Kiruv

Chakira recently posted an introduction to what I presume will be a series of posts on issur negia. He invokes Gila Manolson's book The Magic Touch as an example of a lousy, fallacious attempt to discuss Negia. He also says he hasn't read it. Now, a disclaimer before I continue. I am not Shomer Negia. I never have been. I will not attempt to justify this, as it really isn't justifiable. I am just mentioning it in the interests of full disclosure. In any case, I have read the book and found it unconvincing, for many of the same reasons he did. The key line is "Us orthodox Jews, (as opposed to the people in Aish HaTorah) take umbrage at the idea that the reason that pork is prohibited it because of trichinosis." However, he doesn't really discuss the problem with Aish's ideology and methodology, which The Magic Touch is representative of. Aish HaTorah and other kiruv organizations have one goal. They want to bring people to an halachically observant lifestyle. There is, lehavdil, a certain similarity between the Kiruv organizations and Christian missionary groups. They aren't necessarily concerned with the theological/philosophical implications of their mission, just that the non-believers become believers. Now, what are the implications of Aish type maximizing? I'm going to take The Magic Touch as an example, because it is what we've been looking at so far. Manolson never mentions any halachic reasons for the issur. She doesn't discuss the origins or nature of the prohibition. She doesn't even seem to be interested in them. Instead, she mentions all sorts of benefits one might derive from being shomer negia, some of which may be true. (I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, though I don't think that most of them are.) This is, in my experience, the way that many of the kiruv groups bring people in, because it is effective. My problem with it is that it is a fundamentally dishonest methodology. If you are getting involved in Orthodox Judaism for increased pleasure, I suggest you look in a different direction. There are a number of benefits to the Orthodox life style, but at the end of the day, it is fundamentally about curbing your desires, not for increased pleasure later (which is what books like The Magic Touch subtly imply), but in the service of God. Tricking people into observance by telling them that they'll feel good later does not create true servants of God. I once heard Jerry Samet, a Brandeis University philosophy professor, make an analogy that I think is apt. In the Bible institution of debt slavery the slave serves for 6 years to pay off his debt and then is set free. At the end of his term of service he can choose to remain with his master. The slave has his ear pierced, as a sign of his servitude. Professor Samet suggested that a Jew should be like the slave who has his ear pierced, choosing service to his master with full knowledge of what that implies. A dishonest presentation prevents a person from making an educated choice. That hurts the whole community of believers.

UPDATE: As a completely irrelevent side note, I notice that Chakira was in Sharon, MA this past Shabbos, with Rabbi Klapper's Summer Beit Midrash. I was in Sharon this past shabbos too.... I hope he isn't the Kollel guy who laughed at Danny's lame "Are you my girlfriend now?" joke. That would lower my opinion of him