“If the accusation of heresy is bandied about constantly, with flimsy basis…, then it will lose any sort of meaning”

Author Date

I worry that the constant misrepresentation of the boundaries of heresy, such that the mere lack of conformance to a very narrow vision of Orthodoxy is taken as unforgivable heresy, will have even more deleterious effects. If the accusation of heresy is bandied about constantly, with flimsy basis, in an attempt to force Orthodoxy into a tiny box, then it will lose any sort of meaning, and all respect for rabbinic authority will erode. Gordimer and his ilk claim that his targets are tearing the fabric of Orthodoxy. I suspect that they have more than their share of blame in the matter.

Akiva Weisinger, “A More Detailed Critique of Avrohom Gordimer’s campaign against Open Orthodoxy/Things That Make Him Uncomfortable”, Pinkasot M’Pi Ha’Aton (2 February 2016) [https://pinkasot.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/a-more-detailed-critique-of-avrohom-gordimers-campaign-against-open-orthodoxythings-that-make-him-uncomfortable/]

Related posts:

  1. “Gordimer’s refusal/failure to propose a new model of Modern Orthodoxy…bespeaks a failure in his thinking…”
  2. “Gordimer’s approach would ultimately consign Modern Orthodoxy to the ash heaps of Jewish history for its irrelevance. It’s also anti-historic”
  3. “…Gordimer seems not only unwilling to negotiate that balance…”
  4. “Alas it is the centrists who always suffer the most in these battles”