate of ideas and visions. It will clear the air and provide, eventually, a sense of unity for our country.

Berel Wein