A Stocking Full of Excrement

That's what Napoleon said about Talleyrand in one of his imperial rages

It's also what I think about the upcoming Torah of Science and Chareidi English writing in general

Artscroll and similar publishers specialize in taking fundamentalist ideology and dressing it up with Western words. The idea is to present rather silly ideas and beliefs in a dignified manner using good English. The population being targeted, I assume, is people who are educated and are turned off by the half literate, barely English speaking leaders of the Chareidi world. Most people with a college education will run away from people who say things like "stupid goyish scientific narishkeit." Educated people will be much more receptive to things like "the prevailing mistaken scientific ideology"

Its interesting that all it takes for some people to be convinced is good English and throwing in lots of nice big scientific sounding words.

Artscroll is clever. They know that you're not going to make Chareidi BT's out of educated people unless you express stupid things eloquently. You gotta say juxtapose instead of semichas haparshiyos, and you gotta say hermeneutical principles instead of Yud Gimel Middos. The only way to make crazy Chareidism into something palatable is by dressing up the excrement in a nice silk stocking.

It's simply amazing how influential someone with good English can be. It says absolutely nothing about your intelligence yet makes you appear to the masses as extraordinarily educated. Throw in a British accent and you're good to go.

I predict that the Torah of Science will be much different than the earlier "rebuttal" of R' Slifkin in Chaim B'Emunasam. Chaim B'Emunasam was aimed at Yeshivish people who might be tempted by R' Slifkin's "evil ways". The Torah of Science, I predict, will be written in flawless English and will make lots of (selective) references to science and throw in some Rishonim also while avoiding using provocative medieval sounding words like "heresy, and apikosus" and will instead say things like "undermines basic principles of Judaism."

Thats the scariest thing the Chareidim who speak like educated people yet believe in the weirdest things. It almost makes one want to encourage the lack of secular education in Yeshivot lest the Chareidim learn "fancy" words like exegesis! (Oy vey!)

Don't be fooled by Rabbi Meiselman's lectures which make him sound like a semi-literate kollel guy. This book, I believe, will be different and try to be as "scientific" as possible.

Should be fun to watch