Writing
this concluding and ultimate entry in the Jewish Philosophy subsection,
it is very appropriate to end it with the thinking of the modern Haredim,
that is, the super-ultra-Orthodox Jews, among whom my dear friend Rabbi
Yisroel Rice might be considered left-wing.
These
Haredim, consistently with their “philosophy,” place religion above all human
preoccupations, while correctly observing that religion is not an exercise in
free thought but a tightly conditioned discipline which is controlled by a set
of given premises. From this generally valid point they make the next step,
concluding that philosophy is a far inferior preoccupation, as it has no
predetermined factors, allowing uninhibited, and thus irresponsible, thought,
where “everything is allowed,” intellectually speaking.
In
a previous Lev Shestov entry All Things Are Possible, we addressed the
conflict between philosophy and science, and saw how Shestov deals with it.
Even more previously, in Guiding The Perplexed, we discussed Maimonides’
not very successful effort to reconcile the three strong-headed giants, namely
religion, science and philosophy. These two and most others have thus strove to
find a measure of compatibility between the said disciplines, at least allowing
them a peaceful coexistence. The Haredim, on the other hand, have stated a
principled objection to the very foundation of philosophy, grounded in free
thought, and have thus striven to deny it any legitimacy.
Having
said that, what else are the Talmud and the Kaballah, which the Haredim are so
adept in, if not first-rate philosophy? And for an outsider looking in, what is
the religion of the Haredim if not that selfsame bona fide exercise in
well-preserved free thought of the Jewish millennia?
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