Blogosium Update

Well, after the Bar Mitzva I went to a hook-up site and saw the last twenty to thirty minutes of Rav Solomon's speech at the Agudah Convention. The tenor was measured and sombre.

He made one point which leaves me wondering, as I'm sure it will you. It has nothing to do with the internet. It was a mushul from Rav Shmuel Greineman, z'l, who compared a tiny bit of secular knowledge in a Talmid Chacham to a tiny bit of poison in a glass of milk. (!)

(I guess this shows Rav Solomon's been keeping up with the news - see below.)

Rav Solomon nicely addressed the issue of blogs 'outing' purported child abusers in our community. He made a neat rhetorical spin on the charge that these charges are 'swept under the carpet'.
He said (paraphrased) "Yes, we do sweep these things under the carpet! We sweep under the carpet the many cases we take firm action on to protect the families of these (abusers) as we get them out of chinuch. And we cannot be faulted if a few cases slip through our fingers!"

Afterwards he made a plea to show respect for Talmidei Chachamim when we get together with our families, which I believe all can agree with. This point was echoed by the Novominsker Rebbe Motzai Shabbos when he stated (again paraphrased) "we cannot shake hands with a Talmid Chacham at a public gathering, and then go home and smear him".

Continuing with Motzai Shabbos, Rav Shmuel Bloom made an unexpectedly brilliant and heartfelt speech, placing Aguda and our generation on Reb Mayer Simcha's repetitive timeline of Jewish history. He concluded (parapahrased) "We know that America will be the last stop of Torah. But we want to leave America with singing and dancing, not pogroms, persecution and fear". This was linked in to the machlokess theme later developed masterfully by Rav Yissachar Frand.

I will return to this subject for a follow up to Rav Solomon's spirited defense of the action taken against abusers, and again as I review the recordings of the blogosium.

File: agudah, agudath, blog, agudah convention