In the Name of Achdus

I heard a shiur recently in which the speaker spoke about respecting shomer Shabbos Jews with different ideologies and lifestyles than yourself.  In an attempt to promote achdus, problematic ideologies and lifestyles were glossed over.

As important as achdus is, when moral relativism gets mixed in, that spells trouble.  I see this in statements such as, "We need to be able to see people who feel differently than we do, as people with a valid opinion, albeit different from our own ..." without qualification.

Even when referring exclusively to opinions seemingly sourced in Torah, we know that even such views can be wrong! I would give examples but prefer not to be that controversial.

In this era of moral relativism it isn't considered proper to view anything as wrong, but that doesn't change the fact that sometimes, people have wrong views.  We are not allowed, according to Torah, to validate these views! We might try to understand why they hold the wrong views they hold, and love them despite their wrong views, but wrong is wrong!

A similar sentiment is expressed when a frum psychologist writes, "All feelings are legitimate … All feelings are valid."  This is certainly the prevalent view in America today, unfortunately so, but it certainly doesn't reflect Torah values! Regarding anger specifically, rather than say we have the "right" to be angry, the Gemara equates anger with idol-worship!

We are supposed to be work on ourselves to ensure that invalid and illegitimate feelings such as anger, jealousy, hatred, glory-seeking, arrogance etc. do not find a place in our heart.  And if we, or our children or students, experience these feelings, we need to know how to get rid of these bad feelings, not legitimize them.