As I mentioned in a previous post, I returned last Sunday from a two-week stay in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
The sole purpose of my trip was to visit my youngest daughter who is in an Orthodox gap-year program. (For some odd reason, these are generally called seminaries, even though no one there is entering the rabbinate or priesthood.)<\/p>\n
I have not written about my children before, but my daughter has given me permission to write this post.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure that many who read this will be very surprised to learn that my daughters (both of them) are Orthodox. This was the result of my ex-wife\u2019s decision to find God after our divorce. Believing that it would not be in the best interests of my children, I did not fight her on this and even paid ridiculously large sums of money for them to attend these seminaries. I felt that it couldn\u2019t hurt for them to experience Israel and I\u2019m not afraid of letting them make their own decisions in life.<\/p>\n
Daughter #2, who\u2019s there now, has spent some time learning about what her old man thinks about things like God and Israel and so forth. I don\u2019t know (or care) what she winds up believing, but it\u2019s nice to know that she respects my point of view.<\/p>\n
Over several months (of what I can only characterize as indoctrination) she occasionally talked about my beliefs with some of the other students. A philosophy class that she\u2019s attended prompted some of the conversations along these lines. I\u2019ve sat in on that class where I witnessed a particularly painful attempt to reconcile an Orthodox approach to Torah with evolution and the antiquity of the universe by a rabbi who learned about evolution and the antiquity of the universe from other rabbis. Which is not a good thing.<\/p>\n
As a result of all this, my daughter felt that some of the women she spoke to might benefit from meeting me. Just to expose them to a slightly (!) different perspective.<\/p>\n
So she asked me if I would sit down with them and have a Q & A about Jewish pluralism, atheism, secular humanism, science, God and the meaning of life and I \u2013 quite flattered \u2013 replied, \u201cHELL YES!\u201d<\/p>\n
So invitations went out and sushi was ordered and The Atheist Rabbi prepared to share some knowledge. I must add that my agenda most explicitly and specifically EXCLUDED any attempt to divert these women from their faith or core beliefs. I do not do that kind of thing. Not in settings like this.<\/p>\n
The morning of the evening of the talk arrived and with it a frantic text requesting that I call the rabbi of the seminary immediately and without delay.<\/p>\n
I did as I was asked. The rabbi entered immediately into a harangue about how what I was planning was unacceptable. He declared that by them \u201catheism is a non-starter.\u201d He demanded that I cancel it. I refused. He insinuated that I was exploiting my daughter. I told him that it was her idea. He flattered her maturity and intellect. I agreed with him. He told me that the other \u201cgirls\u201d were not as mature and intellectual and that I lacked experience of 18-year olds so I couldn\u2019t possibly understand this. I explained that I worked in Hillels for thirteen years and that I seem to be giving them more credit than he is. He told me that they would soon be out in the world and exposed to my kind. I replied that in that case it might be nice for them to hear about secular humanism from a Jew who feels attached to Israel and the Jewish people. I assured him that I had no desire to bring them over to my way of thinking and I suggested that he not be so threatened by different ideas. I explained to him that I shelled out tens of thousands of dollars for my daughter to attend his program because I am not threatened by ideas. He did not seem to apprehend my meaning. It\u2019s difficult for the thought police to process such a notion.<\/p>\n
We went round and round like this for 45 minutes until I told him that I really did not want to discuss it any longer. I explained that he had three choices. He could forbid the girls to come. He could persuade them not to come. He could remain silent. We later learned that he called an emergency meeting and tried to persuade them not to come.<\/p>\n
They came anyway.<\/p>\n