A cult is a hierarchical grouping of people with authoritarian leadership bound by a singular ideology or goal. The minions within the group sacrifice themselves for this goal, usually to the benefit of the leaders who are selfish and punitive even if charismatic in a twisted kind of way. The people are kept in isolation so as not to be awakened to how they are being used, and they are beaten down so that their minds will not awaken on their own and so that they will yield to the pressures and propaganda.
This does not describe the Torah for the Torah proposes a variety of goals, allows for different opinions, protects the dignity of all people, and does not prescribe an authoritarian societal structure. The Sanhedrin had 71 members, each of whom was given the opportunity to offer his view, and made decisions via a vote on matters guided by Mesorah. Today, we do not have a Sanhedrin, and there is no one leader, no imposed hierarchy. An individual can go off to a desert and be by himself if he deems it necessary and still be a good Jew.
However, pilpulism is suspect. That's an offshoot of an offshoot of Litvish Judaism that posits that the only legitimate goal in life is lomdus on Yeshivish mesechtas of the Gemara. I used to call this neo-Litvish Judaism but feel now that this term is unfair to Litvish Judaism, which is a noble path with complex goals.
Try telling a pilpulist rosh yeshiva that you are 'learnin' anything but a yeshivishe tractate of the talmud and note the condescension. And if you are 'learnin' a musar sefer, chassidus, or even Chumash, the condescension multiplies.
Oral Torah is supposed to be built around study of halacha. Pilpulists ignore the halacha and spend their time on svara and argument about abstractions. Lomdus is a valid method of study, but it is supposed to be secondary. They make it not only primary, but the only thing to do.
Pilpulism becomes a cult when it demands that every Jewish person be devoted to pilpul, no matter the cost. Thus, every other type of study is shunned, mitzvos are devalued, and young men are deprived of means of earning a parnassah even as they are saddled with massive financial demands and deprived of female companionship long after the Gemara mandates it. Everything outside the institutions of pilpul is ridiculed in the extreme, and the entire enterprise is conducted with tyranny and punishment for disobedience. Much of the control is exacted through shiduchim, and since the Torah requires marriage, people are put in a terrible position when shiduchim is built around the pilpulistic kingdom and run by rabbis who propagandize the people and act as 'references' and rebbetzins who make the matches or withhold them. This is all after you are giving permission to date. The Unification Church, aka the Moonies, is a cult that also withholds permission for a person to marry. You have to first prove your allegiance to the cult and its ideology. Then they marry you to a stranger. Sound familiar?
The cult of pilpulism pollutes large portions, but not all of, the Orthodox Jewish world. Not every rabbi, not every yeshiva is dominated by it, but it's quite widespread, to varying degrees, so much so that an innocent person can take it to be authentic Judaism simply by virtue of its commonality. However, it isn't authentic. It's a madness. And it can take over your brain, depriving you of basic dignity and individuality. To escape it, you need to do your research into what the Torah really says, and you need to be courageous. Ha-Shem will help you.
Zionism works similarly. While pilpulism reduces all of Jewish life to an optional mitzvah (Torah study is required, pilpul is not), Zionism reduces all of life to an optional mitzvah. Look at the biography of every Modern Orthodox person who moves to Israel. They'll say things like "made aliyah in 1985" or "lives in the Judean hills." Why tell us about an optional mitzvah? Tell us that you kept Shabbos in the last week of Elul in 5784. Tell us that you studied the Mesillas Yisharim. Tell us that you visited a sick person in 2006. No, they tell us about their move to Israel because in the Modern Orthodox world that's the highest ideal. And people make this move without careful regard for its justification and sense. Other people push others to make this move without regard for their welfare.
Both of these follies are riddled with mythology, magical thinking, and myopia. Both are protected by a rule against criticizing anything about them. Both disparage everything outside of themselves. Try complementing the original city of any person who has moved to Israel. I'll say, oh Seattle. I have been there. Great place. They'll say, but it's not Eretz Yisroel. Every time they do this. It's automatic and there are no exceptions. I tell them, Judaism doesn't require that you hate everything. I believe these people are operating under cult like conditioning. Their minds are not free.
Neither the pilpulists nor the zionists are particularly interested in Ha-Shem. Pilpulists run a chess club. They love the svara. Zionists run a fantasy camp. They love military fatigues. G-d is not part of the picture.
Both are modern day departures from Judaism, fueled by affluence, drenched in secularity. They are imposters, loudly proclaiming their Jewish credentials but not holding up well to anyone who tears off the cloak.
You get one life. Be careful who you follow. If your instincts suspect that something is wrong and you ignore those instincts, you are held accountable for that. If you are lazy minded and fail to do your research, you are held accountable for that.
The Rebbe Rashab, fifth Rebbe of Lubavitch said that Torah study for selfish motives sends every word of study to the Satan. It all becomes tumah. That is why so many pilpulists are rotten people.
The air of Eretz Yisroel makes one wise. But Ha-Shem gives wisdom to the wise. If you come to Israel and drink the Zionist kool-aid you will become dumber and dumber. You will get to the point where Zionists are today in Israel. They don't see themselves at all. They don't fathom the sin that they have brought on the land. They don't see that they are committing atrocities and refuse to hear about it from anyone, no matter how credible or informed.
If you find yourself feeling nothing, not growing, wondering how tzadickim do it, how they seem so connected to Ha-Shem then you might just be in one of these two cults. They are as unlikely to satisfy your soul as role on a TV sitcom would be to satisfy it. Move on from there.
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