The letters of our thoughts are the ideas present in our mind before they come to realization . . . Thoughts that are, yet not felt . . . The words of the subconscious . . . of the soul . . .

These are the LETTERS OF MY THOUGHTS.

Monday, August 28, 2006

On Chassidic Historical Revisionism


Recently a book came out with a 'new' look at Chassidic history . . .


I wonder at times, do other nations try to make their ancestors look
like fools? Perhaps it's a uniquely Jewish thing, perhaps not.

Argument about the veracity is moot . . . history is, as they say, 'his story'
even with the presentation of facts, arguments are cast in the light
of the milieu from which they come . . .  people by there very nature
are subjective -it's a natural part of our self preservation.



There are certain things every family keeps quiet . . .

Czar'ishe Zachin -the inner workings of the royal family are private as well.



There is however a danger -just because we don't publicize these
events, be it out of the danger of miss interpretation or respect for
those whom it involves, we should not deny their existence.

Let us use an example outside the sphere of Beis Harav - drugs and other such issues exist amongst us . . . they are real problems.

The solution, however is not ignore them. We need not publish articles about it in the New York times l'aynei kol ha'amim -to the eyes of the whole world -such an action would be foolish.

The same idea applies in our case . . . if we try to ignore certain
things, then when a Jewish tabloid of a book comes along to
sensationalize and scandalize our past, we are left with out an alibi
-after all didn't we try to cover up things we knew to be true?



However, let it be known, that a Rebbe's word is final . . . the above applies only when we take matters onto our own shoulders.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sweet regards from Mr.Felix/polish
goy/ ( worker from 226-20 Francis Lewis Blvd ) Rebbe's Ohel

O boy,he looks like a Frum Yid !!!

Reb Mottele do you know him?

TechnoYid said...

First, modern historians are continuously trying to demythologize their heroes. Look at the movement to "humanize" George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Secondly, I think that the concept of "hiding" the bad things from public scrutiny have led to the current situation of truly bad things happening in the Jewish community. What started out as "let's not hang our dirty linen in public" has become an acceptance that the frum community contains boy-touchers and child-rapers. It's not just about some of our children doing drugs or being sexually active. It is about high-level people covering up for serial molesters, massive financial fraud, etc.

Mottel said...

Izzy I agree with you 100%
I personally can't stand the "humanization" of America's forefathers -they were no tzadikim, but it the current trend leads only to the further erosion of American self pride.
It strikes me as interesting however, with what glee that we Jews go about "humanizing" our own -we almost take pride in saying "I came from a group of 'backwards' fools' r"l.
As to the let's not hang our linen etc. I hinted to what you mentioned when writing amongst other issues -perhaps due to the severity of the situation I shouldn't have minced words.
A good Shabbos