{"id":213,"date":"2007-01-04T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-04T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/dangers-of-certainty.html"},"modified":"2007-01-04T16:15:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-04T16:15:00","slug":"dangers-of-certainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/dangers-of-certainty.html","title":{"rendered":"The Dangers of Certainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbi Stern<\/a>, it strikes me, doth protest too much. <\/p>\n

It is true that the vast majority of Orthodox Jews are not extremists who will take matters into their own hands to enforce their own social and religious agenda. It is also true that Judaism has produced fewer crazies and extremists than certain other religions. I never argued otherwise.<\/p>\n

What I did<\/em> say\u2013and what I have not seen a convincing response to\u2013is that extremist behavior among Orthodox Jews in Israel, while still small, is on the rise. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just (just!) Yigal Amir and the rabbis who supported him<\/a> as Rabbi Stern writes. It\u2019s Baruch Goldstein<\/a>, who massacred Muslims at prayer in Hebron, killing 29 and wounding more than 150. And it\u2019s Moshe Levinger<\/a> and his followers who sought to blow up the Dome of the Rock to clear the way for a Third Temple. And it\u2019s the Haredi rabbis who pronounced the pulsa d\u2019nura<\/em> curse<\/a> against organizers of the gay pride march <\/a>and against police who would attempt to hold back demonstrators. And it\u2019s those who take matters into their own hands, hurling invectives and stones at those who don\u2019t conform to their idea of proper modesty, proper prayer, or proper Shabbat observance.<\/p>\n

The larger question here is why it is Orthodoxy that lends itself to such forms of extremism, and not other branches of Judaism. The answer, I believe, is directly related to the reason Rabbi Stern doesn\u2019t supply for Orthodoxy\u2019s attractiveness: certainty. <\/p>\n

Any Orthodoxy\u2013Jewish or other\u2013is rooted in certainty that its own approach, its own understanding of the world, is the correct one. That\u2019s the meaning of the word “Orthodox”\u2013from the Greek for “correct belief.” <\/p>\n

Certainty can be attractive and useful but it has its dark side as well. When people spend too much time with others who look, act, and think only like themselves, they often become absolutely certian that their way of looking at the world is the only way of looking at the world. And when a community becomes too sure that its own way is the only right way, perhaps even physical violence seems an acceptable means to silence those who disagree. <\/p>\n

As the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel becomes ever more insular, certainty will continue to provide the blinders that make it ever easier to lash out at the world rather than engage it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbi Stern, it strikes me, doth protest too much. It is true that the vast majority of Orthodox Jews are not extremists who will take matters into their own hands to enforce their own social and religious agenda. It is also true that Judaism has produced fewer crazies and extremists than certain other religions. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dangers of Certainty - Virtual Talmud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/dangers-of-certainty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dangers of Certainty - Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rabbi Stern, it strikes me, doth protest too much. 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