I am a big fan of the works of R’Mayer Schiller. He is a thoughtful, insightful and intriguing individual with an “unorthodox” world view. I want to quote again from his essay “Torah Umadda and The Jewish Observer Critique’ Towards a Clarification of the Issues".
The issue being dealt with is one of immense complexity and really in my opinion, is at the forefront of the “ideological debates” in the world of Orthodoxy. In short, the question is, what does G-d have to say about our mundane, human existence outside the world of Mitzvot?
In this excerpt, Rabbi Schiller accuses the critics of Rabbi Lamm essentially of Cognitive dissonance, for on the one hand they perpetuate an ideology that exclusively values Talmud Torah as the “be all and end all”, yet simultaneously, although guiltily, see value in other dimensions of human existence whether it be art, wisdom, poetry, beauty, sport, culture, etc. To paraphrase R’David Berger in one of his shiurim, these are the Jews who are “proud of their secular education, but against it” or as R’Schiller would say Jews who “resolutely refuse to draw any theoretical conclusions from their musings”.
I highly recommend that people read the whole article, however the following I think poignantly gets straight to the point:
I have often sat with Hasidim who have declared that a “frummer doctor is a Kiddush Hashem”, but will resolutely refuse to draw any theoretical conclusions from their musings. Indeed, isn’t it standard practice in the “Torah only” world, at fund raising events, to honor those with advanced academic degree and praise their accomplishments? Recently I sat with a prominent mitnagdic Rosh Yeshiva who waxed rhapsodic over Ebbets Field, Happy Felton’s Knothole Gang, “Campy” and “Pee Wee” and, yet felt obligated to declare those wondrous memories of his youth “shtusim”[26]. The gap between a mathematical theory of good and evil and the reality of the boundry of God’s creation is difficult to overcome
[26] Another mitnagdic Rosh Kollel told me that a trip to Niagra Falls would be “bittul Torah”. However, when reminded of the Abbot and Costello routine of “Niagra Falls”, he laughed so hard he could barely catch his breath. I asked him what he thought God felt about the joy he experienced at that moment and he was at a loss to answer.