Manalism in action

I ventured into three Manalist synagogues this Shabbos. Who are they? They are not Litvacks. The Vilna Gaon was a Litvack. He was a great Talmudic scholar, but he said the purpose of Torah is mitzvos (Even Shelaimah chapter on mitzvos) and the purpose of life is to fix one's middos. (Even Shelaimah Chapter One.) His primary educational philosophy was to educate the lad according to his way. (Artscroll biography) He said to study grammar. (Artscroll biography) He had vast secular knowledge and wrote many volumes on kabbalah. He said to learn Chumash, Navi, Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara bikyus before you get into arguments. 

One must first fill himself with knowledge of Tanach, Mishna, Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, Tosefta, Mechilta, Sifrem and all other baraisos. Then he should discuss and debate his learning with his colleagues. By studying in this sequence, one attains the splendor of Torah. One who changes this arrangement, however, and studies how to debate before knowing one Mishnah openly, will forfeit even the little Torah he heard in his youth. (Vilna Gaon, Even Shelaimah 8:2)

He said not to overload students. 

Just as in craftsmanship one should learn an honest and easy trade, so in Torah one should seek an easy area of study that will not tax his capabilities and lead him to stop studying. (Even Shelaimah 8:1)

That's a Litvack. Rav Meshualem Dovid Soloveitchik, son of the Brisker Rav, was a Litvack. He said that the purpose of life was to acquire yiras and ahavas Hashem.

The Manalists are the generation, mid to late 20th century, who started to push away mitzvos and middos for Gemara lomdus only. Just like the Zionists replaced Torah with land, the Manalists replaced mitzvos with Gemara abstractions. They took it a step further by pushing away mitzvos from their minds and living by the creed "nothing else matters," meaning nothing matters but Torah study, by which they mean Gemara lomdus on portions of a few yeshivish mesechtas. They believe in nothing but Gemara lomdus. I'm not sure if they all believe in God.

So, cut to the chase, each of these Manalist shiurim was unpleasant. Each rabbi was loud and dominating. They all threw out too much Hebrew for the crowd. They challenged the audience in confusing ways, setting them up for the wrong answers. There was the standard negativity, like one was talking about swimming during the 9 days depending on whether you swim for health or pleasure. He said cynically what they all say which is why does this question of reasons for swimming only seem to come up during the 9 days? Is that the only time anybody swims? We hear this every time a rabbi talks about the 9 days. It's cynical. At the end of each talk, the audience looked confused and beat up and seemed to look to the rabbi with greater awe - if you can call it that - really dependency.

So after Shabbos I watched a bit of my Steve Hassan - Jordan Harbinger interview about cults and Jordan talked about being in cult seminars where the leader would toss around illogical statements to confuse the crowd and leave them dependent on him. Steve talked about weakening people through sleep and other kinds of deprivation, beating them down to freeze and reframe them in the leaders image.

It was hashkacha that I saw this again because I believe it explained what I witnessed in the shiurim. I'm not saying that's all that went on in the shiurim, but it was part of it.

Now the shiurim don't have to be like this. The speakers don't have to be confusing or condescending. They don't have to speak in Yinglish. (I saw a note today from a Rosh Yeshiva that contained 25 non-linking/prepositional words and 10 of them were Hebrew or Yiddish.) And they don't have to run schools that fail to teach Hebrew. So it's not the religion, but it is the way it's practiced today in many places. 

That's not all. Twice in the last two days I interacted with Manalim on other matters. One I asked a shilah about a Gemara. I was stuck so I had no choice. His answer wasn't terrible, but it was inadequate and he liked it that way. He walked away at my point of confusion. Also it was given forcefully. He talked over me. He was, as usual, very dominating.

The other guy called to comment on a report I had prepared about something. His suggestions were good, but the delivery was intensely dominating. He just talked right over me and acted as if I had no choice but to implement his ideas. What's interesting is that one of these guys is from the Midwest and the other from Toronto. You'd think these would be more polite places, get along with people places. No matter, they were dominating, stiff necked interactions.

The religion doesn't force these guys to be like this either. You are supposed to be humble. You are supposed to honor people. But when your religion is Manalism, that's not going to happen.