Monday, September 08, 2008

Thesis: Antithesis: Synthesis-Man: Woman: Trasgendered

A Guest Post by The Bray of Fundie

YU's weltanschaung of Torah U'Madah is alternatively known as Tsintez or synthesis. This expression evokes the Hegelian dialectic. I grew up in a different Yeshiva and am no expert on this Hashqafa but the very phrase seems to say we have two antithetical concepts which can be successfully harmonized in a unified approach.

Far be it from me to declare masculinity and femininity antithetical to one another but YU literature professor Jay/Joy Ladin seems to have raised the "synthesis" concept to unimagined heights. (Or depending on one's POV plunged it to unplumbed depths)

While DovBear is upset at Rabbi Moshe Tendler's reaction I am upset with YU Presidents Richard Joel who declined comment, except to say,
"I'm proud of my university and all my faculty. "

Certainly his comments weren't motivated by homophobia. But neither were they informed by yiras shomayim or ahavas Yisrael. His response is that of the craven compromised fund-raiser cowed by political correctness and a fear of all-too-real ACLU discrimination lawsuits and/or NY Times op-ed condemnations. He fears these far more than an immaterial unseen Deity.

Wonder what the Rov would say. If this story has legs I predict that it will roil the MO world at least as much as Noah Feldman did.

Buy DovBears book. (please)

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