New York – Calling it a “deeply troubling, and telling, development,” Agudath Israel of America today has released a statement condemning the installation of a new president at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT), as well as its upcoming roundtable seminar entitled “Training New Rabbis for a New Generation,” which will feature the new YCT president alongside four non-Orthodox rabbinate presenters.
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The statement begins stating that, historically, “Our people have been afflicted with schismatic movements and sects at odds with the mesorah, or religious tradition, bequeathed to us at Har Sinai,” and that sometimes, “such ‘new approaches’ openly rejected the Jewish religious heritage.”
Citing the ‘Reform’ and ‘Conservative’ movements as two examples, Agudath states that “Torah giants of decades past warned us to not allow any blurring of lines between the world of Jews who maintain fealty to the Jewish past and ‘new Judaisms’ espousing theologies incompatible with our mesorah. They accordingly forbade ‘multi-denominational’ religious ventures of any sort.”
Agudath states that these groups who have “ignored” the wise counsel have “come and gone” while the movements “they sought to treat lightly have gone on to even more blatant rejection of our heritage, redefining their ‘Judaisms’ according to their own lights and the whims of the times.”
“Countless Jews have been led down the path toward Jewish oblivion by the mesorah-rejecting rabbis of the non-Orthodox movements,” the statement warns.
In conclusion, the statement reads, “That an ostensibly Orthodox rabbinical seminary would now provide a prominent public platform for leaders of those movements to share their wisdom on the subject of training new rabbis is irony of the most bitter kind. A yeshiva is a place where Jews rigorously pursue the timeless truths of Torah. That leaves no room for those who reject the very concept that such timeless truths exist. The forthcoming YCT installation ceremony does violence to this essential principle.”
from one side, Aguda is correct in rejecting any dilution in adherence to Torah observance. However, it is also important to train rabbis to deal with modern problems that are connected with our current generation.
I wish them much luck in doing such and bringing more people into the fold of Torah observance.
The fact that they ordain women as rabbis is not enough to exclude them from frumkite?
nice talking
It is the Agudah, by their opinions such as not allowing staff at Yeshivas to be finger printed for a background check, demanding that victims of crimes first ask a rov for permission before going to the police, denying any problems with MBP, that have made their organization obsolette in the view of hundreds of thousands of frum Yidden.
Not to be confused with Chovevei Torah in Crown Heights…
I have friends who learn in YCT, its really jmore of a social working school than an actual semicha yeshiva. I wouldnt worry so much about it.
‘Lovers of the Torah’ don’t assemble with people who make a mockery of the Torah.
YCT is decidedly NOT a “Modern Orthodox Yeshiva”.
It is an organization which has broken away from the Mesorah, and will eventually be assigned to the dustbin of history, along with its predecessors, the Conservative, Reform, Kara’ite, Tzedokim, and Korach movements.
Guess we need to condemn Moshe R’b for listening to the counsel of a goy too. (Yisro).
Listening to the good ideas of others is right in the Torah. (As long as those ideas are within our paradigms)
Why is Agudath Israel getting involved in the matters of YCT? Doesn’t the Agudath Israel have enough problems in the Haredi community to address:
1. The massive number of kids from the finest Yeshivishe homes who are off the derech, or who soon will be off the derech.
2. The ever-increasing costs of Yeshiva and Seminary tuitions.
3. The non-stop concept of “mass kollel for all bochurim”, which is producing men who cannot earn a living to support their families, forcing them to live on hand-outs?
Any bochur that chooses to attend YCT – and his parent(s) – know very well of YCT’s hashgafas. It is their choice.
In another words, the Agudath Israel SHOULD MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS!