Notes on controversies, polemics and bans in Modern Jewish history

Orthodox self-censorship of historical controversies, the modern study of Jewish sectarianism, and suggestions for further reading

Jul 14, 2023

This blogpost is part of a series on Jewish controversies. See previous installments here: “Ultra-Orthodox Tensions: The Sefaria Controversy and the Struggle Between Tradition and Modernity” (June 9, 2023); “Ultra-Orthodox Apologetics: Some Notes on R’ Ahron Lopianski’s Lecture Series ‘Da Ma Shetashiv’ ” (June 26, 2023) - especially regarding the controversy and book bans of some of R’ Natan Slifkin’s books

The disputes, controversies, and bans within Christianity are fairly well-known. Similarly, accounts of internal conflict from the Hebrew Bible, spanning from the Torah and Joshua through to the Prophets, are also generally familiar to many. However, instances of divisions, and intense debates in rabbinic Jewish history are less known, relatively speaking. This topic is what I wish to delve into here, focusing on internal controversies in Modern Jewish history.

Orthodox self-censorship of historical controversies

One significant reason for the gap in awareness is that much of the existing literature is produced by traditional adherents, who often minimize the elements of controversy. In many cases, such aspects are internally censored or outright prohibited. For example, Dov Eliach’s discussion of the Vilna Gaon’s attack on Hasidism led his book to a high-profile ban in the early 2000s. See also, for one of example of the general tendency, of many that could be adduced, from R’ Daniel Glatstein on the Orthodox Union website, in the description of his lecture (hyperlinks mine) “ ‘When A Rabbi Is Accused of Heresy’: The Machlokes Noda B'yehuda and Pnei Yehoshua what to do with Rav Yonasan Eybeschutz”:

“When a great Torah personality is accused of heresy, there is always an aspect of chillul Hashem involved. Do you take him down publicly and risk chillul Hashem or is it worse to have a public Torah personality who is a heretic?”

Marc Shapiro has discussed many aspects of this phenomenon. You can see his work for detailed discussions, with previous literature. My aim here is to raise awareness, and discuss many of these events in a popular, accessible way.

R’ Pini Dunner, a well-known Orthodox rabbi based in Los Angeles, recently wrote a book called Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs: Episodes from the Margins of Jewish History (2018). The blurb of the book states (hyperlinks to Wikpedia entries are mine):

“We tend to look at the history of Jewish life in a linear way, ignoring or dismissing the influences and the stimulators from beyond the comfort zone of traditional Judaism. But we must ask ourselves: What were the outside factors that influenced what happened on the inside? How did the Shabbetai Tzvi and Emden-Eybeschutz controversies affect how we live our lives as Jews in the twenty-first century? How did the Get of Cleves controversy influence Jewish law going forward, so that rulings arrived at today are determined by this seemingly marginal episode? [...]”

For an unusual and interesting list of sectarian works by an Orthodox platform, see this Halacha Brura webpage, broken down as follows:^[1]

משכילים
רפורמים
שבתאים
קראים
שומרונים

The modern study of Jewish sectarianism, and suggestions for further reading

The study of Jewish sectarianism and heresy has seen a massive resurgence in modern times, in the context of Jewish Studies. For obvious reasons, Jewish critical scholars had and have a strong interest in studying sectarianism and the boundaries of Orthodoxy. The literature on this is massive. Here is a selected bibliography, for those interested in further reading.

General

Category:Judaism-related controversies - Wikipedia

קטגוריה:מחלוקות ופולמוסים ביהדות – ויקיפדיה

For a philosophically rigorous, fundamental recent discussion of what the term Jewish Orthodoxy means, see Ezra Margulies: “What do we Mean by ‘Orthodox’ Judaism?”, in Modern Judaism, vol. 42-1 (February 2022) pp. 1–26.