Dennis Prager‘s Custom Judaism
Hi Luke, Rob Barnett here in Minneapolis. I just finished reading your recently posted summary of Dennis Prager addressing the Orthodox Union and his differences with Orthodox Judaism. You are to be commended Luke, and not just for posting this item. While you were attracted initially to Judaism by Dennis Prager, you have gone to commit yourself to the fullness of Orthodoxy. Kudos for integrity. The same, I’m afraid, cannot be said of DP. It’s quite clear that DP wants a customized Judaism that fits his taste. lifestyle, and predilections. It’s rather paradoxical that while DP likes to lecture on how imperative it is for people to be accountable to God, DP seems to have decided that he’s not to be accountable to Orthodox rabbinic authority, apparently becomes it cramps his lifestyle, conflicts with certain values and understandings he’s come to cherish, and because it hampers his efforts at attracting people to Judaism. The general way to view him is not as one committed to pursuing the good and true , but a self-appointed marketing manager for the Judaism Corporation. Certain trappings of Orthodoxy apparently are bad for business. When we commit ourselves to God and a religion, we commit ourselves not just to God but to the human authorities He has entrusted in those positions. In the civil realm, we are required to give assent and accept the authority of proper civil leaders, even if they’re not our favorite and make highly questionable prudential decisions. So too in religion: as a devout Catholic Christian, I must accept the authority of the human leaders of God’s Church, however flawed they may be or questionable they may be in some decision making. That is part and parcel of being accountable to God as well: I don’t get to have God on my own terms. If one is going to be in Judaism, then one has an obligation not just to Torah but to rabbinic authority, both its normative, authoritative explication of Torah-grounded halacha as well as in the formulation of man-made rabbinic injunctions. All of what DP complains about has been brought about properly and legitimately through the history of Judaic thinking and has been embraced by halachic decisiors for centuries. Does DP think he knows better than all of them – actually, better you don’t answer that. If DP thinks Orthodox Judaic liturgy is too long, there is a halachic process, I’m sure, for him to raise the issue for Orthodox review. The length of davening is not a normative infallible. The fact that DP may not get his way isn’t a license for him to take his marbles and leave. On kashrut, his myopic insistance on viewing the matter as one of animal welfare blinds him to the commitment through chukim that one should make to God as a Torah Jew. This subject deserves more treatment than space allows here, but DP’s insistence on translating everything into rational categories does a disservice to Judaism. Judaism should be embraced (or abandoned) on its own merits and basis. It should not be twisted by a self-appointed marketing manager for the benefit of the Judaism Corporation.
