Dogmatic vs Pragmatic

“Dogma” – a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as irrefutably true.

The word “Dogmatic” refers to a person who is inclined towards dogma. The essence of being Monotheistic (believing in Hashem and no other) means being dogmatic. When Chazzan Yosef Aleksander Zusha was in his school years, he was enrolled the local Catholic school as that part of town did not have a Jewish presence, and his parents weren’t Observant Jews despite being authentic Ashkenazi Jews…What Reb Zusha said is that the one thing that his goyish school taught him is to not be dogmatic. This is because the theology of Catholicism is so flawed that the only way to deal with it, in our more enlightened society, is to avoid being the dogma of this theology.

Now, when it comes to dealing with the fact that we don’t have a unified minhag (מנהג מאחדת), Jewish people can think that their Minhag is better than anyone else’s which can come from being dogmatic. The same is true when it comes to Hashkafah. Since the Mishnah and Gemara were written later than the lifespan of Moshe Rabbeinu, we don’t have the best ability to have the solidified Khalifah – the authentic successor of the Torah without any disagreement or ability to refute the aforementioned successor. The Arabs use the same shoresh (Khet-Lamet-Fei) as a reference to the successor to Muhhamed in the Islamic religion. 

In certain parts of the world, people are very knit-picky on the smallest thing including Havarah even though both Ashkenazim and Sephardim use the same parts of the mouth for both letter since they use Tiberian Hebrew – the Hebrew of Tveria during Zman Ha-Khazal. But what I’ve learned from some other communities is how to avoid these unnecessary ideals based on dogmatic thinking beyond the practical usage of dogma – to promote the belief of Monotheism. In terms of Havarah, the lack of strictness between Havarat Ashkenazit and Havarat Sephardit is an excellent example because ultimately, it doesn’t matter unless you actually have a derekh which requires it. And such communities do exist.

Now, on the other hand, I’ve learned how to be Pragmatic – practical rather than idealistic. “Pragma” is Greek for deed. While this is not the opposite of Dogma, the things that are contrary to being dogmatic have benefited my spiritual growth and allowed me to have better channels for enhancing my Yiddishkeit. 

Knowing how to accept and appreciate different minhagim is part of this, and knowing how to accept the fact that some Jews are on a different level of Judaism is part of that. Now, a person should have established lines of what kind of things are unacceptable, but it’s not practical if dogmatic thinking is applied to all aspects of life.

Another point is human relatability. This relates to the pragmatic aspect of kiruv where you present the Torah as something that is understandable to a Jewish person. The Torah can be promoted in a derech that a Jew can appreciate without distorting the Torah itself. This is why a respectable rabbi in Kiruv would make references to the Inyanim shel Beit Ha-Kisei due to the fact that all mentally normal humans can comprehend the majority of these inyanim due to their purely physical nature. Because those actions are devoid of spirituality, even the most humanistic Jew can comprehend the majority of these inyanim. Many Halakhot can be derived from these inyanim.