tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post5890129863937389036..comments2023-06-21T10:52:34.013-04:00Comments on Jeremy Rosen's Blog: Modern LeadershipAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17043970242427877089noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-30633234742146502062010-12-09T13:01:40.785-05:002010-12-09T13:01:40.785-05:00bananabrain:
Yes, I'm upset too. But no one h...bananabrain:<br /><br />Yes, I'm upset too. But no one has picked up on the Charedi rebuttal. See my blog this week!Rabbi Jeremy Rosenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12723608669485173271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-47453196684261121342010-12-09T03:49:41.118-05:002010-12-09T03:49:41.118-05:00oh, there's leadership all right - but in the ...oh, there's leadership all right - but in the wrong direction. it's "leadership" that thinks its acceptable to issue rulings that it is forbidden to rent to arabs.<br /><br />if this is religious judaism, you can keep it. i am very depressed about the whole thing right now.<br /><br />b'shalom<br /><br />bananabrainbananabrainhttp://www.spittoon.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-26629980592647760472010-12-06T19:25:26.251-05:002010-12-06T19:25:26.251-05:00Thank goodness Jews never have opinions!Thank goodness Jews never have opinions!Leilanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-74874206951294693252010-12-06T17:24:42.255-05:002010-12-06T17:24:42.255-05:00Hi ss, nice to hear from you.
I think these state...Hi ss, nice to hear from you.<br /><br />I think these statements below indicate nostalgia for past leadership and criticism of current leadership. If the two together don't amount to regret at a lack of leadership, then what was the point of writing about this topic?<br /><br />The idea that we can get along just fine without them (as if we have any choice) appeared at the end of the current blog post.<br /><br />"Nowadays we have no effective priesthood, no prophets, and no real leadership--just clerics, dynastic rebbes, and rabbis who are only concerned with furthering their own personal agendas and keeping the rest out. No wonder it's a mess." (November 11, 2010.)<br /><br />"In the Jewish world leadership is discredited."<br /><br />"True leadership is when someone with a vision and guts goes for it regardless, like Mattityahu and Yehudah."<br /><br />"Indeed, none of the topflight Eastern European rabbinic leaders had the wisdom, foresight, or vision to encourage migration either to Israel or the West when it was still possible."<br /><br />"The exception to the rule was post-destruction rabbinic Judaism, first under Ezra and then two thousand years ago, when it responded to the cataclysm with a whole raft of innovative ideas and laws."<br /><br />"The established rabbinates of all colors have done nothing I can think of that is creative or innovative to grapple with the challenges of our times."dknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-91508578504613602192010-12-06T16:01:22.665-05:002010-12-06T16:01:22.665-05:00dk:
Where did Jeremy say he regretted the lack of...dk:<br /><br />Where did Jeremy say he regretted the lack of leadership? I think he said he regretted that those who should be leaders fell so far short. It is a separate sentiment to say that nevertheless we can get along fine without them.<br /><br />sssshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03463216380054384880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-64571685244190658542010-12-06T15:42:53.811-05:002010-12-06T15:42:53.811-05:00Good, glad that's been sorted out. I'll le...Good, glad that's been sorted out. I'll leave it to your 600+ other readers to pick up from here.<br /><br />TTFNdknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-82124632910798352322010-12-06T14:52:26.725-05:002010-12-06T14:52:26.725-05:00DK:
I said that Judaism has very poor leadership ...DK:<br /><br />I said that Judaism has very poor leadership and I said I thought we could mange perfectly well without it. And I reiterate both sentiments.<br /><br />JRabbi Jeremy Rosenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12723608669485173271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-73750627709746225642010-12-06T14:26:08.848-05:002010-12-06T14:26:08.848-05:00Dear Jeremy,
You wrote of your regret that tradit...Dear Jeremy,<br /><br />You wrote of your regret that traditional Judaism lacks effective leadership. I answered. Now you say, you didn't mean it. You meant something else, notwithstanding that you wrote two blog posts on the paucity of leadership rather than on "the spirit of individual Jews".<br /><br />À bientôt.dknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-22568417512972506382010-12-04T21:09:57.931-05:002010-12-04T21:09:57.931-05:00First of all DK, thank you for starting this with ...First of all DK, thank you for starting this with you earlier comments.<br /><br />But this time you make my point precisely!<br /><br />We can manage perfectly well without "great leadership", a very Catholic concept! On the contrary, most "leaders" are either self-appointed, hereditary, or selected by committees.<br />I also addressed the subject because people often lament the absence of leadership, as for example in so-called Modern Orthodoxy (though I'm not sure what that means) where there are no universally acknowledged great leaders, but it's thriving nevertheless as I suggested. Many synagogues, minyanim, congregations are nowadays managing things with their own lay members and have no need of clergy.<br /><br />I think the greatness of Judaism is that we are ALL invited to do our bit as a "Kingdom of Priests". Which I think is very appropriate for an era of individuality. We can manage perfectly well without a Pope, a Sanhedrin, or anyone else.Rabbi Jeremy Rosenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12723608669485173271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6141014.post-24944738191210459602010-12-04T17:05:01.446-05:002010-12-04T17:05:01.446-05:00Dear Jeremy
What are you complaining about? That ...Dear Jeremy<br /><br />What are you complaining about? That things were better 2,000 years ago? That now we have no Ezras and don't seem to be producing any Mattisyahus? Or is it that there isn't any drama? No head-chopping, axe-wielding, hammer-waiving Judiths and Judahs.<br /> <br />Steinsaltz's efforts are truly epic, regardless of whether he has followers or is on any list. Isn't it just the kind of thing we might read about being done in Vilna or Tzfat, by someone eminent and long since dead which would only feed a proclivity to bewail the lack of modern day ability? 'Der melech iz obgeshtorben,/ Die malke iz gevorn fardorben' (and, the vineyard is blighted, the branch breaks, the nest falls and the bird flies away, according to a Yiddish lullaby). Couldn't we have less b'yamim ha'heym and more b'yamim hazeh?<br /><br />Isn't it also the case that 'in hindsight' any one of the individual Jews you find impressive, might turn out to be a leader you'd recognise?<br /><br />What I think you really want is a super turbo charged leader to rise up from within establishment Jewry and revolutionise it, to instantaneous, world-wide acclaim, armed with only a soap-box and loud-hailer while standing outside Golders Green tube station! Even if such people existed 2,000 years ago (and anyone at the time noticed), can you think of a single example from outside Judaism of such an individual in modern times? It isn't unique to Judaism that there aren't charismatic and worthwhile leaders drawn from institutional organisations. The Tory Party doesn't produce people like Che Guevara, we get Cameron instead. But at least Cameron was (sort of) democratically elected; who elects rabbis? The vox populi?<br /><br />I have accidentally just come across a potential candidate you might like. Damdin Sukhbaatar, a later day Genghis Khan who was a military leader in the Mongolian 1921 revolution and whose name means "Axe hero".<br /><br />Best wishes.dknoreply@blogger.com