Post by medic09 on Jan 23, 2009 9:48:09 GMT -5
Princess, I begin with the caveat that I hope to be careful of lashon hara and the general respect due others.
Regarding Rabbi Boteach, he's had a controversial history within hareidi circles. On the one hand, he is very articulate and succeeds in touching a wide audience. He seems pretty knowledgeable. When he was still at Oxford some 15 years ago, I used to read his email material regularly. He is a fine communicator and debator.
His roots are very strongly in Chabad. When his book Kosher Sex came out, I was teaching with a well-established Chabad figure on the East Coast. The book bothered me for it's openness and bluntness, but I debated whether maybe it was useful somehow in the wide-open society we often see today. My Chabad colleague thought no such thing. Apparently the consensus in Chabad circles was that pushed R. Boteach outside the realm (at least of Chabad).
This does not, in and of itself, disqualify a person. From time to time we see figures of all sorts break with the particular subculture they come from, only to remain important figures for educating or leading the Jewish community. In this case, though, it serves to illustrate why some folks won't refer much to Rabbi Boteach.
I tend to prefer that books I recommend to people provoke thought and consideration, but not necessarily convince anyone. But I, like any of us, also prefer that the stream of thought inspired have someone considering values that I think important (at least for them) and congruent with Torah. I don't know if Rabbi Boteach's books do that or not; so I haven't recommended them.
This touches on a whole 'nother topic which isn't really nursing connected, but relevant as all Jews are both students and teachers in some way. On the one hand, I find censorship (other than some self-censorship) to be terribly distasteful; on the other hand I can't really promote ideas that I am absolutely convinced are antagonistic to Torah. But there is a huge middle ground there composed of things I'm not convinced about and things I don't even know clearly enough about. This happens in our beit midrash. We have a whole bunch of really interesting books related to learning Torah, given by one of our hevra who doesn't read them much anymore. Most I've never seen before, and a few were authored by figures whose general reputations and positions do not please me at all. Nonetheless, I felt very uncomfortable removing these from the shelf (though I did). Torah is a path that has a pretty wide range in thougt and deed. I try to promote that awareness and belief. Nonetheless, there comes a point when one has passed the boundaries of Torat Hashem Temimah.
Again, I personally make no judgements of Rabbi Boteach's ideas; but I haven't been making use of his stuff.
Regarding Rabbi Boteach, he's had a controversial history within hareidi circles. On the one hand, he is very articulate and succeeds in touching a wide audience. He seems pretty knowledgeable. When he was still at Oxford some 15 years ago, I used to read his email material regularly. He is a fine communicator and debator.
His roots are very strongly in Chabad. When his book Kosher Sex came out, I was teaching with a well-established Chabad figure on the East Coast. The book bothered me for it's openness and bluntness, but I debated whether maybe it was useful somehow in the wide-open society we often see today. My Chabad colleague thought no such thing. Apparently the consensus in Chabad circles was that pushed R. Boteach outside the realm (at least of Chabad).
This does not, in and of itself, disqualify a person. From time to time we see figures of all sorts break with the particular subculture they come from, only to remain important figures for educating or leading the Jewish community. In this case, though, it serves to illustrate why some folks won't refer much to Rabbi Boteach.
I tend to prefer that books I recommend to people provoke thought and consideration, but not necessarily convince anyone. But I, like any of us, also prefer that the stream of thought inspired have someone considering values that I think important (at least for them) and congruent with Torah. I don't know if Rabbi Boteach's books do that or not; so I haven't recommended them.
This touches on a whole 'nother topic which isn't really nursing connected, but relevant as all Jews are both students and teachers in some way. On the one hand, I find censorship (other than some self-censorship) to be terribly distasteful; on the other hand I can't really promote ideas that I am absolutely convinced are antagonistic to Torah. But there is a huge middle ground there composed of things I'm not convinced about and things I don't even know clearly enough about. This happens in our beit midrash. We have a whole bunch of really interesting books related to learning Torah, given by one of our hevra who doesn't read them much anymore. Most I've never seen before, and a few were authored by figures whose general reputations and positions do not please me at all. Nonetheless, I felt very uncomfortable removing these from the shelf (though I did). Torah is a path that has a pretty wide range in thougt and deed. I try to promote that awareness and belief. Nonetheless, there comes a point when one has passed the boundaries of Torat Hashem Temimah.
Again, I personally make no judgements of Rabbi Boteach's ideas; but I haven't been making use of his stuff.