Reply To: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized

Rav Hirsch only allowed the amount of secular studies necessary for Jews to be able to understand and influence their neighbors. Plus, he did not allow any secular studies that taught anything against the Torah or that disagreed with the Torah’s values. He also insisted that his students who learn secular studies be very careful and learned in recognizing and rejecting anti-Torah values they may encounter (austritt). This was a condition for secular learning. He also did not allow any integration (assimilation) into the non-Jewish culture. He only wanted his students to be knowledgeable.

There are those who also maintain that Rav Hirsch’s policies were “horaas shaah”, meaning that they were an emergency measure needed for the Jews at that place in that time only, kind of like Pikuach Nefesh, and his intent was not to imply any value at all to secular studies in and of themselves. Others, such as Reb Elchonon Wasserman ZTL say that Rav Hirsch’s original intent was due to the desire to reduce or end anti-Semitism in his country, but the idea later got out of control and people came to value secular knowledge.

The problem with learning secular subjects is that it is prohibited in the Rama 246:4, source in Yerushalmi – reiterated by the Poskim afterwards [Birkas Shmuel Kiddushin #27 p.42 and Kovetz Shiurim II:47 — both in response to a letter Rav Shimon Schwab ZT’L wrote asking for this psak], to learn secular studies as a curriculum. This is either because of Bittul Torah or a denigration of Torah. Rav SR Hirsch was also bound to the Torah and its sages and so he did not argue with this. Whether Rav Hirsch’s opinion is a Horaas Shah is not the issue. The issue is, how much secular studies is sufficient to accomplish what Rav Hirsch said you need secular studies for? In his days, the non-secular studies Jews did not even learn the German language. Today, all Yeshiva students speak English, go to HS (99%), and can function in the world perfectly. There is no need for BA’s or PHD’s to accomplish what was necessary to accomplish in Germany in the days of RSRH. (Even much of the information we learn today in HS is useless both in the real world, (even for Parnassa) as well as the spiritual accomplishments Rav Hirsch was talking about.) This does not make it a Horaas Shah but rather a goal-oriented pursuit, the amount of time, effort, and knowledge needed to fulfill it depending on the time, place, and person in question. Horaas Shah or not, it is not coincidence that Rav SRH’s shitah emerged specifically in the exact time and place where Haskalah was ravaging our community and that secular studies was the weapon of the Apikorsim to seduce the majority of young Jews away from their religion.