1. I am Orthodox.

2. I believe in God.

3. I listen to the rabbis. (mostly)

4. I think that the rabbis fail to grasp the fundamentals of their religion.

5. Judaism is about mesorah, a tradition handed down from teacher to student.

Let me elaborate: I went to a Jewish Day School until 10th grade. I went to a prestigious Yeshiva in Israel post high-school. Throughout these experiences two fundamental ideas were drilled into me:





1) Judaism has answers to every question. Never be afraid of asking, and never give up on finding the answers. They’re always out there somewhere.





2) If you master the Torah, digest every sugya in the Talmud, absorb every Rashi, Tosafot, Rambam, Rashba, Ritva, Shach, Taz, Ramban etc. your mindset will become aligned with God’s mindset. But because you hardly know any of the Torah, who compared with Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach are but a mere insect, are not entitled to a meaningful opinion. And therefore, if you disagree with a sentiment posed by a gadol, know that he is right, and you have yet to understand that you are wrong.





These two ideas are the two ideas absolutely necessary for the rabbis to monopolize our religion.

The first idea is the psychological equivalent of telling you that you are free to challenge the tenets of your faith whenever you doubt them. This enables you to feel like you are not being duped by your religion, because why else would challenges be so accepted.

The second idea keeps you in line, like a good Jewish soldier. You are never going to completely master the Torah, because it is vast and never-ending. Therefore your fate is to forever listen to the *gedolim* who know far more than you ever will.

Newsflash: you’re a sucker.

Even if you do master every masechta in the Talmud, you’re still not going to disagree with the gedolim because as soon as you do, you’re branded a meikil or an apikorus or a choshed al hakesherim or a ba'al loshon hora. If you’re lucky.

More likely still, you will be dismissed as someone unfitting to render p'sak halacha, not magia lehora'ah if you will. You’ve seen it before:

- batei din accepting converts, only to have other rabbis refuse to acknowledge them

- batei din permitting agunot to remarry while gedolim launch ad hominem attacks on them rather than their methods.

- New technological devices like the Shabbat light switch that rabbis dismiss without even examining the halachic issues.







But if you are unconvinced, what do you think would happen if a rabbi married an unobservant couple? Or if another brave soul said that it was permissible to tranquilize an animal before shechitah?

The Remah did the prior, and the Seridei Eish did the latter (both under extenuating circumstances. But history is written from the perspective of the victor.

The radical gedolim, protective of their territory, cannot afford to let such controversial positions gain any traction for fear they lose their tenuous control over the Jewish people. This is why you are told to defer to the opinions of those with more knowledge than you.

The problem is that this cycle feeds itself: Our leadership is compromised because it will not entertain a chiddush, it is already programmed, already resigned to its socio-halachik reality. The next generation of gedolim then, can only survive by subscribing to the ideas of the current generation.

Which brings me to 6:

The religion I practice is a different religion to the religion I believe in.