Five weeks ago, Mishpacha brought the communal focus onto a demographic that hadn’t received much attention in the frum community: the growing numbers of "dispassionate Jews" – youngsters who go through the motions and wear the uniform of mainstream Yiddishkeit, but who have no internal connection to religion. The response to the article – in the form of letters, calls, and comments posted in several venues – was overwhelming. We present some samples of the most compelling responses.
It is important for us to recognize the distinction of the two arenas because our yetzer hara certainly does and confronts us in both. In order to succeed in our confrontation with evil we need to know our enemy. Historically speaking when the intellectual enticements of the many “isms” were attacking the Torah world our Torah leaders responded by fortifying us through Torah knowledge. They knew the enemy and responded in kind. An intellectual confrontation required an intellectual response. We too need to meet the evil of our time head on. But using the same war techniques with a different enemy will only guarantee our defeat. Imagine if we were attacked with chemical warfare – would we stand a chance if we fought back with cannons from the civil war?” – Rabbi Benzion Twerski
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“To some extent I always knew I was missing something. When I was thirteen I spent the summer in a yeshivah camp in Tzfas. I remember talking to a staff member there and asking him about this lack of feeling. Why wasn’t I being affected by all these holy sites we were visiting? I don’t remember his answer. But I do remember feeling bad about the emptiness inside of me.
Somehow despite the difficulties I survived grade school. Then it was time to go away to leave my parents’ home and start somewhere new. I ended up in New Haven CT.
If there was a single mistake that led me to where I am today it was skipping my first year of high school. Even though I had the skills to learn at a higher level than most ninth-graders skipping a grade meant that I missed something very basic. Something I am learning now. It is a specific chassidic discourse that most boys from my circles learn and it is fundamental in understanding how the yetzer hara works.
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