Critical Knowledge for Judaism

Volume III, Issue 2
Kol hamevaser
Volume III, Issue
November 6, 2009/19 Marheshvan 5770
November 6, 2009/19 Marheshvan 5770
se) HAMEVASER
The Jewish Thought Magazine of the Yeshiva University Body
The Jewish Thought Magazine of the Yeshiva University Body
i
vT
TF
The Modern Orthodox
Response to Orthopraxy
Eli Putterman, p. 3
The Modern Orthodox
Response to Orthopraxy
Eli Putterman, p. 3
"Am le-Badad
Yishkon:" Must the
Singular Nation Always
RX(LowAVOrg
Nicole Grubner, p. 10
"Am le-Badad
Yishkon:" Must the
Singular Nation Always
Reside Alone?
Nicole Grubner, p. 10
An Interview with Rabbi
Yaakov Neuberger
p. ll
An Interview with Rabbi
Yaakov Neuberger
p. 11
Valee
Shani Taragin: Part One
An Interview with Mrs.
Shani Taragin: Part One
p. 14
Shemirat Negi'ah
shemirat Negi'ah and
rTLAY
Reality
=Nathaniel Jaret, p. 17
Nathaniel Jaret, p. 17
Family and Community
arbeebea and Community

Kol Hamevaser
Kol Hamevaser
The Jewish Thought Magazine
of the Yeshiva University Student Body
Staff
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About Kol Hamevaser
Kol Hamevaseris a magazine of Jewish thought dedicated to sparking
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Cover Art
"Playing Kids" By Elena Flerova
2
www.kolhamevaser.com
Volume III, Issue 2
Shaul Seidler-Feller
17
19
Shemirat Negi'ah and Reality
Reality Check: Lo Tikrevu le-Gallot
Ervah and Shemirat Negi'ah
General Jewish Thought
Rabbi Yosef Blau
Rabbi Joseph B. Soltoveitchik
Reuven Rand
21
22
Musar's Incomplete Victory
"A Yid iz Geglaychn tzu a Seyfer
Toyre"
23 Don't Read this Essay
Book Review
Shlomo Zuckier
25
Beginning the Conversation: A Re-
view of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks'
Weekly Readings of Be-Reshot
This magazine contains words of Torah.
Please treat it with proper respect.
Emmanuel Sanders
Staff
13
14
Be Not Overly Modest: Tseni'ut and
the Inability to Speak About Sex
An Interview with Mrs. Shani
Taragin: Part One
Staff
11
An Interview with Rabbi Yaakov
Neuberger
10
Sarit Bendavid
Alex Luxenberg
Noah Cheses
6
7
9
Contents
Volume III, Issue 2
November 6, 2009
19 Marheshvan 5770
Family and Community
Eli Putterman
2
The Modern Orthodox Response to
Orthopraxy
Prayer: A Call for Philosophical In-
quiry
Rabbinic Leadership Reexamined
On the Virtue of Followership: Ein
Melekh be-Lo Am
"Am le-Badad Yishkon:" Must the
Singular Nation Always Reside
Alone?

Family and Community
Family and Community
The Modern
Orthodox Response to
Orthopraxy*
BY: Eli Putterman
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's
shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
– Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach"
I
am less than enthusiastic at the prospect
of broaching a topic having any relation-
ship to the stale polemic that has raged
around Dr. James Kugel, but, unfortunately,
my article is in no small measure applicable to
that subject. It is my intention here to offer an
analysis of the Orthoprax Jew, one who lives
in an Orthodox community and keeps the
mitsvot while disbelieving the truth claims of
Orthodox Judaism.i
This article will focus primarily on the
halakhic status of the Orthoprax Jew,ii who
may be examined through several of the clas-
sical halakhic prisms through which dissenting
Jews are viewed: mumar, kofer, or tinok she-
nishbah. The legal and meta-legal issues will
be considered with a historically conscious
methodology that, in this author's opinion,
should characterize Modern Orthodox
pesak.iii,iv The article will conclude with a
broader discussion of the Orthoprax phenom-
enon and the proper Orthodox response to it.
At the outset, we will adumbrate the rel-
evant halakhic framework for our discussion.
Firstly, the mumar is a purposeful violator of
mitsvot. This classification has two subcate-
gories: the mumar le-te'avon, who is liable to
violate mitsvot for the sake of convenience or
pleasure without denying the binding nature
of the mitsvah, and the mumar le-hakh'is, who
violates mitsvot out of spite. According to the
Volume III, Issue 2
Shulhan Arukh, the latter is a subcategory of
the kofer (or appikoros), which includes any-
one who disbelieves in the basic principles of
Jewish faith;v that is, to become a mumar le-
hakh'is, it is sufficient to violate a mitsvah out
of denial of its obligatory nature. However, the
Arukh ha-Shulhan states that only one who,
out of spite, specifically forsakes the permis-
sible in favor of the forbidden is considered a
mumar le-hakh'is.vi
The mumar le-te'avon is considered a full
member of the halakhic community; his only
disabilities are invalidity as a witnessvii and
treatment with a measure of suspicion, accord-
ing to most decisors, only with regard to the
mitsvah he violates.viii By contrast, the mumar
le-hakh'is is deprived of
the ability to perform many
halakhically significant rit-
ual actions, such as slaugh-
ter,ix writing sacred texts,x
and performing circumci-
sion.xi More pertinently, he is excluded from
the quorum of prayerxii and may not be called
up to the Torah,xiii and a slew of prohibitions
is associated with his foodxiv and winexv and
with eating at his house.xvi It is quite clear that
there would be great halakhic difficulties in in-
cluding an Orthoprax Jew, if he were to be
considered a mumar le-hakh'is, in the Ortho-
dox community.
The kofer, as stated, is one who denies the
other hand, Maharil is decidedly lenient to-
wards the kofer who does not violate any pro-
hibition, ruling that he is considered a
full-fledged Jew in many of the areas the
mumar is not.xix
Finally, the tinok she-nishbah is, broadly
speaking, one who has been raised in a non-
Orthodox environment, and hence does not
know that he is obligated in mitsvot or in be-
lief in the truth claims of Judaism. Although
the Gemara uses this term specifically to refer
to those raised by Gentiles,xx Maimonides in-
cludes the descendants of Karaites in this cat-
egory, as they were born into their heretical
beliefs.xxi The Nimmukei Yosef, however, states
that the scope of tinok she-nishbah should be
construed in a more limited fashion: only one
raised among Gentiles with no exposure what-
ever to Judaism can be granted this lenient sta-
tus, but anyone who is aware of Jews and their
beliefs, yet does not adopt them, is an apiko-
ros.xxii
Now that the foundations have been laid,
we will begin our halakhic treatment of the
Orthoprax. First of all, a basic distinction must
be made between Orthoprax Jews who ob-
serve Halakhah fully, either from force of
habit or because they derive spiritual comfort
openly Orthoprax Jew, according to the strict
Halakhah, would meet a fate little short of
(and indeed, according to Rambam, no differ-
ent from) social ostracism, and a closet Ortho-
prax Jew would have to hide his beliefs for
fear of suffering the isolation of his less cir-
cumspect colleague. While this situation might
be unobjectionable, indeed, ideal, in a Haredi
community, it is, to my mind, intolerable in
ours; leaving my opinion aside, it should be
quite clear that such a sociological situation
would never prevail in Modern Orthodoxy. Yet
this seems to be what Halakhah demands. And
it is Rambam himself, the oft-cited paragon
and paradigm of Torah u-Madda, of openness
to intellectual currents emanating from worlds
foreign to the tradition, who is here leading the
charge against the free exchange of ideas,
against individual inquiry, and against toler-
ance.At the very least, the reason for this re-
quires further clarification.
As a first step towards a resolution, let us
examine the crux of the dispute between Ram-
bam and the Nimmukei Yosef regarding the
breadth of the category of tinok she-nishbah
and, conversely, that of kofer. For the Nim-
mukei Yosef, a person's knowledge of his own
Jewishness and of the Jewish religion is suffi-
"It is Rambam himself, the oft-cited paragon and paradigm of Torah u-Madda, of
openness to intellectual currents emanating from worlds foreign to the tradition,
who is here leading the charge against the free exchange of ideas, against individual
inquiry, and against tolerance."
basic principles of Jewish faith, such as the
truth of the Torah or the validity of the Rab-
binic tradition. The Mishneh Torah is the clas-
sic source for the grouping of the kofer
together with the mumar le-hakh'is in terms
of the severity of their treatment. In fact, Ram-
bam treats the kofer even more strictly, ruling
that one may not converse with him, even to
respond to his heresy.xvii A kofer is also dealt
with more stringently than the mumar le-
hakh'is in the area of berakhot (blessings), as
he denies their basic premise, namely that God
exists and is the Creator of the world; hence,
he may not serve as a prayer leader.xviii On the
from an Orthodox lifestyle, and those who ob-
serve mitsvot publicly but not when alone,
who generally stay in the community only be-
cause of social or familial ties. While at this
point it would seem that members of both
groups should be considered koferim, the latter
group may be categorized as mumarim le-
hakh'is as well according to the Shulhan
Arukh, though the Arukh ha-Shulhan would
rule leniently. It seems clear that, even accord-
ing to Rambam, the Orthoprax Jew cannot be
placed in the category of tinok she-nishbah, as
he has arrived at his heretical beliefs despite
his upbringing in an Orthodox setting. Accord-
ing to Maharil, the former class would hardly
be discriminated against at all by Halakhah,
though Rambam and most other decisors
would disagree.
The vista seems bleak. Though even the
most extreme reading of the halakhic literature
would not justify an inquisition to determine
the beliefs of every Jew who steps through the
doors of a shul, the harshness of the treatment
which Halakhah would prescribe for the Or-
thoprax ought to give pause. Certainly an
www.kolhamevaser.com
cient to render him a kofer if he fails to abide
by these beliefs. However, Rambam requires
that the kofer disbelieve by dint of his own in-
tellectual speculation, not due to origin in a
heretical environment, such as the Karaite sect
or the family of a mumar.xxiii
The difference in the historical circum-
stances of the two decisors may explain their
differing attitudes. Rambam served as a leader
of the mixed Rabbanite-Karaite community of
Fustat (old Cairo), and was in constant contact
with sincere Jews who had different beliefs
and practices on account of being raised dif-
ferently.xxiv The Nimmukei Yosef (R. Joseph
Habiba), in contrast, lived after the golden age
of Karaism in fifteenth-century Christian
Spain, an era of persecution during which
many Jews abandoned their faith. The fact that
some of these conversos took an active part in
disputing with and persecuting their former
brethren is well-known.xxv Naturally, then,
Rambam would be more tolerant and respect-
ful of the other than the Nimmukei Yosef, for
whom dissident Jews would have been total
apostates often hostile towards Judaism,.
3

Kol Hamevaser
What the preceding analysis shows is that
Rambam felt comfortable in expanding the
scope of the concept of tinok she-nishbah
based on the sociological circumstances of his
period. In fact, this is apparent even by com-
paring Rambam's understanding of the cate-
gory of tinok she-nishbah to that of the
Gemara. As stated, the Gemara applies the
term only to those with no knowledge of Ju-
daism or of their own Jewishness. Rambam
reasons that this cannot be an arbitrary defini-
tion, but is rather based on the fundamental ha-
lakhic principle of ones rahamana patreih –
and servants of the tradition, who are looked
upon as the other.
Indeed, the intellectual Zeitgeist has not
only thrown off the yoke of tradition but re-
lates to traditional religion with active hostil-
ity. Critical scholarship, which enjoys the
prestige the West grants to its universities, has
contended forcefully against the dogmas of re-
ligion and the tenets of Orthodox Judaism in
particular. In addition, the prevailing liberal
moral discourse is laden with assumptions in
complete contradiction to many elements,
general and specific, of Orthodox doctrine.
"According to Rambam, the heretic – even of Orthodox stock – Or-
thoprax or otherwise, is to be considered coerced by the intellectual
and cultural forces of the modern era and hence falls under the cate-
gory of tinok she-nishbah."
the halakhic system does not penalize a person
for committing a transgression under coercion,
i.e., in a situation not in his power to avert.
Since one born in a Karaite community, no
less than a child captured by Gentiles, is not
at fault for failing to believe in Rabbinic Ju-
daism, he should be considered no less a tinok
she-nishbah.
Nevertheless, Rambam did categorize
those who reject Judaism for intellectual rea-
sons as mumarim le-hakh'is, and did not re-
gard them as coerced by their intellect. He
lived in the medieval intellectual world,
which, despite being philosophically inclined,
still very much upheld traditional authority;
for instance, one who disagreed with Aristotle
was considered irrational, Aristotle's views
having achieved a status similar to that of sci-
ence in contemporary Western society. In this
climate, one would not construct a philosoph-
ical system from scratch but based on the work
of Aristotle; even the early Kabbalists ac-
cepted many key elements of Aristotelian
metaphysics.xxvi Thus, for a Jew in that age to
have disregarded the Rabbinic masorah in
favor of speculative philosophy would have
been arrogant and spiteful indeed and certainly
not a matter of coercion.
In contemporary times, these traditional-
ist words of Rambam strike a consonant note
in Haredi enclaves, but we, as Modern Ortho-
dox Jews, look at them
through a different pair of
glasses. We cannot honestly
proclaim, in the post-En-
lightenment era, that anyone
who refuses to subordinate his reason to tradi-
tional authority is a deviant rebel. Individual
reason is the foundation of the spirit of our age
(one which various reactions up to the post-
modernism of today have not succeeded in
overcoming). On the contrary – the vast ma-
jority of the Western world, including the Jew-
ish community, would today be subject to
Rambam's censure, which originally applied
only to scattered individuals. Meanwhile, it is
the shomerei emunim, the steadfast guardians
The influences of secular society on
Modern Orthodox Jews are vast, both in terms
of the intellectual content of academic schol-
arship and, more fundamentally, in the os-
motic absorption of the ideals of Western
society – and this is no undesired side effect
but the very telos of that strain of Orthodoxy
which affirms the value of engagement with
general culture.
What is relevant for our purposes is the
degree to which this has drastically changed
the nature of the phenomenon of leaving the
fold. While to the Nimmukei Yosefit was clear
that anyone who chose not to practice or be-
lieve was deliberately renouncing his Jewish-
ness, nowadays this is simply untrue; the vast
majority of self-identifying Jews are non-Or-
thodox. Similarly, Rambam's characterization
of following individual reason as "foolish-
ness"xxvii is, quite simply, out of place after an
Enlightenment whose motto was sapere aude
("dare to know").
At this point, our way forward becomes
clear: according to Rambam, the heretic –even
of Orthodox stock – Orthoprax or otherwise,
is to be considered coerced by the intellectual
and cultural forces of the modern era and
hence falls under the category of tinok she-
nishbah.xxviii The only explicit support to be
found for this position is a letter of R. Kook
stating that the youth of his day who "stray
Kook's leniency, which would place him in
agreement with our thesis.
Halakhah does not limit social contact
with the tinok she-nishbah through mecha-
nisms such as prohibiting his food or wine, as
it does in the case of the mumar. Eating in his
house is problematic, but only because of his
ignorance of the laws of kashrut;xxx obviously,
this problem does not arise in the case of the
Orthoprax. However, it would appear that the
Orthoprax Jew is nevertheless excluded in
areas which directly relate to Orthodox belief,
such as prayer and berakhot, a sanction of sig-
nificant social ramifications in its own right.
One argument which may be adduced for
inclusivity even in this regard has been ad-
vanced by R. Yehuda Amital: no one living in
an era in which the prevailing post-Kantian
epistemological framework asserts that ab-
solute certainty cannot be reached can be con-
sidered to be a true kofer according to
Halakhah, as kefirah refers only to categorical
denial of the principles of faith rather than
doubt, however formidable.xxxi This position,
though appealing, cannot easily be accepted;
ultimate epistemological uncertainty does not
prevent James Kugel, for one, from making
extremely confident claims with regard to the
authorship of the Pentateuch. Despite the ex-
istence in the philosophical realm of unshak-
able doubt, in practice most people think in
terms of proof and certainty. R. Amital's argu-
ment may cover some Orthoprax Jews who
are merely agnostic about the truth claims of
Orthodoxy, but it is difficult to extend it to a
categorical leniency.xxxii
However sweeping its scope, though, the
Halakhah does not provide a ruling as to the
proper communal response to the phenome-
non of Orthopraxy. I would like to conclude
with a brief discussion of this issue, which, to
my knowledge, has not been addressed any-
where else, perhaps as a result of lack of
awareness.
But first, a historical and sociological
prologue. The phenomenon of Orthopraxy is
of recent origin. It is likely more common than
complete defection from Orthodoxy was dur-
ing periods when leaving Orthodoxy meant
abandoning the Jewish community, but is far
Jewish community in the mid-20th century.
(He and his congregation later left institutional
British Orthodoxy and eventually founded the
Masorti Movement).xxxiv Jacobs was an aca-
demic Jewish scholar, as are several Orthoprax
Jews today (notably, James Kugel); it makes
sense that Orthopraxy, throughout its short his-
tory, has had a high rate of incidence among
this demographic for the simple reason that the
positions of academia are most difficult to re-
ject from within. A thorough knowledge of the
academic arguments against the truth claims
of Orthodoxy is obviously more widespread,
if not near-universal, among Orthodox aca-
demics than in the broader community. Fur-
thermore, it is more difficult to reject the
results of the scholarly method in one area if
one works in an atmosphere in which its reli-
ability is simply assumed and indeed actively
engages in employing the method in one's
own research.
Scant information and no rigorous re-
search are available on the extent of the Or-
thoprax phenomenon today. However many
Orthoprax Jews exist now, I submit that their
number will significantly increase in the fu-
ture. The development of the blogosphere has
brought with it the emergence of several
anonymous Orthoprax bloggers, some of
whom became Orthoprax during their blog-
ging career due to Internet discussions. It
stands to reason that easy Internet access to
such blogs, and to other resources targeted at
Orthodox Jews and arguing against Ortho-
doxy, has contributed and will continue to con-
tribute to the spread of the Orthoprax
phenomenon. This, however, is no more than
conjecture.
With this background, some policy ques-
"To combat Orthopraxy on the communal plane, the only possible measure true to our ideology
is for Modern Orthodoxy to educate its members about contemporary challenges to Orthodox
beliefs and the Modern Orthodox response to those problems."
tions can be considered. The first is the stance
to adopt towards the individual Orthoprax
Jew; it should be self-evident that he is not to
be despised for his beliefs. On the contrary, in
many cases, the decision to remain observant
rather than depart for a less demanding envi-
ronment, whether Reform Judaism or human-
ism, demonstrates a profound appreciation for
the social, intellectual, and psychological as-
pects of Orthodoxy. Some even remain Ortho-
prax out of a feeling of deep connection to and
identification with the
Jewish people and its tra-
ditions, for which they de-
serve naught but our
admiration. In sum, the
from the paths of Torah and faith due to the
raging torrent of our time" are to be judged as
"completely coerced."xxix This novel leniency
could be construed fairly narrowly as applica-
ble only in R. Kook's time of mass tergiversa-
tion from Orthodoxy, and not nowadays, when
the phenomenon of youth leaving Orthodoxy,
while not negligible, is well short of being a
mass movement. However, it is equally possi-
ble to see intellectual or cultural, rather than
sociological, conditions as the basis for R.
4
www.kolhamevaser.com
less significant than the latter is today. While
defection from Orthodoxy is prevalent among
Orthodox youth, Orthopraxy, as alluded to
above, primarily attracts more rooted
adults.xxxiii
One of the earliest notable openly Ortho-
prax Jews was the rabbi Louis Jacobs, whose
barring from certain positions by Chief Rabbi
Israel Brodie on the basis of his theological
views, especially on the authorship of the Pen-
tateuch, led to fierce controversy in the British
Orthoprax serve as living disproof to the oft-
cited contention that the truth of Orthodoxy is
so obvious that its denial arises solely from the
desire to follow one's base impulses unencum-
bered by its self-denying regulation.xxxv
The impulse to attempt to return the Or-
thoprax Jew to the faith, which Rambam ad-
vocated in the context of the tinokot
she-nishbu of his day,xxi must be resisted in
ours. For the very reasons that the Orthoprax
Jew is considered a tinok she-nishbah in the
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
first place, there would be little chance of suc-
cess. In the case that the Orthoprax Jew keeps
mitsvot for social rather than idealistic rea-
sons, he could very well decide to leave the
community altogether if his comfort level
there were to be shaken by misguided efforts
at keiruv.
To combat Orthopraxy on the communal
plane, the only possible measure true to our
ideologyxxxvi is for Modern Orthodoxy to edu-
cate its members about contemporary chal-
lenges to Orthodox beliefs and the Modern
Orthodox response to those problems.xxxvii
Whether or not to actually do so is a key ques-
tion in Modern Orthodox Jewish education;
the obvious problem is that some of those who
otherwise would never have been exposed to
the issues will find the questions more con-
vincing than the answers.xxxviii I am of the opin-
ion, however, that exposure to the problems,
especially in an Internet age, will very likely
happen in any case, and it is preferable that the
first exposure be in an environment where se-
rious consideration is paid to the Orthodox re-
sponse. Perhaps the dilemma can be resolved
once the first generation to be raised on the In-
ternet reaches adulthood.
In any case, while such education may be
granted to students in Modern Orthodox high
schools, it is more difficult to reach great num-
bers of the adult Modern Orthodox population.
In addition, having rooted themselves in the
traditional community, they are less likely to
be convinced by the arguments of academia;
even those who are convinced of these argu-
ments will mostly remain Orthoprax, which is
less serious than the complete defection from
Orthodoxy of which youth are at risk. Thus,
there is little reason, in my opinion, to call for
an explosion of community shi'urim on this
topic.
Of course, this educational measure will
not completely thwart Orthopraxy, even for
the future. The winds of modernity continue
to force the retreat of the sea of faith, and the
Zeitgeist cannot be ignored or shut out without
destroying everything for which Modern Or-
thodoxy stands. A full resolution may not be
in our power to attain, but this does not justify
our failing to work towards one.
the appropriate locations. All errors are, of
course, mine alone.
i
Cooked food: Pithei Teshuvah 113:1.
xv
Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 124:8.
In the following, this refers to beliefs whose
denial would render one a kofer (as defined
below) according to all decisors. A detailed
discussion of who precisely falls under this
category is, however, beyond the scope of this
article.
ii
I have relied upon several contemporary ha-
lakhic compendia which deal mostly with the
halakhic status of secular Jews for use in lo-
cating primary halakhic sources. These are: R.
Menachem Adler, Binah va-Da'at (Jerusalem:
self-published, 2008); R. Yigal Senritz, Shu-
vah Elai (Kiryat Sefer: self-published, 2006);
and R. Avraham Wasserman, Re'akha
Kamokha (Ramat Gan: Re'ut, 2008). The first
two are Haredi works, while the last is written
from a more open, Religious Zionist perspec-
tive.
iii
Of which this article is not intended to be an
example. One should consult with one's local
Modern Orthodox rabbi before applying the
conclusions of this article le-ma'aseh.
iv
xvi Taz to Yoreh De'ah 119:4.
xvii
Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Avodah Zarah 2:5.
Rambam's given rationale (elaborated upon in
2:3) is that the appikoros is guilty of intellec-
tual arrogance in preferring the heretical re-
sults of his puny mind's philosophical
speculation rather than deferring to the author-
ity of tradition and its bearers.
xviii
Mishnah Berurah 126:2 and Iggerot
Moshe, Orah Hayyim 2:50.
xix
She'eilot u-Teshuvot Maharil 194. It does
not seem, however, that Maharil would con-
sider the blessing of a kofer to be of halakhic
significance, as the logic behind the opposite
position is compelling.
xx
Shabbat 69a.
xxi Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Mamrim 3:3. Ram-
bam is ruling le-shitato that the sin in heresy
is following one's reason rather than tradition
(see above, n. 16); the second-generation
Karaite is guilty not of this but of following
This article would never pass muster as an
example of standard modern pesak, whose
method, at least when dealing with a well-
trodden area of Halakhah, amounts to survey-
ing the range of rabbinic opinion on a
particular issue and, when a decisive majority
on either side is lacking, ruling stringently. In
this case, the oft-discussed issue in the ha-
lakhic literature is the status of secular Jews
today, and the presence of significant decisors
in each camp has led to the ruling that a secu-
lar Jew is to be treated with the stringencies of
both tinok she-nishbah and mumar; a fortiori,
an Orthoprax Jew would certainly be consid-
ered a mumar (see below). Binah va-Da'at
and Shuvah Elai take this position, while
Re'akha Kamokha, using an approach similar
to the one adopted here, rules that the secular
Jew should be considered a tinok she-nishbah
alone.
v
Yoreh De'ah 158:2.
vi Ibid. 251:13.
vii
Sanhedrin 27a.
viii
In Hullin 4a, a discussion of the mumar le-
Eli Putterman is a Shanah Alef student at
Yeshivat Har Etzion and is participating in
YU's S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program.
te'avon concludes that the slaughter even of
one liable to eat the meat of carcasses (or of
improperly slaughtered animals) is valid so
long as the knife is checked. The reason given
for this is that the mumar le-te'avon will not
eat forbidden meat when permissible meat is
available, so he is trusted to slaughter properly
so long as it costs him no more effort (such as
checking the knife). Rambam (Hilkhot Shehi-
tah 4:14) strangely extends the requirement to
check the knife even to a mumar le-te'avon for
*
I would like to thank R. Mayer Schiller for
many productive discussions regarding this
topic, and for suggesting the halakhic refer-
ences, cited later, upon which my analysis is
based. I have also consulted R. Aharon Licht-
enstein regarding several points made in the
article; his responses are cited in the notes at
Volume III, Issue 2
a different prohibition.
ix
Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 2:5.
x Ibid., Orah Hayyim 39.
xi Ibid., Yoreh De'ah 264:1.
xii
xiii
Mishnah Berurah 55:46.
She'eilot u-Teshuvot Hakham Tsevi 39.
xiv Bread: Hazon Ish, Yoreh De'ah 2:23.
the wrong tradition.
xxii
Nimmukei Yosef to Bava Metsi'a 42b (Rif
pagination), s.v. "oved kokhavim" (42a). This
is also the opinion of Ramban to Bava Metsi'a
71b, s.v. "ve-im nafshakh").
xxiii
This analysis follows the position of the
Beit Yosefto Tur 159, who holds that Rambam
and the Nimmukei Yosef argue. However, the
Hut ha-Shani (Shabbat 40) distinguishes be-
tween the Karaites discussed by Rambam and
the children of mumarim discussed by the
Nimmukei Yosef. While the historical analysis
of the dispute is obviously invalidated accord-
ing to this interpretation, the remainder of the
argument is not essentially affected.
xxiv
See Joel Kramer, Maimonides: The Life
and World of One of Civilization's Greatest
Minds (New York: Doubleday, 2008), pp. 273-
275.
xxv
See Yitzhak Baer, A History of the Jews in
Christian Spain (Philadelphia: Jewish Publi-
cation Society, 1966), 2 vols. On Karaites, see
vol. I, pp. 65, 77, 95. On the persecutions of
the conversos, see vol. 2.
xxvi
171).
xxx
Iggerot Moshe, Yoreh De'ah 2:47.
xxxi R. Yehuda Amital, "A Torah Perspective
on the Status of Secular Jews Today," Tradi-
tion 23,4 (1988): 1-13.
xxxii
R. Lichtenstein agreed that "one cannot be
yotse [with an Orthoprax Jew's] Kiddush."
xxxiii
However, I can attest to the existence of
several Orthoprax Jews, who intend to remain
so, of college age.
xxxiv
See his autobiography: Louis Jacobs,
Helping With Inquiries (London: Valentine,
Mitchell, 1989). For Jacobs' move away from
Orthodox beliefs and its relationship to his ac-
ademic studies, see especially pp. 75-79, in
which Jacobs also points to the high incidence
of Orthopraxy among academics. Jacobs' ac-
count of the events leading up to the "Jacobs
affair" begins on p. 120.
xxxv
The earliest expression of this is R. Yehu-
dah's dictum that "the Children of Israel wor-
shipped idols for the sole purpose of rendering
public fornication permissible in their eyes"
(Sanhedrin 63b); in various guises, the idea
has continued to resound in the tradition up to
the present day. Of course, as various people
have pointed out to me, this psychological in-
sight remains valid in many, if not most, cases
of defection from Orthodoxy.
xxxvi
Excluding such indiscriminate steps as
banning the Internet, which are ineffective
even in Haredi communities.
xxxvii
Another possibility, based on a suggestion
to me by R. Schiller, is to educate for a faith
grounded less in rational arguments, such as
that preached by Breslov Hasidut. As a ratio-
nalist, I cannot advocate this.
xxxviii
See the discussion among M. Spiegel-
man, S. Carmy, and M. Bernstein in Ten Da'at
3:2, 33-34; 3:3, 44; 4:1, 35-37 (1989), which
deals with the related issue of teaching about
imperfect textual transmission.
R. Ezra Bick, personal communication.
Compare, e.g., Ramban's comments to Gene-
sis 2:1 and Deuteronomy 13:1 with Moreh Ne-
vukhim II:2-12; I thank Daniel First for
pointing out these references.
xxvii
Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Avodah Zarah 2:5.
xxviii R. Lichtenstein stated that each Orthoprax
Jew must be judged individually: one legiti-
mately influenced by the Zeitgeist could be
considered a tinok she-nishbah, while one who
lived solely in the "Yeshivah World" until his
exposure to biblical criticism might not. By
the preceding, it seems clear that the vast ma-
jority of Orthoprax Jews, at least in the Mod-
ern Orthodox community, fall under the
former category.
xxix
R. Avraham Yitsahk ha-Kohen Kook, Ig-
gerot ha-Re'iyah (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav
Kook, 1961-1965), letter no. 138 (vol. 1, p.
www.kolhamevaser.com
5

Kol Hamevaser
Prayer: A Call for Philosophical Inquiry
BY: Sarit Bendavid
W
hen we think of tefillah, an inner
feeling of haste might be evoked as
we imagine ourselves running to
shul in time for Minhah, or boredom as we
think about the eternal Shabbat morning serv-
ices, or even of a good friend who we hope to
catch up with at the end of davening. We say
that prayer is a focal point of our religious ex-
perience, a basic institution of the Jewish com-
munity. Yet how many of us understand the
mechanics of prayer or appreciate its spiritual
significance? Our neglect of tefillah stares us
in the eye every time we step into synagogue
and open up our sid-
durim, and yet we
don't even know
what it means to
"talk to God." Fur-
thermore, education
of the subject is bla-
tantly left out of most school curriculums. This
can be explained (although maybe not ex-
cused) by the mere fact that while Tanakh nar-
ratives or Halakhic details can easily be taught,
directives concerning prayer are far from clear.
What is the right way to pray? What does it
mean to have kavvanah? Is God actually lis-
tening? These are only some of the questions
that immediately arise, preventing us from
gaining any coherent picture of prayer, cer-
tainly from instructing others.
It is not surprising that when the New York
foundation of correct thought and belief that
would cause prayer to flow more naturally.
The questions that ought to be addressed
in order to grant us a proper understanding of
prayer are endless, but to name just a few: Is
God actually listening, meaning that He is ac-
tively involved in human affairs? Is prayer
meant for God, or for ourselves? What does it
mean to have kavvanah? Is the specific text of
the siddur significant, or is it only a guideline
for us to form our own personal prayers?
At first glance, it may seem as if the haze
clears away after one learns the answers to
these questions. However, the answers vary so
extremely, even in a mutually exclusive man-
ner, and they depend upon the larger question
of how one understands the nature of God and
the physical world below. Kabbalists claim that
prayer is a means of tikkun, of harmonizing the
world of the Sefirot. Although the one who
prays is only indirectly affected, since the im-
provement of the world above affects the phys-
ical world below, prayer is directed towards the
universal goal of unifying the world of the Se-
firot.
To sum up, traditional understandings of
"We say that prayer is a focal point of our religious experience,
a basic institution of the Jewish community. Yet how many of
us understand the mechanics of prayer or appreciate its spiri-
tual significance?"
prayer focus on influencing God, rational mod-
els emphasize the improvement of the individ-
ual, and Kabbalistic modes emphasize the
tikkun of the universe. Which one are we sup-
posed to have in mind when we pray? It is un-
clear what we should intend to accomplish
through our prayers. Should we believe that
prayer is for us and does not actually influence
anything else, or that our
prayers can actually make a dif-
ference in the broader world?
Understanding prayer also
relates to how one idealizes a
relationship with the Divine.
Are we to connect to God
Times Magazine contained an article a few
weeks ago on prayer, Rabbi Marc Gellman
stressed this point and was quoted as follows:
"There is no prayer harder than suburban Jew-
ish prayer…Evangelical Christians, Pente-
costals, they go to church to pray…But Jews
are different. People come to temple to identify
with other Jews, or socialize."i Professor Uriel
Simon, biblical scholar and educator, high-
lights the lack of kavvanah in Jewish prayer as
well: "Prayer...generally stands out as an al-
most mechanical muttering, at a speed which
prevents contemplation…The eyes of many
prayers are closed and their faces asleep, and
during weekday prayers or on regular Shabba-
tot they never awaken, except on a very few
special occasions."ii After reading these ac-
counts of our prayer services, it can only make
us wonder: Why are our hearts asleep, our
mouths dry from prosaic monotones, our shuls
devoid of emotion or passion? Prayer is a crit-
ical part of our religious observance, so why
aren't we properly performing it?
In comparing Judaism with Christianity,
Gellman may be hinting at an important differ-
entiating factor between them: Judaism is pri-
marily a religion of action, while Christianity
is a religion of belief. Prayer cannot easily find
its niche of comfort in our religious system that
does not focus on the inculcation of proper
creed. Most people don't understand what it
means to pray – not just the literal words, but
the very concept of prayer. This seems to be a
natural consequence of a religion that focuses
on action instead of focusing on building a
6
the world around us.iii For example, traditional
or simple understandings of prayer follow the
Biblical tradition of viewing prayer as a means
of petitioning God, beseeching Him to provide
us with something that is out of our control,
such as when Moshe asks God to heal Miryam
(Num. 12:13), or Hannah implores God to
grant her a son (I Samuel 1:11). The underly-
ing assumption is that God personally answers
human prayers and changes (if He so chooses)
the course of natural events as a result. How-
ever, for those who understand religion in more
rational terms, prayer leads to a paradox. Ram-
bam explains that since God is One, God is
also incorporeal, and therefore has no possibil-
ity for change;iv individuals do not have inti-
mate and personal relationships with God, but
hashgahah is automatic, a product of one's in-
telligence.v According to this view of God's
Presence in the world, prayer is merely meant
for the pray-er as a tool for self-improvement.vi
This model of prayer, however, creates a dis-
connect between the words
of the prayers and the in-
tended effect. For example,
even though we literally ask
God for health, we are really
just encouraging ourselves
to be more aware of the in-
firm around us and take our own initiatives in
order to heal them. If one chooses to follow
this model, there is a sense of self-deception
involved in which one must intend the words
literally, knowing, however, that petitioning
God for the things in his prayers does not make
logical sense. On the other hand, one who does
not attempt to rationalize prayer can under-
stand the prayers at face value. These two ways
of understanding prayer seem to reflect the two
different definitions of the word le-hitpallel: 1)
to seek a favorable judgment for oneself, and
2) to judge oneself.
The situation becomes more complex for
though the intellect, using our rational faculty
in order to understand the words of the prayer?
If prayer is most effective through its concep-
tualization, then the actual prayer is no longer
that important, and it is rather the concepts be-
hind it that stand as integral to our worship of
God. Additionally, if prayer is simply an intel-
lectual pursuit, then the lines between prayer
and Talmud Torah become blurred. Although
this poses a challenge to some, Rav
Soloveitchik in fact draws parallels between
the two activities.vii
If prayer is something distinct from Torah
study, then effectively performing it is not
based on analyzing the text as one would scru-
tinize a page of Talmud. The Rebbe of Pi-
aseczno, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira,
explains that intellect can be used only to grasp
what is outside of oneself, "the garb in which
the holy words are clothed."viii In order to
properly pray, and by extension fully worship
God, one must experience the activity along
analysis of the text is not the essence of prayer,
and it is not the definition of kavvanah.x
The two approaches to prayer necessarily
understand the concept of kavvanah differ-
ently, either as cognition and awareness, or
emotion and passion. In order to inspire a per-
son to have kavvanah, therefore, recommenda-
tions would vary. If kavvanah is just based on
cognition, then a thorough explanation of the
prayers would allow one to accomplish that
goal. However, if intent requires feeling and
passion, then the best way to generate true kav-
vanah would be through such activities as
dancing, singing, or even imbibing alcohol.
How one understands the nature of God's
universe would also influence one's view of
the fixed text of the siddur. Rationalists tend to
focus on the ideas of prayer, viewing the exact
words as insignificant, while Kabbalists main-
tain that every word, even every letter, has spe-
cial significance, and prayer impacts the world
(of the Sefirot) even if one does not understand
the words he is saying.xi There is little room for
hiddush, or phrasing things in one's own terms,
in Kabbalistic prayer.xii The practical difference
is critical: should we stress the idea of person-
alizing prayer, using the fixed text as merely a
model to build off of, while concentrating on
what one finds to be most important, or should
we adhere to Kabbalistic ideas by stressing the
importance of saying every word of tefillah,
whether one finds meaning in it or not? Should
we say fewer prayers but grant more time to
meditate upon our words, or say everything,
but in haste? The answers to these questions
strongly affect the way that we conduct our
public prayer services or individual prayers.
In our concept of tefillah, we can find
"The aim of this proposal is not only to learn different theolog-
ical opinions, but to understand that these matters have practi-
cal implications for us, for each of the numerous times a day
when we open the siddur and try to 'talk to God.'"
traces of influence from various traditions and
beliefs. We leave room for many different ap-
proaches. Yet does this eclectic framework
simply leave people confused as to what prayer
actually is or should be? Is our lack of deci-
siveness hindering proper prayer? It seems that
the only way for people to more fully under-
stand prayer is to delve more intensely into
their philosophical be-
liefs, for they form the
foundation of how we
understand
prayer.
Tefillah is a clear exam-
ple of part of our reli-
gious service that is not
those who adhere to the Kabbalistic ideal of
tikkun, of "fixing" the Sefirotic universe,
which calls for the unification of God and His
Shekhinah, or of the divine world above with
www.kolhamevaser.com
with his senses and emotions. Abraham Joshua
Heschel explains: "Prayer is not thinking. To
the thinker, God is an object; to the man who
prays, He is the subject."ix When praying with
intellect alone, God becomes some detached
entity that we speak about, but true prayer
places God at the center of the activity as the
direct receiver. When truly praying, Heschel
explains, more than just the thinking mind is
required. R. Adin Steinsaltz recounts dis-
cussing the meaning of kavvanah with his
friend, a Rosh Yeshivah in Israel, who ex-
plained that when he has proper kavvanah, he
thinks about "the connection between one sen-
tence and the next, between one word and an-
other, between the various sections, and so on."
Steinsaltz replied that while he sometimes en-
gages in these types of thoughts, this rational
simply dependent on the fulfillment of ha-
lakhot, but relies upon the nature of our under-
standing of the universe. A call for a more
thorough analysis of our beliefs seems vital,
and failure to properly consider our principles
risks the perpetuation of tefillah as unexciting,
confusing, and unable to effect change. The
problem is complex and multi-faceted, and my
suggestion is only one possible way to improve
the state of our prayers. The aim of this pro-
posal is not only to learn different theological
opinions, but to understand that these matters
have practical implications for us, for each of
the numerous times a day when we open the
siddur and try to "talk to God." A thorough ex-
ploration into philosophy is a daunting chal-
lenge to some, but one we should not be afraid
to face. Maybe, with a deeper understanding of
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
what we are doing, we may be able to pray
with more clarity and conviction.
Sarit Bendavid is a junior at SCW major-
ing in History and is an Editor-in-Chief for Kol
Hamevaser.
i
Zev Chafetz, "The Right Way to Pray?" The
New York Times Magazine, September 16,
2009. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/
2009/09/20/magazine/20Prayer-t.html.
ii
Uriel Simon, "Teaching Siddur to Enhance
Devotion in Prayer," in Gabriel H. Cohn and
Harold Fisch (eds.), Prayer in Judaism: Con-
tinuity and Change (Northvale, NJ: Aronson
Inc., 1996), p. 190.
iii
I am indebted to Seth Kadish, the author of
Kavvana: Directing the Heart in Jewish
Prayer (Northvale, NJ: Aronson Inc., 1997),
for providing a comprehensive study of prayer,
including many of the sources quoted here, as
well as outlining many of the distinctions be-
tween different opinions discussed in this arti-
cle.
iv
Rambam discusses the concept of Divine
Unity in Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Yesodei ha-
Torah 1:7. He explains that a Being that can be
divided is necessarily imperfect, and God
therefore cannot have any divisions. An impli-
cation of Divine Unity is that God has no com-
positionality and therefore has no affections
that can be appealed to and influenced as a re-
sult of prayer. Furthermore, since God is per-
fect, our prayers cannot cause God to undergo
any form of change. In Moreh Nevukhim I:59
Rambam labels individuals who pray with the
intention of affecting God as "truly ignorant,"
for assigning God attributes is implying that
He has a deficiency.
v
Moreh Nevukhim III:18.
vi Ibid. III:36. This model of prayer as a means
for self-training was accepted by many other
medieval philosophers, such as Rabbeinu
Bahya ibn Pakuda and R. Yosef Albo.
vii
The Rav explains that prayer and Torah
study are in fact very similar. They follow the
same stages of "complete intellectual insensi-
tivity and total unconcern," then "cognitive cu-
riosity and amazement awaken," and then
comes the "redemption," when a person real-
izes his needs-awareness. "He is aware of his
needs because he prays; he is aware of his in-
tellectual creative capacities because he stud-
ies." They both "unite in one redemptive
experience" [R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, "Re-
demption, Prayer, Talmud Torah," Tradition
17,2 (Spring 1978): 55-72, at pp. 68-70]. How-
ever, R. Soloveitchik has also been quoted by
his students as saying that when he prays, a
person talks to God, while when he studies the
Torah, God talks to him" (Kadish, p. 48).
viii
R. Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, A Student's
Obligation, trans. Micha Odenheimer (North-
vale, NJ: Aronson Inc., 1995), p. 150.
ix
Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man's Quest For
God (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1954), p. 12.
x
Adin Steinsaltz, "Education for Prayer," in
Prayer in Judaism: Continuity and Change, p.
181.
xi
Kadish, p. 235.
xii
Kadish, pp. 239, 243.
Volume III, Issue 2
W
Rabbinic Leadership Reexamined
BY: Alex Luxenberg
hat is the biggest problem in the
Modern Orthodox community
today?
Much ink has been spilled on this ques-
tion. It is the raison d'être of many Jewish pe-
riodicals, seminars and rabbinic sermons. For
many, the ultimate issue is the hashkafic shift
to the right or left; for others, it is the dethron-
ing of theology as the foundation of religion
or the minutia of halakhic disagreement which
present the greatest challenges. It seems to me,
however, that the crux of all the issues faced
by Modern Orthodoxy is the deep ravine be-
tween rabbis and their communities. We have
come to a point where the values and goals of
many rabbinic leaders are
not in-sync with those of
their own communities.
In other words, it is not a
communal shift in
Hashkafah that must be
addressed, but rather a rabbinic shift; it is the
leadership that does not jive with its congre-
gation, not the other way around.
I would like to consider three types of
struggle of conflicting ideas, will be able
to reveal the message of Judaism to this
generation, for such alone will be in a po-
sition to translate it into the terms of our
age.
"Such an achievement demands knowl-
edge and character; real knowledge of Ju-
daism combined with the critical insight
into the structure and workings of West-
ern civilization…"i
Berkovits argues that we need leaders who are
in touch with their communities. We need au-
thorities that understand our daily plights, con-
cerns and struggles. Ideally, Berkovits claims,
our rabbinic leaders should be products of our
own systems, not outsiders from an alien civ-
ilization that has morals and ethics that seem
strange and offensive to ours.
not these relationships develop in the later
years of schooling. I would like to suggest that
the reason students and teachers do not mesh
well is a result of different hashkafot.
Rabbi Dr. Noam Weinberg, Associate
"It is not a communal shift in Hashkafah that must be ad-
dressed, but rather a rabbinic shift; it is the leadership that
does not jive with its congregation, not the other way around."
Principal of the Moriah School, in an article
entitled "The 20th Century Jewish Educator in
the 21st Century Classroom," illustrates the im-
portance of what he calls "the educator as ad-
vocate." Weinberg grapples with a disconnect
between teachers and students, explaining that
"teachers that choose to teach in a specific
school, must also be willing to work within the
framework of the school's Hashkafah, and be
true representatives of the school's Hashkafic
perspective."iv This all seems so obvious, but
just the opposite is true of our schools. I re-
member being taught a certain halakhah in a
10th grade Talmud class and
only later finding out that
the principal of the school
has very strong views in
disagreement with those of
the classroom teacher. Later
The High School Rabbiii
Rabbi Myles Brody, a teacher at Yeshivat
rabbinic leadership: communal/pulpit rabbis,
high school teachers, and rabbis in yeshivot or
seminaries in Israel. Each case presents a dif-
ferent framework in which the rabbi connects
with his students and/or community. I hope to
demonstrate that there is a significant chasm
in all of these relationships and to discuss po-
tential remedies. While I realize that each
community is unique, it seems to me that
many of the motifs that will be discussed have
become commonplace in Modern Orthodox
neighborhoods across America. I am not an
expert either in sociology or in education, but
I am the product of an Orthodox shul, school
and yeshivah, and it is from these perspectives
that I write this article.
Before we elaborate on each case, I
would like to try to elucidate what is at the
core of the disconnect between clergyman and
layman. Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Berkovits, in an
essay entitled "Towards a Renewed Rabbinic
Leadership," seeks to define what is needed
from rabbinic leadership:
"Rather, the point is to urge the need for
personalities to exercise rabbinical au-
thority in the sense of national leadership,
based on the decisive influence of Ju-
daism in all spheres of Jewish life…The
new situation demands new men, men
who themselves are children of this new
situation. They must themselves have suf-
fered all the agonies of the dualism in the
life of the modern Jew…Only a person-
ality harmonized within itself, after a
Hakotel and the online editor of Tradition, as
part of a symposium in the recent Meorot pub-
lication, addresses the following question:
"What skills among faculty and administrators
should be strengthened to ensure the success
of educating Modern Orthodox students for
life and the continued success of the Modern
Orthodox day school educational system?" He
writes:
"This problem, which at its root is related
to the complex engagement of Orthodoxy
with modernity, will not be solved with
more formal education training for teach-
ers. Solutions will stem from faculty and
administrators recognizing this unfortu-
nate reality and doing what they can,
given the circumstances, in making a ha-
lakhic lifestyle attractive. The most im-
portant method is to lead by example, and
therefore it is an imperative to find (and
cultivate) educators whom the students
will relate to and respect."iii
According to R. Brody, it is our respon-
sibility to ensure that educators in our schools
are people who "respect" and "relate to" our
community, for if they do not, how are our stu-
dents supposed to look up to them? It seems,
however, that this is not our reality. How often
does a child come home excited by a relation-
ship fostered with a teacher in school? How
often is a teacher regarded as a role model by
a fifteen-year-old? And even when one man-
ages to come out of high school with a real re-
lationship with an educator, more often than
www.kolhamevaser.com
in the same paragraph, Weinberg discusses the
instances in which Halakhah and Hashkafah
clash:
"This is not to say that staff must condone
a Halachikally inappropriate behavior of
a parent; however, the staff member must
be willing to actively support the
Hashkafa of the school in which they are
employed. More often than not, teachers
may teach in a school that does not mesh
with their personal Hashkafa, and it is the
administrator's responsibility to clarify
with teachers the Hashkafic expectations
of being a Rebbe or Morah in this partic-
ular school environment."v
Weinberg posits that it is the role of the admin-
istration to "clarify with the teachers the
Hashkafic expectations" of teaching in that
particular school to avoid sending mixed mes-
sages to the students. This notion, that each
school is responsible to clarify the hashkafic
expectations of its teachers, is at the founda-
tion of recognizing that each community is sui
generis.
Weinberg recounts an instance in which
a young female teacher did not participate in
an Israeli Independence Day celebration held
at the school where he is the associate princi-
pal. He describes how infuriated he was that
this teacher's values were so out-of-sync with
his, the students', and those of the parents in
the neighborhood. I have heard countless sto-
ries to this effect. A friend of mine from the
West Coast once told me that pages were re-
moved from her copy of a Shakespearian play
because the head rabbi of her school found
them to be inappropriate and that she was ex-
tremely embarrassed to find this out. The in-
7

Kol Hamevaser
justice here is not in the school having decided
not to study that part of Shakespeare; I would
never suggest that a Haredi school read litera-
ture it deemed offensive. Rather, the problem
here is that the school masked itself in a cloak
of modernity, but operated using tools of or-
thodoxy.
Is there a way of harmonizing the cacoph-
ony? How should we close the gap between
the goals and ambitions of teachers and those
of their students?
As noted above, the way to ensure that
educators have the same values as the schools
in which they teach is
for each community
to develop and train
teachers that grew up
in the community. In
a recent conversation with a friend, Daniel,
who has chosen to go into education, I was in-
formed of a sad reality. Everyone knows the
famous warnings to the effect that being a
rabbi is no job for a nice Jewish boy, but do
people really feel this way? Daniel told me
that a man in his community, someone who se-
riously values his inclusion in a Jewish com-
munity, advised against his choice of a career
in education. It is this very mindset that needs
to be eradicated from the halls of Modern Or-
thodox shuls, schools and homes. While the
Modern Orthodox community puts education
on the highest of pedestals, it discourages its
youth from ever being educators. In order to
guarantee that future generations receive an
education that truly synthesizes secular and
Judaic studies, we must first make sure that
our own generation produces teachers that
firmly believe in those ideals.
can really be quite deep. Many students tell
their rabbeim their deepest secrets, seeking ad-
vice and guidance. The type of rabbi who
teaches at a yeshivah or seminary looks for-
ward to forming these relationships, whether
for keiruv purposes or not. At the end, a year
of introspection and decision-making passes,
but at every turn there has been a traffic offi-
cer, directing the student on the proper course.
After the year is over and one begins col-
lege life, one might be ready to date but not
know how or where to begin. A common re-
sponse among students who have spent a year
"While the Modern Orthodox community puts
education on the highest of pedestals, it discour-
ages its youth from ever being educators"
The Rabbi in a Yeshivah or Seminary in
Israelvi
It is common for many young men and
women to spend a year in a yeshivah or semi-
nary, respectively, after graduating from Mod-
ern Orthodox day schools. There are various
types of programs in which one can study:
those that are geared towards Americans and
those meant primarily for Israelis, some with
a focus on Talmud and others with a concen-
tration on Musar. One common thread that
weaves through all of these programs is the
emphasis placed on the rabbi-student relation-
ship that is supposed to develop and survive
well into the alumni years, after the student
has moved back to the United States.
Relationships between rabbis in Israel
and students in America start at an early stage,
namely the interviews, when the interviewer
takes note of whether or not his program is ap-
propriate for the interviewee. Often, it is the
very rabbi conducting the interview who looks
to build a relationship with the students once
they arrive in Israel. After spending a year
learning Torah, schmoozing and eating with
one's rabbi, the relationship that one builds
8
in Israel is to consult their rabbi there. The
problem, of course, with this, is that they seek
advice from a mentor who a) no longer lives
in the American society in which they live, and
b) has not necessarily ever lived in the com-
munity from which they hail. I would not sug-
gest that the relationship between a student in
America and a teacher in Israel is futile. On
the contrary – it can be a beautiful, incredibly
fruitful bond that leads to deep thoughts, emo-
tions and even friendship. For a talmid or
talmidah to be able to call his or her rabbi and
ask a question on the weekly parashah, a
sugya he or she is learning or about a certain
halakhic issue is a connection that is revered
by many. It makes sense then, that such a stu-
dent would also ask his or her rabbi for advice
on issues of dating and other social situations.
What confuses me, though, is that these rabbis
often feel equipped to answer these questions
and proceed to do so. Greater than the connec-
tion between the rabbi in a yeshivah or semi-
nary in Israel and a student in America are the
differences that separate them, especially in
terms of social norms.
Many people today are concerned with
the so-called shiddukh crisis. It seems apparent
to me, however, that one of the fundamental
issues in Jewish dating today stems, again,
from the issue of students and their rabbis
being out of touch and out-of-sync. How often
does a student from a co-ed school arrive in a
yeshivah or seminary just to be told that it is
not permissible to speak to members of the op-
posite sex? The rabbi spends an entire year or
two convincing his students of the sinful na-
ture of this act, and then we are left with so-
cially awkward twenty-year-olds. It does not
surprise me, therefore, that many twenty-two-
year-old students who are looking to get mar-
ried have forgotten how to speak to one
another and then turn to the very source of
their confusion for guidance. Realizing the in-
herent problem with this, it is often at this
stage that many students begin to "un-flip."
If we want our students to come back
from Israel and still appreciate the communi-
ties they come from, then we must insist either
www.kolhamevaser.com
that yeshivah and seminary rabbis are, again,
fully committed to the same hashkafot as we
are, or that they should be aware of their
boundaries if they do not have the same
hashkafot. How do we monitor what the rabbis
in Israel are teaching students? We cannot, so
we should only patronize institutions that truly
mesh with our values.
The Pulpit Rabbi
Rabbi Elie Weinstock, Associate Rabbi at
Kehilath Jeshurun, a shul on the Upper East
Side of Manhattan, recently addressed his con-
gregation on the role of the communal rabbi.
R. Weinstock was concerned that pulpit rabbis
in Modern Orthodox communities in America
are losing touch with their congregants. He
stated, "There is a trend here [in America] that
devalues the individualism of both rabbis and
congregants," and feared that this will lead to
"…putting the American rabbinate out of
touch with a large swath of the Jewish com-
munity here, while distancing the community
from the rabbinate."vii Therefore, R. Weinstock
argued along the lines of R. Eliezer Berkovits
and R. Weinberg before him that we need rab-
bis that can relate to and understand the com-
munity.
R. Weinstock laid out what he felt to be
two major considerations for communal rabbis
today. The first is that "rabbis need to be ready
to answer [halakhic] questions and make de-
cisions."viii This claim leads to two non-con-
tradictory conclusions. Not only does it
demand that communal rabbis have a strong
understanding of the halakhic literature, it also
encourages people to ask halakhic questions
to rabbis that know them and their life situa-
tions.
The second major issue he raised is a
broader one, by which posekim consult eight
hundred-year-old halakhic handbooks for an-
swers to their questions, leaving modernity in
the dust. It is this culture of looking up fos-
silized Halakhah that leads people to ask R.
Weinstock questions such as, "Who is your
posek? To whom do you ask your questions?"
These questions, R. Weinstock explained,
bother him because he feels, as mentioned
above, that "posekim have a role – an impor-
best represent the community he is serving.
Dr. Daniel Sperber, in an article entitled "How
not to make Halakhic Rulings," set out to il-
lustrate how
"...halakhic decisors (posekim) should act
in our day and age, arguing that they
should seek to bring people closer to a
love of Judaism and halakha, to be inclu-
sive rather than exclusive, and to practice
what I called "friendly decision making
(pesikah yedidutit)."x
In an attempt to elucidate his understanding of
the halakhic process, Sperber chose three re-
cent cases in which he thinks something went
awry. The case I would like to focus on is what
Sperber calls the "The Lookstein Affair:"
"The Facts: Rabbi Haskel Lookstein was
invited by President Obama to participate
in an interfaith thanksgiving event that
was to take place in the Episcopal Na-
tional Cathedral on the morning after his
historic inauguration as the 44th President
of the United States of America. Repre-
sentatives of the various religions were
invited, such as the different streams of
Christianity, Islam, Buddhism etc. For the
first time in such an event, the three major
streams in Judaism, Reform, Conserva-
tive and Orthodox, were asked to partici-
pate, and Rabbi Lookstein was chosen to
represent American Orthodox Jewry. And
indeed he accepted, and participated in
this memorable event.
The Reactions: The Rabbinical Council
of America (RCA) took Rabbi Lookstein
to task, issuing a press release saying that
he broke the rules by entering a Christian
church, rebuking him and claiming he
had violated an unnamed rabbinic rule by
entering a church and reciting a prayer
there in honor of the President's inaugu-
ration."xi
Sperber goes on to give halakhic backing
for both sides, and tries to come to a conclu-
sion as to who was correct through an under-
standing of the relevant laws. A full
understanding of the arguments is beyond the
scope of this article, but Sperber's conclusions
"It is imperative that communal rabbis strike a
balance between being an authority figure and
being a representative of their community"
are key to understanding my argument:
"How would it have looked, if the repre-
sentative of Orthodoxy had refused the
President's invitation while
the Conservative and Re-
form agreed to be present?
What would have been the
perception of the general
tant role – in Judaism. But communal rabbis
are the best people to understand the individ-
ual needs of their own communities."ix
The pulpit of a community is not a
pedestal, nor is it a puppet show. It is impera-
tive that communal rabbis strike a balance be-
tween being an authority figure and being a
representative of their community. An author-
ity figure is someone who makes decisions in
the realms of Halakhah and Hashkafah that
public had they learned that an Orthodox
Rabbi could not attend because he re-
garded Christianity as idolatrous? In our
days of increased anti-Semitism, is this
the sort of publicity we need? Would this
have endeared us to the new President
and the Christian public?
In my opinion, Rabbi Lookstein's partic-
ipation constituted a kiddush ha-Shem,
whereas the RCA's press release was not
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
only totally irresponsible, but may also be
regarded as a hillul ha-Shem."xii
As a member of R. Lookstein's congre-
gation, I can tell you that Sperber's conclusion
was in conformity with that of my community.
It is highly improbable that even a single
member of the community was ashamed or
embarrassed by R. Lookstein's actions. To the
contrary, his congregants were proud!
Did R. Lookstein attend the Episcopal
National Cathedral that day because he knew
that his community would respect his deci-
sion? Did he take a popular opinion pole be-
fore flying to Washington, D.C.? No. But it is
comforting to know that my leadership is in-
sync with my values and morals.
A Torah Model of Followership
On the Virtue of Followership:
Ein Melekh be-Lo Am
BY: Noah Cheses
T
he social and religious challenges of the
Jewish world today have been identified
and classified, in every way possible, as
Alex Luxenberg is a junior at YC major-
ing in English and is a Staff Writer for Kol
Hamevaser. He can be contacted at:
alexluxenberg@gmail.com
an outgrowth of a dearth in leadership. I be-
lieve, however, that this is a slight misdiagno-
sis. Our issue is more with followership than
with leadership. We have role models and vi-
sionaries but we, by and large, do not put our
trust in them, nor empower them with our sup-
port, confidence and hope.
Jews have historically been poor follow-
i
Eliezer Berkovits, Essential Essays on Ju-
daism (Jerusalem: Shalem Press, 2002), p.
198.
ii
The position held by a high school rabbi is
really that of an educator; therefore, this sec-
tion is not limited to those with semikhah, but
rather extends to all teachers in Modern Or-
thodox day schools.
iii
Myles Brody, "On Modern Orthodox Day
School Education – Symposium," Meorot: A
Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse 7,2
(Tishrei 5770): 9-14, at p. 12.
iv
Noam Weinberg, "The 20th Century Jewish
Educator in the 21st Century Classroom,"
"Ideas and Ideals," July 31, 2009. Available
at: http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/20th-
century-jewish-educator-21st-century-
classroom.
v
Ibid.
vi Note: This section has a different tone, one
that is less textual and more based on experi-
ence and observation.
vii
Elie Weinstock, "A Festival of Personality."
Sermon given Sukkot 2009.
viii
Ibid.
ix Ibid.
Daniel Sperber, "How Not to Make Halakhic
Rulings," "Ideas and Ideals," August 28, 2009.
Available at: http://www.jewishideas.org/arti-
x
cles/how-not-make-halakhic-rulings.
xi
Ibid.
xii
Ibid.
ers. We are a strong-willed and tenacious peo-
ple. The Torah itself repeatedly points out that
"you [the Jewish people] are a stubborn na-
tion."i Unfortunately, this ethnic character trait
often translates into a suspicion of those who
hold leadership positions. We are reluctant to
believe in other human beings and instead we
believe in our own self-sufficiency. The ten-
dency to carry ourselves with a sense of inde-
pendence and autonomy significantly
undermines the power of community.
In Praise of Followers
In one of the few works on the topic of fol-
lowership, entitled The Power of Followership,
Robert Kelly writes:
"We are convinced
that corporations
succeed or fail,
compete or crumble,
on the basis of how
well they are led. So
we study great lead-
ers of the past and
present and spend vast quantities of time
and money looking for leaders to hire and
trying to cultivate leadership in the em-
ployees we already have.
I have no argument with this enthusiasm.
Leaders matter greatly. But in searching so
zealously for better leaders we tend to lose
sight of the people these leaders will lead.
Without his armies, after all, Napoleon
was just a man with grandiose ambitions.
Organizations stand or fall partly on the
basis of how well their leaders lead, but
partly also on the basis of how well their
followers follow."ii
Standing Up to and For Our Leaders.iv He
claims that "courageous followers," the title he
gives to ideal members of this class, do every-
thing possible to contribute to their leader's
success, but also have the courage to construc-
tively challenge the leader if they disagree with
the decisions being made. Such individuals
orbit around principle, not around ego, and dare
to challenge those with greater power based on
the strength of their convictions.v Whereas a
leader exercises leadership on a regular basis,
a courageous follower exercises leadership oc-
casionally, and not out of opposition but out of
admiration and respect.
An Overlooked and Understudied
Phenomenon
The field of followership is so young that
it is currently in a stage where thoughtful aca-
demics and professionals are trying to justify
its importance.vi A search for books or articles
on the concept of "leadership" produces thou-
sands, perhaps millions of hits. But one who
looks for resources on "followership" will find
hardly anything.
In the preface to his book, Chaleff offers a
sociological rationale for the lack of literature
on followership:
"I have been absorbed with the subject of
followership most of my life, since be-
coming aware as a child of the systematic
Who can we, as Torah Jews, look to as a
model of courageous followership? Perhaps
Avraham should serve as our paradigm.ix After
all, Avraham sacrifices almost everything to
follow Hashem, but at the same time argues
with Him on behalf of Sedom and Amorah. Au-
daciously, Avraham holds Hashem up to His
own standards of goodness and justice: "Far be
it from you to do such a thing, to bring death
upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that
innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from
you! Shall not the judge of all the earth deal
justly?"x
It is astonishing and inspiring that Avra-
ham is able to muster up the courage to demand
that Hashem be true to His own principles. This
story highlights that one of the best ways to
exert influence is to remind people who exer-
cise leadership of their own values. (This is also
how individuals often keep their friends honest
and on-track.) Similarly, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. acted with this type of moral courage
in his efforts to end segregation in America. He
did not threaten violence or rebellion; he simply
demanded that America live up to the explicit
values of its Constitution: "We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal." He was holding the American people
accountable for lack of commitment to their
own principles.
As the first courageous follower in Jewish
"In this new reality of continual technological progress, the role
that followers play is essential. Nowadays, it is the enablers and
supporters who are often most responsible for actual change and
growth."
destruction of six million European Jews
by the Nazis during WWII. In my heart,
like so many others, I held the German
people responsible, not just their leader
Adolph Hitler. When I was seven or eight
I made up games in which I rescued as
many people as I could from the German
death camps. It was never enough. How
could a whole country follow a vicious
leader to the logical conclusions of his
psychosis? The mass support for a psy-
chotic leader may have well created the
contemptuous association my generation
has with the term 'follower.'"vii
Generally, followership has a negative conno-
tation, but Kelly argues that a follower is not
necessarily passive, inferior, or lacking in drive
and ambition. He defines the ideal follower not
as a subordinate but as an individual who acts
with intelligence, independence, courage, and
a strong sense of ethics. By stripping away the
term's associations with passivity, he reinter-
prets the role of "followers," ascribing to them
the power and responsibility to support, con-
front, engage, foster, and leverage the talents
and wisdom of their leaders.iii
Ira Chaleff also talks about the ideal fol-
lower in his book, The Courageous Follower:
Volume III, Issue 2
www.kolhamevaser.com
In previous generations, explains Chaleff,
strong leadership was needed in order to get
things done, but in our information age, organ-
izations are comprised of many interconnected
units working towards overall success.viii As a
result, institutions have had to develop new
models for managing in order to create multiple
team-like structures that work together. In this
new reality of continual technological progress,
the role that followers play is essential. Nowa-
days, it is the enablers and supporters who are
often most responsible for actual change and
growth.
history, Avraham challenged Hashem, not in an
obnoxious or belittling fashion, but with respect
and humility. Avraham should serve as our ex-
emplar of followership because he delicately
balanced a devout trust in Hashem, while at the
same time pushing back at Him when he felt it
necessary. Although we are not privy to
Hashem's evaluation of
Avraham's behavior, the
fact that Hashem takes
his challenge seriously
by responding to it is sig-
nificant. It is quite possi-
ble that Hashem was not
angered by Avraham's
courageous followership, but instead delighted
in the bravery and moral strength of His own
creation.
Bringing This Back to the Jewish World
In our Jewish world, where many mem-
bers of our communities are enlightened, capa-
ble, and independent people, I believe that we
should spend more time thinking about the na-
ture of followership. How can we create a com-
munity of better followers?
Erica Brownxi recently published an article
entitled "Choose Civility," where she writes:
"When things go wrong and we see lead-
ers as the sole owners of our Jewish insti-
tutions, they become an easy target. But if
we all saw ourselves as owners, investors
and stakeholders in institutions, problems
no longer belong to someone else. They
belong to us. We each become more per-
sonally accountable. And we become
more civil in the process because we un-
derstand up close how hard it is to navi-
gate politics thoughtfully."xii
We can create a better community of followers
by educating towards a new concept of our-
selves. Instead of viewing ourselves as con-
9

Kol Hamevaser
sumers of the communal structures that we ben-
efit from, we should see ourselves as stakehold-
ers and trustees. This means that we must
provide encouragement and support to those
worthy individuals who have taken the respon-
sibility to lead our organizations and institu-
tions. At the same time, we should internalize
our responsibly to occasionally push back, but
with love and admiration.
Robert Kelly's research shows that follow-
ers contribute to 80 percent of the work in an
organization, whereas leaders provide 20 per-
cent.xiii Leadership is but one strand in the com-
plex web of human relationships that hold our
Jewish communities together. We often focus
on how to become better leaders, but this keeps
the spotlight off the value and importance of
followership. Maybe the Jewish community in
America and in Israel should be focusing more
on developing followership skills. What would
the Jewish world look like if we ran "Follow-
ership Training Conferences" where we taught
followership skills such as how to provide crit-
icism constructively or how to enable and em-
power those around you? Although few people
would attend these conferences at first, I think
that heading in this direction would provide for
more robust Jewish communities and institu-
tions in the future.
Noah Cheses is a third year RIETS student
currently studying in YU's Gruss Kollel in
Jerusalem and is a former Staff Writer for Kol
Hamevaser.
i Shemot 32:9, 33:5, 34:9 and Devarim 9:6,
9:13.
ii
Robert E. Kelley, "In Praise of Followers,"
Harvard Business Review 66,6 (November-De-
cember 1988), p. 142.
iii
Idem, The Power of Followership (New York:
Doubleday/Currency, 1992).
iv
Ira Chaleff, The Courageous Follower:
Standing Up To and For Our Leaders (San
Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1998).
v
Chaleff, p. 7
vi
Ryan J. Landino, "Followership: A Literature
Review of a Rising Power Beyond" (Lambda
Pi Eta, 2006), p. 2. Available at: www.natcom.
org/nca/admin/index.asp?downloadid=885.
vii
Chaleff, p. xii.
viii
Ibid., p. 4.
ix This suggestion was made by Dr. Michael
Siegel in a sermon where he applied the mod-
ern terminology of "courageous follower" to
Avraham. Available at: http://followership2.pb-
works.com/Abraham+as+a+Courageous+Fol-
lower.
x
Be-Reshit 18:25.
xi Erica Brown is the director of adult education
for the Partnership for Jewish Life and
Learning, which serves as a catalyst for lifelong
learning and identity-building experiences in
the Greater Washington area.
xii
Erica Brown, "Choosing Civility," JTA: The
Global News Service of the Jewish People, Sep-
tember 2, 2009. Available at: http://jta.org/news
/article/2009/09/02/1007608/op-ed-choose-
civility.
xiii
Robert E. Kelly, The Power of Followership
(New York: Doubleday/Currency, 1992).
F
"Am le-Badad Yishkon:"
Must the Singular Nation Always Reside Alone?
BY: Nicole Grubner
or a majority of history, the Jewish peo-
ple have lived on their own. Whether it
was the ghetto of Germany, the Pale of
Settlement in the Ukraine, the shtetl of Russia,
the cities of Alsace and Lorraine in France, or
the Lower East Side, Jews over the centuries
have chosen to remain a nation apart. It was
not until the "emancipation" of Jews in France
during the period of the Enlightenment that
members of the Jewish community began leav-
ing the fold, both in the physical sense of leav-
ing the community, and in their level of
religious observance.
While in our modern day we still find
strong Jewish communities in places like New
York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Baltimore,
among others, the separation of the Jewish
community from the secular world is far less
distinct than it was less than one hundred years
ago. The challenge of today is trying to find a
balance between being a part of the Jewish
community and still remaining a part of the
"real world." What exactly is the role of the
Jewish people? How separate should our com-
munities be? Should these communities be
physically separate, ideologically separate, or
perhaps some combination of the two? What
exactly does it mean to be an "am le-badad" –
a nation apart?
In Sefer Be-Midbar, the king of Mo'av,
Balak, calls on the prophet, Bil'am, for assis-
tance in cursing the Jewish people. Bil'am,
after receiving permission from God, agrees to
come, but says he may only do that which God
allows. Bil'am attempts to curse the Jewish
people three times, and in each of his attempts,
he ends up blessing the Jewish people, accord-
ing to God's will. In the first of these blessings,
Bil'am says: "Ki me-rosh tsurim er'ennu u-mi-
geva'ot ashurennu; hen am le-badad yishkon
u-ba-goyim lo yithashav," "For from the top
of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I be-
hold him: lo, it is a people that shall dwell
alone, and shall not be reckoned among the na-
tions."i This pasuk identifies the Jewish people
as a nation that will be separate. Furthermore,
it will not be reckoned among the nations.
Rashi explains that the origins of the Jew-
ish nation are strong and its roots are en-
trenched like the rocks in the hills. They are
strong due to the merit of the foremothers and
forefathers who laid the foundations for the na-
tion. Rashi continues in accordance with Tar-
gum Onkelos, saying that the Jewish people
merit to live in solitude due to the efforts of
their ancestors and that in the End of Days the
nation will not be destroyed among the other
nations. The Jewish people will not be counted
with them. Sforno interprets this pasuk along
the same vein, saying that the Jewish people
alone will inhabit the earth In the End of Days.
10
www.kolhamevaser.com
Sforno cites a pasuk in Devarim, "Hashem
badad yanhennu," "Hashem alone guided
them."ii Sforno quotes this pasuk and expounds
upon Rashi by adding that Hashem would not
destroy the nation that He alone led.
It appears from these interpretations that
to be a nation apart is a blessing. The Jewish
people are not meant to mix and mingle among
the other nations, and, in fact, this separation
seems to be a privilege that the forefathers and
foremothers earned for their descendants. Rav
Ruberman, in his sefer, Zikhron Me'ir, brings
a source from the Yalkut Shim'oni that explains
the distinguishing characteristics of the Jewish
people as compared to idol worshippers. The
Jewish people do not change their dress, their
food or their bod-
ies (referring to
berit milah), and
this is what sets
effort to be classified as the am le-badad; how-
ever, there must also be the awareness that the
Jewish people are protected by the Almighty.
Rabbeinu Bahya brings an alternate ex-
planation to the words "am le-badad." The
Jewish people are not just physically separate,
but rather, "le-badad" connotes a special qual-
ity, which the nation posses. This unique qual-
ity in the Jewish people stems from their
connection to God; it comes from the faith and
commitment to the Torah, which was given to
the Jewish people. God says to the Jewish peo-
ple in Sefer Va-Yikra: "Va-Avdil etkhem min ha-
ammim li-heyot li," "I have separated you from
the peoples to be mine."iv Unlike Rashi,
Onkelos, and Sforno, who say that the nation
rotfiabeyay
them apart as an
"am le-badad."
Rambam in Hilkhot De'ot, chapter 6, says
"The challenge of today is trying to find a balance be-
tween being a part of the Jewish community and still
remaining a part of the 'real world.'"
that the nature of man is to imitate his sur-
roundings. A person observes how his friends,
co-workers, neighbors, and family members
live and act, and he adapts his actions to those
of his environment. Bil'am saw in his time that
the Jewish people did not do this, and it can be
observed that throughout history, the Jewish
people have been known and hated for their in-
sularity and their unwillingness to assimilate
with the surrounding culture. Even so, they re-
mained steadfast in their commitment to this
dogma of non-integration.
Rambam continues, saying that it is the
responsibility of each individual to connect
himself to righteous and wise people so that he
learns from their deeds. Seemingly, Rambam
is saying that even when the Jewish people are
living amongst other nations, it is imperative
that the individual remains connected to the
community. If one is living outside of the phys-
ical Jewish community, he still needs to be
spiritually connected to members of the com-
munity who will influence him to behave in the
correct manner.
The Midrash Tanhuma on Parashat Tole-
dotiii compares the Jewish people to a sheep
surrounded by seventy ravenous wolves. They
are not devoured; they stand strong against the
wolves, against the seventy nations of the
world. The Jewish people have the strength to
stand up to the nations because of the founda-
tions laid by the Avot and Immahot. The
Gemara quotes the Caesar, Adrianus, as saying
that the nation that withstands the other sev-
enty nations of the world is great, but the One
who saves this nation is even greater. While the
Jewish people are given credit in their own
right for being able to stand strong against the
nations, and survive, ultimately, there is a fac-
tor that cannot be forgotten. There has to be a
certain protection given to the Jewish people
by God. The Jewish people must put in their
will be separate at the End of Days, Rabbeinu
Bahya says that the Jewish people are always
separate. It is not just a physical or geographic
separation, but this separation is based on the
special quality that is alluded to in the word le-
badad. The Jewish people are an Am Meyuhad.
That is to say, that even if the Jewish people
are integrated into society at large, there will
always be an element of intrinsic separateness.
Ramban takes yet another approach to this
pasuk. The Ramban does not focus on the ori-
gins of the Jewish people as their distinguish-
ing factor. Rather, it is their common law that
binds them as a nation. No other people can be
counted with the Jewish nation. Other peoples
gather together physically and can be counted
as nations because they are physically con-
nected to one another; however, the Jewish na-
tion is one nation because of shared laws and
ordinances. The Jewish people will always
succeed over other nations, and will not be de-
stroyed or assimilated, because they share an
identity based on a system of law. While some
nations are nations based on a common space,
the Jewish people share more than just a com-
mon space; they share a common destiny that
sets them apart ideologically.
Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch makes a dis-
tinction between the words "am" and "goy."
He says that the Jewish nation will live in an
insulated land as an am with an internal mis-
sion as a national social body. The nation will
not mix excessively with other nations, and
will not seek greatness as a goy among goyim.
Rav Hirsch seems to imply that in order to be
a true nation and to carry out its national mis-
sion, the Jewish people must be a nation apart
both physically and ideologically, as opposed
to a nation achieving greatness among other
nations. Rav Hirsch seems to go a step further
than Ramban in saying that the destiny of the
Jewish people that is based in a shared ideol-
ogy will be carried out in a specific land.
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
All of these mefareshim give diverse as-
sessments of what it means to be a "nation
apart." Some state that this means a separation,
either physical, ideological, or both, others say
that the separation will only come at the End
of Days. There seems to be a missing element,
however. All of these mefareshim explain this
prophecy assuming that the Jewish people are
acting in accordance with the Torah. However,
throughout history, the Jewish people have not
always behaved in accordance with the Torah.
Furthermore, the Jewish people have seen
some very difficult and trying times, having
experienced expulsions, persecutions,
pogroms, the Holocaust, terrorism and anti-
Semitism. While the nation has continued to
survive, how is it supposed to live in the mod-
minded that they are a mamlekhet kohanim and
a goy kadosh.
In today's world, many Jewish communi-
ties are very tightly knit, while others are more
dispersed amongst the general population.
Many Jewish people work or go to school
within the Jewish community, while many oth-
ers are involved in the secular workplace. It
seems that in this modern world, to be physi-
cally close to a Jewish community is more im-
portant than ever, but even more than this is the
mentality which a person needs to have – that
is, the mentality of "am le-badad yishkon." It
is with this mentality that the Jewish people
will be able to survive and prosper.
With all of this being said, the question
still remains – should the Jewish community
"It seems that the best way for a person to balance his identity as a
Jew and his identity as a part of the secular world is to ensure that he
has a solid community to come back to at the end of each day."
ern era as this "nation apart," as an "Or la-
Goyim" in the face of so much adversity? It
seems that the berakhah of "am le-badad
yishkon" is conditional on the behavior of the
nation.
The Emet le-Ya'akov discusses a very im-
portant principle at the beginning of Sefer She-
mot. He illustrates the principle of the Jewish
people in exile. In Yosef's dream, Ya'akov was
the sun, and the brothers the stars. Ya'akov
went down with his family to Egypt, to the
darkness of galut (exile), and he was the sun
that lit up the path for everyone. When Yaakov
died, the shevatim were stars, guiding the fam-
ily in the right direction and lighting up the
darkness. The generation of the shevatim
(tribes) eventually died, and the stars that had
lit up the darkness of galut were no more. At
this point, a new Pharaoh arose to embitter the
lives of the Jews. The principle that Rav
Yaakov Kamenetsky explicates here is that of
"galut teluyah ba-mekabbel," "Exile is de-
pendent on the one who receives it." As soon
as the Jewish people forget they are in galut,
as soon as they lose sight of the land they are
supposed to be in, and the nation they are sup-
posed to be, they become comfortable in their
surroundings. They need to be given a re-
minder that they are indeed still in galut. If a
small reminder is not sufficient, then greater
reminders will be sent until the nation realizes
that its current state is not the ideal.
The prophecy from Bil'am is two-sided.
The Jewish nation is supposed to be a nation
apart, untouchable by other nations, but this is
dependent on whether the nation is cognizant
of its position. When the nation recognizes its
position, when the people recognize that they
are in galut, and when they are acting in a way
congruent with retson Hashem (the will of
God), they are an "am le-badad," and cannot
be reckoned with by other nations. The
prophecy becomes a berakhah. However,
when the Jewish people forget their galut,
when they forget their mission in this world,
when they are not behaving like an Or la-
Goyim, they need to be reminded of their true
identity as an "am le-badad." They must be re-
Volume III, Issue 2
work harder to physically isolate itself from the
secular world? Is it necessary, or even practical
to be isolated? Seemingly, it is important to
have a structured Jewish community. There
needs to be a centralized location with syna-
gogues, kosher food, mikvehs, schools and the
like. However, it does not seem necessary to
be completely cut off. In John Milton's Para-
dise Lost, the character of Satan says, "The
mind is its own place, and in itself/Can make a
heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."v A person's
reality exists in one's own mind. If the mental-
ity is, "I am a Jew, that is my identity no matter
where I am," then it is possible to enter the sec-
ular world. One must be wary however, be-
cause as Rambam writes, it is the nature of
man to act as those around him act. It seems
that the best way for a person to balance his
identity as a Jew and his identity as a part of
the secular world is to ensure that he has a solid
community to come back to at the end of each
day. The strength of the community is the only
thing that will enable a person to venture out
into the world with the mentality of am le-
badad yishkon.
Nicole Grubner is a senior at SCW ma-
joring in English Literature and is a Staff
Writer for Kol Hamevaser.
i Be-Midbar 23:9. Translation from the Jewish
Virtual Library.
ii
Devarim 32:12. Translation from the Stone
Edition of the ArtScroll Tanach.
iii
Midrash Tanhuma on Parashat Toledot,
siman 5.
iv
Va-Yikra 20:26. Translation from the Stone
Edition of the ArtScroll Tanach.
v
John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. Christopher
Ricks (New York: Signet Classics, 1982),
Book 1, lines 254-255.
An Interview with Rabbi
Yaakov Neuberger
BY: Staff
W
hat are some of the greatest challen-
ges of being the rav of an Orthodox
synagogue?
It would seem to me that the greatest
challenges rabbanim face are quite similar to
the challenges that confront so many obser-
vant Jews – just trying to get it all done. Who
is not inundated and overwhelmed with the
stresses of earning a parnasah, spending qual-
ity time with his family, growing spiritually,
learning seriously, and making a serious con-
tribution to his community? The rav of a shul
is no different. He has to learn rigorously for
his own self-growth and, as part of his com-
munal service, has to respond to she'eilos in
an appropriate fashion, having done the proper
research. He also has to prepare shi'urim and
derashos, meet with people about their
broader life and family concerns, focus on
keiruv rechokim, and organize shul events –
on top of broader communal responsibilities
and aspirations. The greatest challenge, then,
is putting it all together.
Does leading a community in particular
create greater responsibilities than a layman
might have to face?
The number and variety of issues that a
rav faces are greater than those a layman faces,
because hopefully the rav and rebbetzin are in-
volved as talmidim and balabatim confront so
many of their own difficult situations and chal-
lenges. That means that in addition to paskn-
ing she'eilos and giving shi'urim, the rav takes
part in everyone's semachos, difficulties, chal-
lenges, school decisions, parnasah decisions,
and family issues.
On the other hand, that also means that
the rav and the rebbetzin have many more op-
portunities to touch and inspire people since
decisions ad me'ah ve-esrim shanah (until the
age of 120). By the same token, many rab-
banim are top talmidei chachamim and
posekim and learn seriously and rigorously.
The people who should be making com-
munal decisions are those who bring to the
table a deep understanding of Torah and com-
munal needs, as well as the wisdom to give the
community direction and to nurture it spiritu-
ally. In our world, that includes numerous
Rashei Yeshivah and rabbanim. She'eilos that
include judgment calls on questions of she'as
ha-dechak (emergency situation), communal
unity, and the tolerance of the sho'alim, how-
ever, will almost always be the responsibility
of the communal rav, as he will be most at-
tuned to all necessary variables.
In essence, going to one's Rosh Yeshivah
or rav for a pesak is, in our community,
equally legitimate. Some families experience
tension over whether to take counsel with their
community rav or with a Rosh Yeshivah. Usu-
ally, this occurs when young, well-educated
men or women are the sho'alim. I think,
though, that rabbanim are very excited when
someone who grew up in their shul is so in-
volved in his or her learning that he or she en-
joys a close relationship with his or her
mentors.
Have the roles of Rosh Yeshivah and rav
grown closer over time, then?
I think that people often picture the Rosh
Yeshivah as an ivory tower personality and the
rav as a hands-on personality. Therefore, they
feel that while the Rosh Yeshivah brings
greater and purer knowledge to the discussion,
the rav, who is sometimes burdened with
many of the issues that come up in the com-
munity, does not. I do not feel comfortable
with that notion. In fact, I doubt if that notion
was ever universally true and think it is cer-
tainly not descriptive of our community today.
myvriiradl
"We are supposed to be an or la-goyim (a light unto the nations) and
we can fulfill that to some degree when we try to bring Torah values
to the prevailing culture."
the manner in which they serve is often im-
pressive and impactful. This also has a lot to
do with people's expectations and openness to
be inspired by their rav.
What role should the rav play in commu-
nal pesak Halakhah and religious policy? Sho-
uld a Rosh Yeshivah be consulted for a pesak
or should one consult one's rav?
I think that consultation is always valu-
able. The more rabbanim and Rashei Yeshivah
with whom one consults, the better the out-
come on any matter will be. Regarding pesak,
the roles of the rav and the Rosh Yeshivah are
very similar within our community. In other
words, the Rashei Yeshivah are very well
aware and understanding of what is going on
in the Jewish community. In fact, a large num-
ber are themselves rabbanim, and many
Rashei Yeshivah, if not all, stay in touch with
their talmidim and are involved with their life
www.kolhamevaser.com
Instead, I would say that both Rashei Yeshivah
and rabbanim bring to communal decisions
the requisite talents and kochos, and both
groups could probably therefore make these
decisions on their own. However, as noted,
consultation of multiple authorities and further
deliberation serve Kelal Yisrael and the Rib-
bono shel Olam much better.
How much, if at all, should a rav voice
his opinion about American and/or Israeli po-
litics?
Rabbanim often have the opportunity and
responsibility to bring to light the Jewish voice
on moral issues. We are supposed to be an or
la-goyim (a light unto the nations) and we can
fulfill that to some degree when we try to
bring Torah values to the prevailing culture.
Similarly, in Erets Yisrael, rabbanim have that
ability to introduce Torah concerns and per-
spectives into the communal conversation. In
11

Kol Hamevaser
addition, practically speaking it often serves a
community well if its rabbanim are involved
in political discussions, whether on a local or
national level.
Having said that, political involvement, I
think, is a sub-specialty within Rabbanus. It
requires people who have an understanding of
how politics and people work and a sound
knowledge of American and Israeli history and
culture so that they will be viewed as astute,
wise, and well-spoken. In terms of actually
taking positions on these issues, then, I think
that should be reserved for rabbanim who
have invested themselves in understanding the
system. If, however, a rav is not well-versed
in these areas, then he will say something that
is inaccurate and perhaps unwise, which will
not serve us at all.
it, we gain everything by being warm and wel-
coming and very little by being distant. Dis-
tancing them is also just the wrong thing to do.
To what degree should the Orthodox com-
pradhteya hry farcyy
munity focus on education? How has the re-
cent economic downturn affected communal
focus on education?
The recent economic downturn has
"We gain everything by being warm and
welcoming and very little by being distant."
brought to light certain failures in our current
educational system, in particular that paying
school tuitions has placed undue pressures on
families. As a community, we have developed
a system which is not healthy for us, where
being able to afford tuition demands a certain
economic level and two incomes per house-
hold, keeping mothers away from raising their
children and placing terribly unfair pressures
and expectations on
our young women. It
also pushes families
to take on huge
workloads and reach
the top earning posi-
Do you think that it is invalid for an
American rav to comment on Israeli politics
that have to do very much with what is occur-
ring on the ground in Israel?
I think it is very important for a rav to
comment and observe. For American rab-
banim to try to exercise their influence in Is-
rael, though, they have to act with a great deal
of caution, primarily because they may not
fully grasp the ramifications of their com-
ments and ideas on Israeli society. I would
therefore be very, very hesitant in that area.
Having said that, there may be certain issues
that are so important for Kelal Yisrael that at-
tempting to affect them may override the nec-
essary caution.
How should a rav relate to members of
the congregation who may not be fully obser-
vant?
He should relate to them with a great deal
of ahavah. One has to be welcoming and treat
them as precious, communicating to them that
the time that they spend in the shul and their
connection to the community are very impor-
tant to us. Furthermore, he has to galvanize the
community to be as embracing of such people
as every situation allows them to be.
Is it ever appropriate to put distance be-
tween irreligious members of the community
and the rest of the congregation?
I am sure there are certain situations
where rabbanim have made such decisions.
Probably if a rav is concerned that observance
of mitsvos will suffer, that type of keiruv will
detract from the shul's culture. Our experi-
ence recently, however, is usually the opposite
– that keiruv and teaching Torah raises the pas-
sion and the level of observance of a religious
community. There were situations 40-50 years
ago where rabbanim had to draw certain lines
and make very strong comments in public to
prevent negative influences from affecting a
community. There could be certain situations
today as well where irreligious individuals
would be negative influences and where one
might have to take a hard line. In general,
though, the contemporary unaffiliated families
have little to no exposure to Torah and em-
bracing them will only raise the spiritual level
of the welcoming community. The way I see
12
tions of their professions. All of that is un-
healthy for a family – two incomes are
unhealthy for family life and requiring people
to work for their maximum income and for un-
reasonable hours threatens Torah growth. In
the recent downturn, much of this has become
more pronounced and apparent.
We realize now that the current model,
which, for the most part, is funded by parents'
tuitions, should be gradually changed by cre-
ating communally funded schools. We should
therefore try to figure out an arrangement
where education is partially funded by the
people whom the school serves and partially
funded by the entire community.
Have you seen certain families, because
of the downturn, not be able to afford a
yeshivah education and have to send their
children to public schools?
I have not experienced that within my
own community, but I have heard that it is
happening and I assume that it has to happen
in families that are not absolutely and uncon-
ditionally committed to day school education.
In my community, though, families make tu-
ition probably one of the highest priorities on
their budgets. In addition, the lay leadership
of my community has committed itself to en-
sure that lack of funds will not deprive any
suitable child of a Torah education.
Which values is it important to instill in
one's children as they grow up? How can one
best inculcate religious attitudes and keep
those antithetical to Torah out?
La-aniyus da'ati (in my humble opinion),
one can accomplish this by introducing as
much Torah learning, at all its levels, and
Torah culture into one's home as possible.
Creating a passion for Torah study will natu-
rally overwhelm or at least combat the intro-
duction of negative and unhealthy elements of
the general culture into our home.
I do not think, the way our community is
structured, that we can altogether block out the
decadence and materialism of secular society.
That means, then, that parents need to work
with their children in setting up filters and in
establishing rules that govern what can and
cannot be done or watched. In our community,
we have to be a little more aggressive in draw-
ing lines the forms of entertainment parents
www.kolhamevaser.com
engage in and in which they allow their chil-
dren to engage.
But all the lines and filters will not meet
with full success unless we accompany them
with our best bet and most successful ap-
proach: encouraging increased involvement by
every child in learning, doing mitsvos, and en-
gaging in acts of chesed. Other Jewish values,
like tranquility, peacefulness, and yir'as
shamayim, will all come through learning and
involvement in Torah, and opportunities
should be taken to stress them directly as well.
The privilege of serving Hashem, the unique
status it gives us, and the simchah it can gen-
erate are all ideas that parents and rabbanim
should communicate with wisdom and
warmth, at times directly and at times very
delicately.
How should a layperson balance his or
her family and communal lives?
This is no doubt one of the burning issues
that families are grappling with in our commu-
nity. A man has to have kevi'as ittim (time set
aside) for learning. He has to first earn a par-
nasah, then spend time with his family, and
then concentrate on learning. To what extent
learning will take up his time will depend on
how much he enjoys it. If he enjoys it passion-
ately, that should be his main focus outside of
parnasah and family life. In addition, in his
spare time, he should be involved in a few
communal projects on the side. If he does not
enjoy the learning so much, though, he should
still make sure to have kevi'as ittim every sin-
gle day and then, if he is passionate about
helping others and engaging communal proj-
ects, he should be involved in that.
Is there a difference between men and
women in these two spheres?
We understand that a married woman's
focus and strengths are in maintaining the
home, raising the
children, creating a
Torah atmosphere,
and tending to the
culture and spiritu-
ality of the home.
In addition, women
should try to carve
out time to attend a shi'ur – even though there
is no requirement of kevi'as ittim for them –
because learning Torah is a great source of
both intellectual and spiritual growth, and if a
person's Torah study is not as sophisticated as
one's other pursuits, one's esteem and enjoy-
ment of Torah has to suffer. Women are able
to do so much for the community and many
communities depend on them. However, it has
become a great source of stress for the com-
munity that women nowadays have to earn a
parnasah as well and cannot concentrate as
much on the household or the broader commu-
nity.
the concerns of their female congregants and
even that they ideally should not be involved
in women's issues and in piskei Halakhah for
women.
We have to communicate that rabbanim
are and want to be very involved in the full
needs of the community, including women's
issues. Obviously, rabbanim have to create
venues and formats where if a woman is un-
comfortable discussing something directly
with the rav, she can find a comfortable way
of doing so. But we should not be setting up a
system which would create any sense of dis-
tance between the rav and his female congre-
gants.
In addition, much of the involvement that
a rav has in his congregants' lives comes
through the questions that people raise with
him. If a rav will not have access to these
women's she'eilos, he is not going to be aware
of any shalom bayis issues in a family or of
family pressures, ambitions, and aspirations.
Having yo'atsot, then, will create a distance
not only between the rav and individual
woman, but between the rav and the entire
family and its needs.
That is why I believe having yo'atsot is
serving us poorly, and if they are successful,
it will take us in an undesirable direction.
Should there be a difference, in this re-
gard, between yo'atsot here and in Israel?
It could be that there is a difference be-
tween America and Israel, and it may be indi-
cated by the fact that the roots for the program
for yo'atsot lie in Israel. Currently, the rav-
congregant relationship is so vastly different
in Erets Yisrael from that which exists here,
and this may also create a difference in this
area. I am not sure. But in America, it is just a
poor model and a poor way of serving the
community which will ultimately give us great
grief.
"It has become a great source of stress for the com-
munity that women nowadays have to earn a par-
nasah as well and cannot concentrate as much on the
household or the broader community."
Is there an additional halakhic problem
with having yo'atsot?
I believe that it is a halachic issue, be-
cause paskning she'eilos is, I think, a position
of serarah and the Rambam says that women
should not hold such positions. There are
posekim, quoted in the Sha'arei Teshuvah,
who say that. I know, however, that in this re-
spect I am the odd man out and understand
that many disagree with me.
What should the Centrist Orthodox com-
What is your opinion regarding programs
which educate women to be advisers in Halak-
hah on topics such as Hilkhot Niddah?
I think that introducing these programs in
our community is unwise. In terms of our
community, having yo'atsot hilchatiyyot will
serve us poorly in the future because it will
create an unnecessary distance between the
rav and the women in the community. Having
such yo'atsot will eventually communicate
that rabbanim do not want to be involved in
munity's relationship with other denomina-
tions of Judaism be like? In what ways
can/should they collaborate and in what ways
can/should they not?
I think it has to be brought back le-
shulchan melachim (to the table of kings). On
a communal level, we are still using the Rav,
zts"l's guidelines in this area today, but I think
that it is time that the issue be brought back to
Rashei Yeshivah and rabbanim so that they
can re-evaluate whether the Orthodox commu-
nity is in a different place today than it was
when the Rav gave those guidelines. There are
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
many rabbanim who believe that certain de-
tails of our relationship with other denomina-
tions have changed and that situations differ
from town to town. The observant community
is much stronger than it was then, and in it
there is much more focus on talmud Torah. In
addition, our community as a whole is better
versed in Torah now than it once was. Also, I
think that the non-Orthodox community is
much less aggressive than it was years ago in
terms of its religious agendas. I am not sure
what this means for us practically, or even that
I perceive things correctly, but I do think it is
time to revisit the issue.
How should the Centrist Orthodox com-
munity view itself in relation to other parts of
Orthodoxy, both on the right and the left?
In that regard I am also an iconoclast. I
believe that the Torah community is growing
closer together. As a result, all the parameters
that are used to define different parts of Ortho-
doxy are, often for reasons that are not neces-
sarily good, losing their strength and defining
worth. For instance, decades ago, there was a
group of Jews which defined itself by its pas-
sion for Religious Zionism and another group
which defined itself by a lack of concern for
what goes on in the State of Israel. Now, in the
broad Yeshivah World, everyone is concerned
about what is going on in the State of Israel.
By the same token, those who saw themselves
as passionate Religious Zionists have, unfor-
tunately, lost some of that zeal. So we have
grown closer together, not altogether for good
reasons.
Take the issue of a woman's place in the
community, which used to be a source of sep-
aration. In the broad Yeshivah World today,
women are very involved in earning a par-
nasah and are featured as public speakers on
Torah topics. At the same time, those who
were passionate advocates of women achiev-
ing stature outside the home have come to ap-
preciate the importance of a cohesive family
and the amount of time and effort women need
to put in to building a family and nurturing the
home. So we have again grown closer to-
gether.
Take the issue of a liberal arts education.
The broad Yeshivah World has engaged in a
wide range of college and higher education
programs. There is also de facto recognition
of the deep value of having Torah-observant
professionals. By the same token, our world
has become somewhat disillusioned with the
value of a liberal arts education. Again, we
have grown closer together.
The observant Jewish community is
pulling together. I think that we can make this
a positive development and that we should en-
gage the confluence of values, recognizing
that we have impacted on each other. Differ-
ent segments of the Torah world have made
contributions to other parts of it and have
thereby influenced the religious outlooks of
those other groups. Just as historically the
Chasidim and Misnaggedim, as well as the
Ba'alei Musar and those against Musar, were
at first passionate about maintaining differ-
ences but have, over time, grown closer and
had a tremendous impact on each other, so,
too, we should allow this natural process to
take place in our own world as well.
How have you seen the YU and Centrist
Orthodox community in general change over
Volume III, Issue 2
time?
The primary difference that I have seen is
that we have become very engaged in Torah
study and that the appreciation of and passion
for learning Torah seriously, as well as the
numbers doing so, have increased tremen-
dously. Torah learning today is probably the
strongest force within the Torah-observant
community, which was not so before. There
has been a huge change in this regard and it
has been accompanied by new concerns and
focuses within our community.
What, in your opinion, are some of the
greatest challenges facing the Orthodox com-
munity today?
In the past, great minds came to realize
that even communities steeped in Torah study
needed to be focused on some specific Torah
value that was underrated at that time. Perhaps
we need to focus on the challenges of comfort
and affluence and be more cautious of their
pitfalls. Furthermore, we need to study the op-
portunities and difficulties of living in a high-
tech world and learn to be much more cautious
of its dangers.
The greatest challenge we have today,
then, is what R. Kook said: being mekaddesh
es he-chadash and being mechaddesh es ha-
kodesh (sanctifying the new and renewing the
sacred). We are inundated, primarily because
of the advances in technology, by a culture
which is antithetical to our sense of kedushah
ve-taharah (holiness and purity) and yir'as
shamayim. Also, that so many Jews are distant
from their Jewishness and love of our people,
our land, and our Torah is a source of terrible
aggravation and pain.
Nevertheless, we are living in great times:
we are in possession of our land, we see mir-
acles regularly, Torah study is flourishing on
all levels, there is opportunity for greater co-
hesion in our community, people want to be
inspired and grow in their yir'as shamayim,
and many of our core values, such as family
and integrity, are appreciated by the surround-
ing culture.
Seizing the opportunities of such great
times may be our greatest challenge.
Rabbi Yaakov Neuberger is a Rosh Yeshi-
vah at MYP/RIETS and is the spiritual leader
of Congregation Beth Abraham in Bergenfield,
NJ.
Be Not Overly Modest:
Tseni'ut and the Inability to Speak
About Sex
BY: Emmanuel Sanders
T
seni'ut, or modesty, is one of the central
values of Orthodox Judaism, one that
not only distinguishes Orthodox Jews
within the larger Jewish spectrum, but also wit-
hin much of the Western world. To the best of
my knowledge, observance of shemirat ne-
gi'ah, the restriction on pre-marital physical
contact between the genders, and of the halak-
hic requirement for married women to cover
their hair, both practices traditionally associa-
ted with modesty, are prevalent only among
Orthodox Jews. However, there are other ex-
pressions of modesty in the Orthodox world
which are not of a strictly halakhic nature, such
as the frowning upon of speaking about topics
which are deemed "inappropriate," as well as
the general manner in which a person, male or
female, conducts him or herself on a day-to-
day basis, shying away from venues and acti-
vities that are viewed as promiscuous. It is to
this area of modesty, much more loosely defi-
ned halakhically, that I turn my attention in this
article.
I would like to focus on two expressions
of this emphasis on modesty and the negative
effects this emphasis has. The first issue I will
discuss is the inability to speak and teach
openly about important sexual matters and the
negative consequences this has on the lives of
married couples. I will then focus on the tro-
ubling effects of Jewish education concerning
modesty, specifically on how this affects wo-
men's views of themselves as well as men's
views of them. It should be noted that this ar-
ticle neither regards the halakhot of modesty,
nor the idea of modesty in general, as proble-
matic. Rather, it is my contention that the ove-
remphasis on modesty, or on concerns that
purport to stem from modesty, has truly nega-
tive effects, and this article aims at bringing
those effects to light.
Let us begin this discussion with an agga-
dah found towards the end of Berakhot (62a):
"R. Kahana once went in and hid under
Rav's bed. He heard him chatting [with
his wife] and joking and doing what he re-
quired. He [R. Kahana] said to him: 'One
would think that Abba's mouth had never
sipped the dish before!' He said to him:
'Kahana, are you here? Go out, because it
is rude.' He replied: 'It is a matter of
Torah, and I need to learn it.'"
While a number of lessons can be gleaned
from the above aggadah, such as the impor-
tance of Torah and its pervasiveness thro-
ughout all aspects of an individual's life, the
message which strikes me the most is the im-
plicit criticism of the lack of communication
between Rav and R. Kahana, between teacher
and student, on this issue. The only reason R.
Kahana was forced to go to such great lengths
to learn about the laws concerning the sexual
relationship of husbands and wives was that
www.kolhamevaser.com
there was no other context in which he could
do so. The Talmud, written over fifteen hund-
red years ago, teaches us a lesson here about
the perils of an overly modest society and the
effect it has on the ability of teachers to inform
students about matters concerning sexuality.
Despite the efforts of the Talmud to cau-
tion against this extreme modesty and the ne-
gative effects this orientation has on teachers'
abilities to communicate with their students, si-
milar problems plague Orthodox Judaism
today. Recently, a study was conducted by a
group of Orthodox medical professionals and
religious counselors in an effort to explore the
effects of the laws of Taharat ha-Mishpahah
(family purity) and modesty in general on the
sexual lives of Orthodox Jewish women.i This
study was performed through the medium of
voluntary questionnaires distributed to women
across the Orthodox spectrum who observe the
laws of Taharat ha-Mishpahah. In discussing
the issue of preparation for sexual intercourse
immediately prior to marriage, the study pre-
sents the following findings:
"...[M]ore than a third of the respondents
were disappointed on their wedding night
and only 15 percent stated that their wed-
ding night was better than expected. Al-
most half the respondents, [sic] stated that
they could have been better prepared for
married sexual life. Despite the fact that
almost 90 percent of the women in our
sample studied with a kallah teacher prior
to marriage, only 50 percent learned about
sexual matters from this source…"ii
We see clearly that although there exist forums
where these topics can be discussed in a mo-
dest setting, such as in the context of a kallah
class, these opportunities are not taken advan-
tage of by those teaching the classes or by the
students.
Clearly, things have not changed very
much since the times of the aggadah in Berak-
hot. The matters described above regarding
which the women in the study wished they had
been better educated are crucial, as it is extre-
mely important that both partners in a marriage
feel fulfilled in all the various aspects of their
relationship. This study clearly indicates the
difficulties Orthodox Judaism's emphasis on
modesty creates for educating women on se-
xual matters necessary for them to lead sexu-
ally fulfilling lives.
While this research focused on Orthodox
women, it would certainly be a mistake to as-
sume that men do no share similar sentiments.
In speaking with a close friend of mine, whom
we shall refer to as "Avi," the week prior to his
marriage, he related a conversation he had re-
cently had with a rabbi he feels close to and
holds in high esteem. Avi was concerned about
what to expect on his wedding night. Follow-
ing this rabbi's response to the effect of,
"You'll figure it out," Avi bluntly said the fol-
lowing:
"When my grandfather was a little boy in
13

Kol Hamevaser
Germany, his father wanted to teach him
how to swim. One day, he took my grand-
father to a lake, picked him up, threw him
into the water, and thus ended my grand-
father's swimming lesson. You're pretty
much telling me that that is what my wed-
ding night is going to be like?!"
To this objection, the rabbi responded in the af-
firmative, reiterating his earlier statement that
Avi would "figure it out." While I never asked
Avi how his wedding night panned out in the
end, the inability for him to communicate with
his rabbi is apparent.
I would like to make one last point about
the difficulties modesty presents for sexual
education. If we recall for a moment the agga-
dah in Berakhot, we will notice that R. Kahana
did indeed act extremely immodestly himself.
After all, listening to his teacher engage in ma-
rital relations with his wife is most certainly in-
as an opportunity to increase his own moral
and religious rigor; rather, he places the res-
ponsibility for controlling his own urges on his
female students, which is incredibly selfish and
troubling. Furthermore, he transforms a wo-
man's own requirement to live modestly from
a religious and personal experience between
her and God and between her and herself into
an obligation not to God but to men. Here, I
believe, an overemphasis on modesty in the
education of women belies a terrible selfish-
ness and one-sidedness on the part of the men
teaching them and contributes to a skewed
view of the role of women's modesty in their
religious lives.
Another equally important issue that is af-
"It should be evident that tseni'ut, while a
beautiful idea, has its problems, at least insofar as
vit causes difficulties in the ability for couples to
communicate about important marital issues."
fected by the education of women concerning
modesty is the view they develop of themsel-
ves. In the study discussed above, one woman
reports: "Growing up religious, you are taught
to feel that girls should
not be forward...it's OK
to be more forward and
guide my husband to
please me."iv Here, we
clearly see that the way
women are educated
decent. What we see from this part of the
aggadah, then, is that when a student cannot
attain desired knowledge about sexual rela-
tionships in a modest setting, he or she will be
forced to learn this information by a more im-
modest method. While I am certain that it is
unlikely for young men and women to go to
the ends that R. Kahana went, I am equally cer-
tain that many pursue other forums that are less
"kosher" than guidance from an educated te-
acher
in order to learn about sex.
I would like now to discuss the negative
effects of the current methods used for educa-
tion about modesty. That these effects burden
young women primarily should not come as a
surprise, as it is generally they, not young men,
who are given any education whatsoever on
these matters. In fact, while, to my knowledge,
a large number, maybe even a majority, of
post-high school seminaries have classes de-
voted specifically to modesty, I am unaware of
a single educational institution for men which
has a parallel educational opportunity. In her
book Feminism Encounters Traditional Juda-
ism: Resistance and Accommodation, Tova
Hartman records the following incident con-
cerning the experience of a young woman du-
ring her post-high school year in seminary:
"A young male teacher, before giving an
evening lecture, placed a bowl of pastry
in the center of the table. As the girls re-
ached for the pastry, he stopped them, ex-
plaining that they had to wait until the end
of the lecture. He left the pastry in the
middle of the table and taught the class.
At the end, as the girls finally began to
eat, he said dramatically: 'Remember how
distracted you were by those pastries?
That is exactly how I feel when you don't
dress modestly.'"iii
The above incident is highly disturbing for a
number of reasons. Even if one were to assume
that, in fact, girls are less sexually stimulated
by the sight of boys than boys are by the sight
of girls, this rabbi takes that as justification for
placing his own responsibility to live modestly
on the women he is teaching. He does not see
a man's assumed tendency to be overly sexual
14
regarding modesty creates a self-image of non-
sexuality, a view which is challenged upon en-
tering into marriage and which stunts the
ability of a couple to have a healthy sexual re-
lationship.
It should be evident that tseni'ut, while a
beautiful idea, has its problems, at least insofar
as it causes difficulties in the ability for couples
to communicate about important marital is-
sues. While the halakhot that surround mode-
sty are to be embraced and reinforced, a more
open attitude toward discussing sex is impor-
tant in order to cultivate healthy and fulfilling
relationships between husbands and wives.
Furthermore, a more gender-balanced way of
educating about tseni'ut is necessary to foster
a healthy view of women by men as well as a
healthy self-image for women. While our ide-
als are very beautiful in theory, we must be vi-
gilant to maintain that beauty in practice.
Emmanuel Sanders is a senior at YC maj-
oring in Jewish Studies and Philosophy and is
a Staff Writer for Kol Hamevaser.
i
Michelle Friedman, Ellen Labinsky, Talli Y.
Rosenbaum, James Schmeidler, and Rachel
Yehuda, "Observant Married Jewish Women
and Sexual Life: An Empirical Study," Conver-
sations 5 (2009): 37-59. Available at:
http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/observant-
married-jewish-women-and-sexual-life-empi.
ii
Ibid., p. 43.
iii Tova Hartman, Feminism Encounters Tradi-
tional Judaism: Resistance and Accommoda-
tion (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University
Press; Hanover, NH: University Press of New
England, 2007), p. 55.
iv
Michelle Friedman, et al., "Observant Mar-
ried Jewish Women," p. 46.
An Interview with Mrs.
Shani Taragin: Part One
BY: Staff
Editor's Note: The following is the first
part of an interview conducted by Kol
Hamevaser with Mrs. Shani Taragin. The sec-
ond part will appear in the coming issue of the
paper.
H
ow should a woman balance her time
between raising a family and having a
profession?
This is an excellent question. Although
the issue is subjective for each woman, there
are certain general ideas that I think are appro-
priate to all women. The term "balance" im-
plies that there is some perfect equilibrium
between the two – fifty percent here and fifty
percent there.
I prefer to call it "juggling" be-
cause that term implies the need to handle mul-
tiple responsibilities simultaneously. In this
regard, I believe that family should always
come first. And as I say that, I honestly try my
best to always put my family first. Though I
may not always live up to that ideal, it is al-
ways the goal.
First is the prioritization of family and in-
vestment in it of time, by which I mean actual
physical time and also focused attention that is
given to family. After that, a profession is gen-
erally something people develop both for their
own sake, for self-development, but also to
pursue talents that we believe Ha-Kadosh
Barukh Hu invested in us. I feel that it is im-
portant, especially today, that women have pro-
fessions, both to be able to exercise the talents
rather a life goal), and I think it is inseparable
from how I see my role within the family. That
means that my children, and they know this
very well, are really my prize students, those
in whom I invest the most, and that is why
most of my kohot (efforts) are invested prima-
rily in them. On the one hand, there is not such
a separation for me between family and pro-
fession, since I feel I am invested in hinnukh
all day – in and out of the home. On the other
hand, it does mean that sometimes the lines can
be blurred. I have to be more careful to ensure
that there is family time for hinnukh and that
there is student time for hinnukh. But the re-
sponsibility of hinnukh really is 24/7 and you
do not stop thinking about your own children
and students. I tell my students that I have a
hard time leaving my children in the morning
and a hard time leaving my students in the af-
ternoon, since I want to invest as much as I can
in each of them. But it is really the investment
in one's children and spouse, in the avirah (at-
mosphere) created in the home and one's dis-
position there, which is the most long-lasting
and serves as my primary forum for constant
growth bein adam la-havero and bein adam la-
Makom.
What is the place of women in communal
life? To what extent should they be involved in
communal activities, decision-making, and
leadership?
I led a symposium on this topic last Han-
nukah in Midreshet Lindenbaum, where the
theme was Bayit, Ner, Ish u-Beito. When the
Gemara in Shabbat (21b) discusses one's obli-
gation in lighting Hannukah candles, it states
"A woman's investment in her family is truly the most long-lasting
and essential, the one through which she will most develop her self
identity and avodat Hashem."
that Hashem has given them and because today
they have more time to be able to pursue other
interests, other forms of avodat Hashem. It is
also important because in today's day and age
there should always be something for a woman
to fall back on in case of financial need, and it
is important for her to have her own space as
well. We often recite the cliché "family first,"
but a woman's investment in her family is truly
the most long-lasting and essential, the one
through which she will most develop her self-
identity and avodat Hashem.
I find that because I work in hinnukh my
juggling is a little different. In most profes-
sions, someone has a 9-to-5 job and can come
home and not think about her job until she
wakes up in the morning. However, hinnukh,
which focuses on developing people, their avo-
dat Hashem, and personality, is a 24/7 job (I
would not even call hinnukh a profession but
www.kolhamevaser.com
"ner ish u-beito" – there should be a candle per
person per home. The lighting is not only
linked to the person but is meant to serve as an
expression of the home as well. It is interesting
that we incorporate this term of "bayit" in other
areas such as "beit midrash" and "beit kene-
set," the latter of which serves today not only
as a mekom tefillah (place of prayer) but also
as a center for community involvement. I
think women should ideally be involved in all
three battim. A woman's primary investment
should be in her insular home, but if she has
time beyond, she should certainly be involved
in communal activities as well. If a woman
teaches in a beit midrash, then she should cer-
tainly teach in her beit keneset – in and out of
the official structure, she should be teaching
within her community. Since hinnukh is about
educating and filling some gap or niche,
aniyyei irekha kodemin (the needy ones in your
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
community come first).i If a woman feels that
she wants to leave the confines of the home,
not just for self-expression but because she
feels that Ha-Kadosh Barukh Hu has given her
the talent and time to pursue hinnukh, then
communal teaching should be another expres-
sion of her bayit.
For every woman this will be very differ-
ent. For a woman who sees her role in hin-
nukh, this means looking at her community,
seeing where there are gaps in its hinnukh –
whether it relates to taharat ha-mishpahah (fa-
milial purity laws) or bat mitzvah programs
where a woman can certainly contribute in that
realm of hinnukh – and pursuing them. If she
has administrative talents, she might help the
community in decision-making, leading them
in programs. A woman with dancing or singing
talents can offer various avenues of expression
for the women in her community as well.
If a
woman is very involved in hesed and has the
time and ability beyond the microcosm of her
bayit and family to be able to share that hesed
with her community, too, then she should.
What do you think about the position of
Maharat or similar positions without that title?
I think that the title is completely incon-
sequential. I know that there are some women,
and I have spoken to many about this, who be-
lieve that a title is necessary, both for the qual-
ifying factor, because people are very confused
with regard to the role a woman plays within
the community, and because she needs a title
to define her otherwise amorphous role. But I
do not think a title creates a function, and that
is why I think that calling a person a "Maharat"
or "Rabbanit" or, as the Kolech conference de-
cided, a "Rabbah" makes no difference at all,
compared to what she is actually doing. There-
fore, when people ask me personally, "Shani,
what do you want to be called?" I feel that just
by doing I define my function. And I think that
is ideal, as opposed to having a position people
have to fill, like what we have in the rabbinate
now where rabbis are expected to be the social
advisor, the posek Halakhah (halakhic de-
cisor), and the mesadder kiddushin (wedding
officiant).
We know that not every rav serves in all
the aforementioned capacities – some are more
involved in pesikat Halakhah (deciding the
Halakhah), some are more involved in social-
communal activities, and some may not paskn
(decide) Halakhah at all but rather teach
Tanakh –but by doing each, he is fulfilling a
rabbinic role. I think that the best way of
defining a person's position is by looking at
what they do and how they express themselves,
instead of giving them a title which might un-
necessarily limit them.
Do you believe that women in the Modern
Orthodox community have progress to make,
or have they reached the point where they have
equal opportunities in terms of women's learn-
ing? Where do you see women's learning in 20
years from now?
In terms of where women go from here, I
think that the primary avenue should be that
women continue to pursue learning Torah on
Volume III, Issue 2
the highest level possible. I think that with the
conventions of modern society, women have
more time and more opportunities to do so.
There is an idea that there is a "glass ceiling"
in the woman's beit midrash, that there is a
limit. That is something that I was brought up
with, but it is something that I honestly do not
see or feel at all today. Barukh Hashem, there
are so many midrashot teaching Gemara, Ha-
lakhah, Tanakh, and Mahashevet Yisrael on a
high level, allowing women to be exposed to
all areas of learning.
I believe the level of learning is compara-
ble to the level in yeshivot, and regarding
Gemara learning, to a degree, women may
even have a methodological advantage. In
yeshivot, there has already been a certain
stigmatization or compartmentalization: you
either learn in a Brisker yeshivah or in a
yeshivah like Otniel, and you thereby decide
on the methodology that you will focus on, ul-
timately creating a myopic exposure to Torah
learning. In the midrashot, though, talmidot
have not necessarily decided how to approach
Gemara learning, so in one midrashah you may
be exposed to numerous styles of learning
Gemara, providing talmidot with an opportu-
nity to discover and appreciate different ap-
proaches to Torah she-be-Al Peh.
I also think, and Rav Hershel Schachter
has pointed this out as well, that because wide-
spread Torah learning for women began with
the establishment of the Bais Yaakov schools
years ago, then there are 15 women in that pro-
gram today. The numbers have not signifi-
cantly increased as I expected they would. If
one were to take all the women who are ex-
posed to advanced levels of Torah learning in
their post-high school year(s) in Israel and
present them with all the options that exist to
continue their learning on graduate and post-
graduate levels, one would expect that just as
there are significantly more women studying
medicine today, there should also be more
women continuing their study of Torah she-bi-
Ketav and Torah she-be-Al Peh. There are cer-
tainly more female teachers today who are
educating on a more advanced level than in the
past, but the numbers are still lacking. I have
various explanations for this phenomenon but
cannot pinpoint one reason. I am confident that
in terms of the direction of women's learning,
the quality will increase, but I believe the chal-
lenge is to encourage more women to pursue
this area and appreciate how this could very
positively affect the home and change the face
of Jewish education for the future.
As a follow-up, in terms of quality, do you
not see so many women giving shi'urim that
men would want to go to or writing hiddushei
Torah?
That is correct, and I think that this goes
back to the quantity issue. For every thousand
men learning Torah, maybe the average person
would be interested in hearing shi'urim by 10
"I think that the best way of defining a person's position is by look-
ing at what they do and how they express themselves, instead of giv-
ing them a title which might unnecessarily limit them."
under the guidance of the Hafets Hayyim, the
focus of learning was on Torah she-bi-Ketav,
and that has, to a large degree, stayed at the
forefront of women's learning until today. As
a result, more women learn more Tanakh than
men and are thereby exposed to a broader pic-
ture of talmud Torah. I think that it should not
be seen as be-di-avad (a de facto situation) but
rather as le-ka-tehillah (a de jure situation) to
learn Torah she-bi-Ketav, hand-in-hand with
Torah she-be-Al Peh. Women can explore the
realms of learning Mishnah, Gemara, and cer-
tainly Halakhah, and today, with many women
who have been trained in those areas, they can
also learn from knowledgeable women. I hope
that midrashot help produce more women who
will work together with rabbanim in teaching
and promoting the quality of both men's and
women's learning programs.
I would like to express a certain reserva-
tion of mine, namely that with all the optimism
I have regarding women's learning, I am some-
what disillusioned with what I have seen.
About 20 years ago, when women's learning
really took off, with the opening of institutions
such as Midreshet Lindenbaum, MaTaN, Nish-
mat, the Stern Talmud Program (GPATS),
Migdal Oz, and Drisha, I thought that there
would be a significant demographic growth in
women's learning. Yet, sadly, we have not seen
the number of students in these institutions
grow proportionally. If there were 15 women
in MaTaN's advanced learning program 20
of them, in terms of shittah (style) and level of
learning. But if you take the approximately 50
women who are seriously involved in their
learning, from how many do you think one
would be interested in hearing? Additionally,
even amongst the women who are learning and
teaching, many are not yet learning on the level
to give high-quality shi'urei Torah. Therefore,
you will not find the same plethora of maggidei
shi'urim (Torah lecturers), and certainly not se-
farim, among women as you do among men.
In terms of sefarim, there are more
women writing works of Torah today and in-
volved in Torah scholarship than there were
20-30 years ago, both in terms of quantity and
quality. About 12 years ago, when I was asked
to write for Jewish Legal Writings by Women,ii
I remember disliking the title, because it makes
a distinction between legal writings by women
and by men – if it is a legal writing, it is a legal
writing! I recall suspecting that as soon as
someone opens it they will think, "How does
this compare to what a man is writing?" If you
have legal writings and include within them
writings by men and women and they are on
par with one another, then there is something
to say for it. I was in fact guilty of my own
suspicion, for when I opened the sefer the first
thing I thought was, "How does it compare to
a previous article that I had read on the same
issue, written by a man?" And in 9 out of 10
cases, it hurts me to say this, the article written
by the man was on a higher level, because he
www.kolhamevaser.com
had more years of exposure to learning, more
exposure to Rishonim and Aharonim, more ex-
perience articulating himself in legal writing,
and did not necessarily have an agenda like a
woman may have. I anticipate that this will
improve over the next few years. Even now, if
you look in the journal Tehumin (Torah,
Hevrah, u-Medinah), once in a while you see
writings by women that are published. On a
personal level, I feel that I would not want to
publish until I felt very confident that I was not
writing to prove that I can publish a legal writ-
ing on the same level as others as a contest or
competition. A woman who publishes should
make sure that the scope, depth and organiza-
tion is on par with other articles, which re-
quires learning on a very high level for a
certain number of years.
In terms of a women giving shi'urim
which appeal to men, I think that there is both
a stylistic and a psychological issue. Men and
women think differently and speak differently.
One may hear the same parashah shi'ur or
Gemara shi'ur given by a man and woman and
yet each will sound very different, as different
mannerisms and expressions will be employed.
It could also be that a man is naturally more fo-
cused on what a male teacher says and a
woman will find a feminine style of teaching
more appealing, and that also has to be taken
into account for why men might not want to
hear women's shi'urim as much. I was re-
cently delivering a shi'ur on the conceptual and
halakhic nature of tefillah and whether its de-
velopment is based on the Avot or on
korbanot.iii A few women told me afterward
that the textual sources were very difficult and
the pace of the shi'ur was too fast. One has to
remember as one is trying to educate, and not
simply lecture, that especially regarding
shi'urim given in communities, your average
community laywoman may not have as much
exposure to primary sources as your average
layman, so a shi'ur given to women may be de-
livered at a slower pace than one given to men,
which the latter may find frustrating. I see that
changing, however, in kehillot with more
women who have spent years learning.
Recently, Nishmat's Yoatzot Halacha Pro-
gram celebrated the 10th anniversary of its first
graduating class, of which you were a part.
What do you feel are the advantages or possi-
ble disadvantages of institutions that educate
women to be advisors on Hilkhot Niddah?
What do you feel about women functioning as
advisors in other areas of Halakhah, such as
Hilkhot Shabbat or Kashrut?
I think it is fairly obvious why Hilkhot
Niddah was sought after as the first topic to be
studied in this forum prior to other areas of Ha-
lakhah. It is a sensitive topic, and therefore
many women were not approaching rabbanim
with their questions. Additionally, as many
rabbanim have attested and as we see in the
end of the Perishah's introduction to Yoreh
De'ah, women understand the metsi'ut (realia)
of these halakhic phenomena a little more
clearly than men do, and they can explain them
to other women more easily. I believe it is very
clear across the board, both demographically –
15

Kol Hamevaser
in Erets Yisrael, North America, South Amer-
ica, South Africa, and Australia – and with re-
gard to various religious affiliations, that this
is a very positive initiative. I understand the
reservations, and I have spoken to R.
Mordechai Willig about this extensively, that
there exists the danger that women will see the
yo'atsot as their only rabbinic advisors and
may possibly come to undermine rabbinic au-
thority. Every yo'etset Halakhah ought to
know (and I think does know) that her knowl-
edge is limited and she should respectfully
defer to rabbinic authorities who know more
in any issue of safek.
I have witnessed only positive results:
more women understanding the halakhot and
more women approaching others with ques-
tions. The Yoatzot Pro-
gram has made Halakhah
more accessible to the
masses and has appealed
to the learned as well by
teaching them that in order to appreciate the
nuances of Halakhah, they should study it from
the development of the mekorot (sources). The
past 10 years have served as a significant pe-
riod of time to demonstrate that a woman can
indeed understand these halakhot and she can
both teach Halakhah pesukah (consensus Ha-
lakhah), and, knowing enough of the halakhic
precedents, can paskn Halakhah in certain sit-
uations, always keeping in mind that she
should consult with rabbanim in issues that are
not clear.
With regard to other areas, I will say from
that you might have a woman who has really
learned and has experience in all areas of Ha-
lakhah and broad enough shoulders to decide
new issues of Halakhah? I am not getting into
the issue of serarah, of having a position re-
lated to those broad shoulders, but am speaking
theoretically, about the level of knowledge it-
self. We know that, in order for someone to be
on the level of R. Shelomoh Zalman Auerbach,
R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, or R. Hershel
Schachter – those posekei Halakhah (halakhic
decisors) whom we usually associate with hid-
dush Halakhah, the ability to take all the rele-
vant sugyot (Talmudic discussions) into
account, even shittot (opinions) that are re-
jected in certain situations, and apply them to
new situations – one needs not just years of
"Many schools succeed at promoting the beauty
of Torah she-bi-Ketav, but very often the focus on
Torah she-be-Al Peh is lost"
learning but an intense focus on learning. The
question is: will women ever really have that
focus on learning?
I am really not sure about this because ul-
personal experience that once you are engaged
in sincere conversation with a woman about
halakhic topics, very often other questions re-
lating to different areas of Halakhah will be
raised as well. Regarding such questions, if
one knows what the Halakhah pesukah is, then
there is no reason not to teach it. The terminol-
ogy that the Sefer ha-Hinnukhiv uses is "ishah
hakhamah ha-re'uyah le-horot" (an intelligent
woman who is qualified to decide Halakhah),
with regard to the issur shetuyei yayin (prohi-
bition against deciding Halakhah while drunk)
that applies to women as well. If a woman is
learned, then she is qualified to teach. Barukh
Hashem, in numerous midrashot women are
teaching Halakhah on the same level as men
teaching Halakhah, whether it be Hilkhot
Shabbat or Kashrut, Hilkhot Ribbit or Shemit-
tah. Certainly women with the same knowl-
edge, exposure, sensitivity, and depth of
understanding can teach Halakhah as a rav
does. I believe women can certainly serve as
halakhic advisors in all areas of Halakhah (and
many do without realizing it, e.g. on their col-
lege campuses) provided they know the ha-
lakhot, though I do not know if it is as
necessary in areas beyond Taharat ha-Mishpa-
hah, since women do not feel as reluctant ask-
ing a rav difficult questions in Hilkhot Shabbat
or Kashrut.
However, in areas of hiddush Halakhah
(creative halakhic decision-making), where
you really need broad shoulders of Halakhah,
I think that both men and women know to
defer to those talmidei hakhamim who have
had greater exposure. In 10 years, could it be
16
timately it is very clear that a woman's first pri-
ority should be family. A woman may (and
should) be learning during her years in high
school, midrashah, college and post-college
wherein she may even be able to focus on her
Torah studies, but the subsequent years will
provide her with a greater challenge. During
that time, when most men can, if they so de-
sire, stay in yeshivah for several more years, a
woman, because she appreciates the value of
establishing a family, cannot. Once she has
children, her first priority is to invest in her
family, shifting her focus (though not necessar-
ily her passion) away from learning somewhat
to this new part of her life. I still think that
women should continue to learn, whether in-
volved in hinnukh or not, during their child-
rearing years, and there are advanced Talmud
programs which I hope women take advantage
of during those years and beyond. I know that
I will not reach the level of gedolim like R.
Aharon Lichtenstein. R. Aharon learned seri-
ously from a young age and made Torato
umanuto (his Torah into his profession).
Barukh Hashem, he has a wonderful wife who
invested in the raising of her children, and I
think that is certainly the primary raison d'être
of every Jewish woman.
Maybe someday a woman will be at such
a level of hiddush Halakhah, but taking into
account the priorities that women have and
given the amount of time needed to be able to
be mehaddesh Torah on such a level as
gedolim, this is certainly a challenge, and I am
not necessarily sure if there is a need in the
Jewish community to have a woman in that po-
sition. There certainly should be women
learning, writing, creating hiddushei Torah,
teaching women on the highest level, and,
barukh Hashem, we see that coming to
fruition.
What do you think is the biggest challenge
facing the Modern Orthodox community
today?
www.kolhamevaser.com
That is funny, because I often ask my stu-
dents that question to sensitize them to broader
Jewish concerns. I think many of the prob-
lems we are facing today are rooted in limited
education, wherein students may be exposed to
a wide scope of learning, but not necessarily
in-depth. Students are not challenged to think
about issues, to question and probe. Many
schools succeed at promoting the beauty of
Torah she-bi-Ketav, but very often the focus on
Torah she-be-Al Peh is negligible, or sensitiv-
ity to Halakhah is lost. I think this foregoing
of depth in learning and "watering down" of
analysis is an attempt to appeal to a wider
range of students and attract them to the excite-
ment of information. This approach may have
certain advantages but also can be counterpro-
ductive. I have thought about this a lot because
the main problems people speak about – assim-
ilation or agunot (chained women) – always
deal with the crises in the Jewish community
at large, but do not deal particularly with the
Modern Orthodox community.
Another problem we are facing is disunity
due to lack of united leadership in Am Yisrael
in general, and specifically within our Modern
Orthodox communities. There is a rampant
lack of Emunat Hakhamim, a lack of respect
for rabbanim, and consequently a division of
various denominations within Orthodoxy, with
confusion and distaste as the results. People
do not know with which camp to associate
themselves, how to properly observe Ha-
lakhah, in which restaurants to eat, in which
shuls to daven, or to which schools they should
send their children, all of which aggravates the
disunity. I am not encouraging uniformity as
much as unity on the halakhic front. If united
leadership were manifest in our communities,
then perhaps this would catalyze greater unity
beyond. Our challenge today is to foster re-
spect in rabbanim, encourage more thinking,
creative individuals to learn and be trained for
different attitudes toward bein adam la-havero,
dependent on their lessons from home. As
much as one tries to change behavioral conduct
at 18, it is very difficult. Yahas la-beriyyot (re-
lationship to other people), together with yahas
la-Bore (relationship to the Creator), are essen-
tial values to instill in one's children as they
grow up through parental role modeling.
Another important value which I also be-
lieve is most inculcated naturally through the
home is how one spends one's time. An aunt
of my husband's often says that bal tashhit (the
prohibition not to waste) is applicable not just
to physical objects but also to the mind. One
may never know what one's teacher does after
5 o'clock, but you see what your parents do
when they are at home – the hours that they set
aside and the values that they prioritize. A child
does not see her parents regularly during the
day – they may be learning, teaching, or en-
gaged in law or business from 9 to 5 or 7. A
child sees how the parent spends her time at
home. If a parent watches television through-
out the evening, then that will be a value im-
pressed upon the child. To summarize, yahas
la-beriyyot, yahas la-Bore, and yahas li-zeman
(relationship to time) are the primary values to
instill while you can.
In terms of inculcating religious values
while keeping negative ones out, again I think
that the best method is for parents to serve as
role models of a Torah u-Madda lifestyle – in-
corporating the beauty of the world in a Torah
home. Two weeks ago, I read a beautiful ser-
mon delivered by R. Lamm in 1961, discussing
the idea of "la-petah hattat rovets," "sin
crouches at the door,"v and it definitely struck
a chord, echoing what I try to do in the home
with my children. R. Yehudah ha-Nasi quotes
a statement taught to him by Antoninus, his
"Yahas la-beriyyot, yahas la-Bore, and yahas li-
zeman (relationship to time) are the primary val-
ues to instill while you can."
friend the Caesar of Imperial Rome, that
"yetser ha-ra sholet ba-adam mi-she'at yet-
si'ato la-olam," "the Evil Inclination rules over
a person from the time
of his exit into the
world." This is proven
from our pasuk: "la-
petah hattat rovets."
the Rabbinate, and inspire them to work with
one another in unifying their respective com-
munities.
Which values are important to instill in
one's children as they grow up? How can one
best inculcate religious attitudes and keep
those antithetical to Torah out?
One important area is ethical develop-
ment. I think that yahas bein adam la-havero
(relationship between man and his fellow man)
is something that starts in the home, whether it
is something as simple as manners and the
magic words "please" and "thank you" or re-
spect to elders and parents, kibbud av va-em.
These are the values that, as much as people
try to teach them later in life in various educa-
tional institutions such as high schools and
midrashot/yeshivot, definitely have to start in
the home. When I teach 18-year-old students,
I can immediately tell from what types of
homes they come. Even if I meet five girls
from the same high school, each will have very
Antoninus interpreted the word "la-petah" lit-
erally as referring to the womb, the doorway
into the world, and "hattat rovets" to mean that
sin reigns from that moment, making it virtu-
ally impossible for man to reign over evil in-
fluences.vi If the norm presents man with
negative worldly values which naturally infil-
trate into the home, then one is engaged in a
constant struggle to keep them out.
It is interesting to note, though, that while
R. Yehudah ha-Nasi learns this interpretation
from Antoninus, he never actually accepts this
teaching of his. Rather, he interprets "la-petah
hattat rovets" (and there are multiple exegeti-
cal and homiletical interpretations of this verse
as wellvii) as meaning that at the gate, the petah,
there are dangers of other values antithetical to
Torah which remain dormant – crouching. The
challenge of man is to keep these influences in
a crouching position.
We believe that we are capable of sharing
our values with the outside world and also tak-
ing the best of that world – call it the modern
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
world or Madda – and incorporating it within
our homes and communities. We must be hon-
est and careful, however, in informing our chil-
dren of the dangers that lurk right outside our
doors in our modern anthropocentric society.
As much as we value the secular world and
secular study, there are definitely ideas of ar-
rogance, hedonism, and deceit – all of which
are antithetical to Torah – that are rampant in
secular culture. We have to train our children
to be conscious of and sensitive to values anti-
thetical to Torah and simultaneously inspire
them with the depth and beauty of a Torah
lifestyle through which they will be able to de-
fend their own values and surmount these dif-
ficulties.
Shemirat Negi'ah and Reality
BY: Nathaniel Jaret
Author's Note: The following essay is a
theoretical halakhic argument and does not
constitute a practical halakhic ruling. The
ideas and suggestions contained herein should
not be put into practice. Proper rabbinic au-
thorities must be consulted.
Shani Taragin is a prominent educator
living in Alon Shevut, Israel. She teaches at
several midrashot, most extensively at
Midreshet Lindenbaum, and is a member of the
first class of graduated yo'atsot Halakhah.
L
ast year, Kol Hamevaser's readership
was treated to a thought-provoking, but,
from the vantage point of Halakhah, ad
i Bava Metsi'a 71a.
ii Micah D. Halpern and Chana Safrai (eds.),
Jewish Legal Writings by Women (Jerusalem:
Urim, 1998).
iii
See Berakhot 26b.
iv R. Aharon ha-Levi of Barcelona, Sefer ha-
Hinnukh, mitsvah 152.
v
Be-Reshit 4:7.
vi Sanhedrin 91b.
vii
See, for example, the commentary of Ram-
ban to Be-Reshit 4:7.
hominem tirade to the effect of, "Shemirat
negi'ah today is pretty dumb. Let's drop it like
it's hot."i In this essay, I am setting out to ad-
dress the issue from within the boundaries of
normative Halakhah and offer a possible solu-
tion that lies within the pale of our tradition.
There is no doubt that the issues raised in "The
Word of Your Body" are pressing and relevant,
but to address the matter from within our sys-
tem and by means of our accepted modus
operandi is Orthodoxy's first and foremost re-
sponsibility.
First, terms must be
Shanah for its antioxidant benefits. There was
certainly a point in Jewish history where all
women, married or not, would immerse out of
purity concerns (in order to deal with tohorot),
and later, such immersions were prohibited out
of concern for the promiscuity that they en-
abled. Regardless, those who turn to Mrs.
Manolson for theological advice regarding bib-
lical purity laws are probably not reading the
right magazine, are certainly not reading the
right article, and can move on with their day.
As a community of Modern Orthodox
Jews, let us be honest with ourselves. Oft-oc-
curring and rarely openly discussed is the
breach of the laws of negi'ah between serious,
observant couples that have been dating for a
substantial amount of time. For some, it is, or
starts as, a one-time slip-up, an awkward pause
in conversation during an evening walk
through the park, with an ensuing eye-contact
that lasts just a bit too long and leads to inap-
propriate contact. For some of these, this is the
primary and even single breach in their ha-
lakhic observance as they balance the precari-
ous tightrope between "flipping out" in Israel
most progressive amongst us would concede,
we as a community could survive without.
What I am referring to is the very tangible,
very poignant human desire, I daresay neces-
sity, for touch as a facet of normal, healthy re-
lationships between couples that are serious
about each other and about their religious com-
mitments as well. These laws are being vio-
lated by substantial numbers of the otherwise
fully observant couples in the Modern Ortho-
dox community – couples that keep Shabbat
and kashrut, avoid nightclubs and other places
unbecoming of benei and benot Torah, and
daven three times daily (this list is not exhaus-
defined.
Shemirat
negi'ah is the contempo-
rary colloquial term for
the observance of ha-
lakhot prohibiting affectionate touching be-
tween a man and a woman who is an ervah to
him, including a niddah. A woman is a biblical
niddah during her week of menstruation, and
a Rabbinic niddah for roughly the week after
that. Most Rishonim, with the exception of
Ramban,ii assert that it is biblically prohibited
to approach a niddah in an affectionate manner
(the parameters of "approaching affection-
ately" will be briefly discussed later). Niddot
lose their niddah status only after a properly
executed ritual immersion. The reason why un-
married women today are necessarily niddot,
even outside of their two weeks of biblical and
Rabbinic niddah status, is because of a 14th
century rabbinic edict of Rivash, which serves
as the basis for the prohibition against today's
unmarried woman ritually immersing.iii
I suspect the need to provide a quick dis-
"In this essay, I am setting out to address the matter from within
the boundaries of normative Halakhah, and offer a possible so-
lution that lies within the pale of our tradition."
tive, nor is it a framework for defining
"frumkayt."). The violation of the laws of
negi'ah is one of the most relevant internal
matters that halakhic Jews should be attending
to today, yet, with a few notable exceptions, in-
cluding an exchangeviii between Dr. Irving
Greenberg and R. Aharon Lichtenstein over
forty years ago, it is still one of the least dis-
cussed. We as a community have come to as-
sume that the case is open-and-shut, that there
is not much to talk about or debate, and that in-
dividuals will either fol-
low the Halakhah or not,
but they better not talk
about it. I maintain that
this is both incorrect and
myopic.
and "staying normal." For others, it is a private
but conscious realization and decision by a
couple that the blanket prohibition on touch is
often psychologically unhealthy and emotion-
ally impossible, and for still others, it is a guilt-
ridden cycle of transgression and repentance.vii
What is important is that in the Modern Ortho-
dox community, it happens, and happens all
too often.
This reality is one that committed Ortho-
missal of some common misconceptions about
the laws of shemirat negi'ah. No classic ha-
lakhic source exists which links shemirat
negi'ah with avoiding "generating feelings of
closeness and commitment that may have no
basis in reality,"iv or posing the potential prob-
lem that "each previous involvement lingering
in… memory stands in the way of feeling the
total specialness with…husband or wife."v Nor
is its purpose to prevent "marrying the wrong
person based on a romantic illusion."vi The ac-
tual prohibition of touching has nothing to do
with one's marital status, and to think so is to
feel that we eat raisin-hallah on Rosh ha-
Volume III, Issue 2
doxy as a movement and as a culture has
largely chosen to ignore, and understandably
so. Negi'ah constitutes the most private realm
of our lives and a relatively taboo topic in Or-
thodoxy [and particularly Modern Orthodoxy,
which has been (understandably) accused by
the Right of laxity with regard to observance
of laws governing male-female interactions].
Unfortunately, our "Don't ask, don't tell" pol-
icy, when push comes to shove, hides us from
a devastating reality: the violation of the very
serious prohibition, almost universally recog-
nized by the Rishonim as biblically mandated,
of approaching a menstruant woman in an af-
fectionate manner.
I am obviously not referring to casual ex-
changes of hugs and cheek pecks between
friends, high fives (which may not be such a
problem, but that is not our topic), friendly
spooning with emotional detachment, and in-
nocent hand-holdings between old friends in
the dimmed recesses of butter-stained National
Amusements theatres. These bits, even the
www.kolhamevaser.com
As mentioned, it is the edict of Rivash, a
14th century rabbinical figure in Algeria, which
generates our question. In responsum 425 of
his Responsa, Rivash is asked to clarify the
exact parameters of the laws concerning the
prohibitions associated with approaching a
woman who is a niddah, whether that woman
is one's wife or a penuyah, an unmarried
woman. He is also asked why the sages do not
proclaim an edict requiring all unmarried
women to immerse ritually, thereby eliminat-
ing the danger to men of engaging in illicit ac-
tivities with niddot. Rivash replies with a
lengthy explanation of the biblical nature of the
prohibition of approaching any niddah,
whether she is one's wife, one's friend's wife,
or an unmarried woman. The Torah, Rivash
stresses, makes no distinction between married
and unmarried women in this connection; it
only addresses the matter of purity. Rivash
quotes the Sifra'six exposition of the words "Lo
tikrav," which preclude all affectionate touch,
"ke-gon hibbuk ve-nishuk" (such as embracing
and kissing), duly noting Ramban's excep-
tional stance, based on R. Pedat's view in the
Gemarax that only intercourse itself with a nid-
dah is prohibited on a biblical level, but mere
"approaching" is Rabbinically prohibited.
Rivash goes on to outline the halakhic at-
titude towards unmarried women. He first ad-
dresses another relevant halakhah that relates
to a woman's niddah status: yihud, seclusion,
with a niddah is also biblically prohibited.xi
17

Kol Hamevaser
Here, another Rabbinic (pre-Rabbinic, actu-
ally) edict is introduced. Tractates Sanhedrin
(21b) and Avodah Zarah (36b) mention the
edict of the court of King David which prohib-
ited yihud with any penuyah. Rivash argues
that the reason the previous halakhic literature
of Rashba and Ra'avad only mentions the pro-
hibition of approaching one's wife in her state
of niddut is not because no such prohibition ex-
ists with a penuyah. Rivash dismisses this pos-
sibility, citing Rambamxii who asserts that
intercourse with any penuyah, niddah or not,
is biblically prohibited, and that a woman who
"prepares" herself for such intercourse outside
of the context of kiddushin is considered a
kedeishah, a woman who is overly lax in sex-
ual matters, and is liable to lashes min ha-
needless to say also outside Erets Yisrael.
Another [Beraita] taught: It is not right to
breed small cattle in Erets Yisrael. They
may, however, be bred in the deserts of
Judah and in the desert at the border of
Akko. And even though our Sages said:
'It is not right to breed small cattle,' it is
nevertheless proper to breed large cattle,
for 'ein gozerin gezeirah al ha-tsibbur
ela im ken rov ha-tsibbur yekholin la-
amod bah' – 'we do not impose a restric-
tion upon the community unless the
majority of the community will be able to
withstand it.'"
"It seems clear that any beit din retains the Talmu-
dic right to abrogate the edict of another court, and
certainly of a rabbinical authority, if that edict is no
longer being followed anyways."
Here, the Sages recognize that in the process
of enacting new laws, they must take into ac-
count the reception they will be granted by
those people upon
whom the laws are
imposed and then
proceed accordingly.
Likewise,
Bava
Batra 60b, in dis-
cussing appropriate
Torah. There are others, Rivash admits, who
argue with this point in Rambam and maintain
that intercourse with a penuyah is not a prohi-
bition and warrants no lashesxiii and still others
who maintain that the only biblically legitimate
form of intercourse is within the context of
marriage – as described in the passage, "When
a man takes a wife and has intercourse with
her"xiv – even if there is no violation of a neg-
ative precept or lashes if one acts otherwise.xv
Having intercourse outside of marriage, ac-
cording to this last positions, would be consid-
ered a bittul aseh.
(Rivash also cites the view of Raavadxvi
which permits the use of a pilegesh, an unmar-
ried woman whom a man designates as a con-
cubine for intercourse. This is a concept that
is slightly offensive to our modern sentiments,
and I can only hope that we never devolve to a
state where we are forced to consider the pop-
ularization of such an idea.)
Finally, and most relevantly, Rivash ad-
dresses the initial suggestion that pre-marital
immersion be mandated so as to prevent men
from violating the prohibitions surrounding a
penuyah in her niddah state. Au contraire, Ri-
vash exclaims; such immersions would simply
make men perceive women as more sexually
available, endangering the Rabbinic violation
of yihud surrounding her. Rivash does not pro-
claim it forbidden to immerse outright, but he
cites Ramban who claims that the previous
custom of women in earlier generations to reg-
ularly immerse was cancelled (by the "Aha-
ronim") in order to protect the Rabbinic
violation surrounding a niddah penuyah,
namely, yihud.
The halakhic discourses of the Babylon-
ian Talmud, and the Jerusalem Talmud in sev-
eral places, employ an important Talmudic
principle in the installment of and subsequent
attitude towards innovative Rabbinic enact-
ments. Bava Kamma 79b reads:
"Our Rabbis taught: It is not right to breed
small cattle in Erets Yisrael but they may
be bred in the woods of Erets Yisrael or in
Syria even in inhabited settlements, and
18
and excessive displays of mourning over the
destruction of the Temple, again uses this Tal-
mudic dictum, in this case to state that only
Rabbinic restrictions of mourning that can rea-
sonably be heeded by the community may be
enacted.
In a slightly different vein, Avodah Zarah
36a discusses the prohibition of Gentile oil that
Daniel enacted. R. Yehudah Nesi'ah appar-
ently abrogates this prohibition, and the Tal-
mud promptly attacks this possibility, noting
that, "A court is unable to annul the decisions
of another court unless it is superior to it in
wisdom and numerical strength." This princi-
ple is firmly rooted in Rabbinic Halakhah and
is codified in the Mishneh Torah.xvii In order
to reconcile R. Yehudah Nesi'ah's pesak with
this basic principle, the Talmud relies on the
very same rule, "Ein gozerin gezeirah al ha-
tsibbur ela im ken rov ha-tsibbur yekholin la-
amod bah" (here attributed to Rabban Shimon
b. Gamliel and R. Eliezer b. Tsadok), that was
mentioned above in Bava Kama and Bava
Batra. In this instance, however, it is essential
to note that this Talmudic principle assumes ex
post facto power: a halakhic decree is annulled
after the fact because it is no longer being up-
held.
This principle of "Ein gozerin gezeirah al
ha-tsibbur ela im ken rov ha-tsibbur yekholin
la-amod bah," is, as mentioned, codified in the
Mishneh Torah. In Hilkhot Mamrim 2:6-7,
Rambam states:
(6) "If they [the members of a beit din]
proclaimed an edict and assumed that the
majority of the community would adhere
to it, and then after they decreed, the na-
tion hesitated and the edict did not dis-
seminate amongst the majority of the
community, this edict is annulled (bete-
lah), and they cannot force the nation to
adhere to it.
(7) "If they proclaimed an edict and as-
sumed that it had spread in all of Israel,
and the matter stood as such for many
years, and after much time a different beit
din stood and examined in all of Israel and
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found that the edict was not disseminated
in all of Israel, it has the right to annul (it),
even if they [the members] are lesser than
the original beit din in wisdom and nu-
merical strength" [emphasis mine].
Thus, Rambam rules that, in normal cases, a
court must be greater in wisdom and numerical
strength to abrogate a previous court's edict,
but in the case of "Ein gozerin gezeirah al ha-
tsibbur ela im ken rov ha-tsibbur yekholin la-
amod bah," even a lesser court can do so.
Here, Kesef Mishneh addresses a potential
objection to halakhah 7. He states: "And if you
were to say: how could R. Yehudah Nesi'ah [in
Avodah Zarah] have trusted his observation [of
the nation's practice of the edict]? Perhaps in
earlier years the edict did disseminate among
the people, and only later did they hesitate [and
stop their observance of the edict]!" Kesef
Mishneh responds that it is reasonable to say
that this is exactly the nature of an after-the-
fact "Ein gozerin gezeirah al ha-tsibbur ela im
ken rov ha-tsibbur yekholin la-amod bah." He
understands Rambam's words as clearly indi-
cating that even if an edict is initially accepted
and practiced by the nation, and only later
does its universal practice terminate, a subse-
quent beit din can nonetheless annul it.
According to this understanding, it seems
clear that any beit din retains the Talmudic
right to abrogate the edict of another court, and
certainly of a rabbinical authority, if that edict
is no longer being followed anyways. An edict
can be abrogated, according to the simple
meaning of halakhah 7, merely by virtue of the
fact that the universal observance of this ha-
lakhah by all of the Jewish nation is no longer
a reality. In our case at hand, even if substantial
portions of the nation (i.e. the Right, where dat-
ing is a much more immediate and impersonal
process, for better and worse) are most likely
still abiding by the laws of pre-marital immer-
sions and yihud, it is still possible to annul such
edicts. As for proper battei din to execute such
an annulment, we have no shortage of courts
that are lesser than the
great sages of our tra-
dition in wisdom and
number. There would
be no reason, if such
an annulment were to
materialize, to not
adopt the stringent view of Rambam which
biblically prohibits any intercourse with a
penuyah. It is not a desperate need for sexual
intercourse per se that has led to the reality of
ubiquitous violation of Hilkhot Niddah. It
seems much more plausible that it is simply the
blanket prohibition of touch.
Therefore, a course of action would re-
ted by Ra'avad, were instituted.xviii Regardless,
this final clause is a step that I think is unnec-
essary, as well as injurious to the sanctity of
sexuality in Judaism, especially as viewed
through the lens of modernity. We can do
without pre-marital intercourse, and I suspect
that if the severity of pre-marital intercourse
were explained to them, couples who were to
rely on pre-marital immersions would be able
to respect that dangerous boundary, just as they
probably respected it when they were violating
the laws of negi'ah and yihud. Regardless, I
doubt that there are many Modern Orthodox
women who wish to relegate themselves to the
status of a concubine. Even waiting, and pos-
sibly violating, seems better than that.
It seems to me that the most important el-
ement here, the sight of which cannot be lost,
is what ignoring the issue entails. Every game
of footsie that is played between a man and his
niddah girlfriend probably violates what is al-
most universally recognized as a biblical pro-
hibition. All subsequent literature, reasoning,
explanations, justifications, moralizations, and
ethical denouncements must keep this fact in
mind. I suggest that it is far better to annul the
relevant edicts, even if it is toeing the line of
acceptable action, than to resign ourselves to a
grievous status quo which is not going away.
In the worst-case scenario, my above argu-
ment is half-baked, women immerse in viola-
tion of Rivash's edict, and it stays as that: an
accidental violation of a rabbinic law. The al-
ternative is incalculably worse.
It is also important to stress that the con-
cept of "Ein gozerin gezeirah al ha-tsibbur ela
im ken rov ha-tsibbur yekholin la-amod bah"
is solely a function of a given communal status
quo, and does not pass judgment on how that
status quo came about. Once the cards are out
on the table, we do not attack the dealer for our
bad hand (if it is in fact that). While it is criti-
cal to assess and critique one's lifestyle con-
stantly in his/her service of God, the
counterargument that this status quo is a result
"I suggest that it is far better to annul the relevant
edicts, even if it is toeing the line of acceptable ac-
tion, than to resign ourselves to a grievous status
quo which is not going away."
quire, by means of "Ein goezrin gezeirah al
ha-tsibbur ela im ken rov ha-tsibbur yekholin
la-amod bah," the annulment of the Davidic
prohibition of yihud with a penuyah, as well as
the annulment of what has become Rivash's
prohibition of pre-marital immersion. Inter-
course would (and should) probably remain
completely prohibited, in order to avoid run-
ning into issues of kedeishah (as well as pre-
marital pregnancies), unless the possibility of
a pilegesh, prohibited by Rambam but permit-
of liberated sexual norms, a destruction of tra-
ditional male-female mores, and is therefore il-
legitimate cannot preclude the possibility of
such a halakhic change in and of itself, even if
it is undoubtedly this modernization that has
created our present halakhic conundrum. It is
not halakhically "ideal" for those of us in the
Modern Orthodox community to concede that
our dating processes is wayward, bow our
heads in shame, and revert to the "dating"
trends (if the span of arranged marriages from
three dates to three months can be called that)
of Talmudic, eastern European, and, contem-
porarily, Yeshivish and Haredi societies. The
status quo is one to be reckoned with, not dis-
missively criticized. Furthermore, such an in-
novation would not, in my opinion, constitute
a halakhic concession to the yetser ha-ra of the
young people in our generation. The issue that
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
our community faces is not merely a function
of sexual inclinations; the Halakhah became
what it is in an era when such a reality was un-
thinkable simply because marriage was, for the
most part, a practical device. As social patterns
changed with time, the laws of negi'ah became
something that they never were and generated
a struggle that they were never intended to gen-
erate. As mentioned, this communal struggle
is certainly a result of modernization, but we
do not know that the germane halakhot would
have been instituted under today's status quo.
That in and of itself is obviously not enough to
rewind the timeline of Halakhah and make the
necessary corrections, but it is enough to re-
mind detractors of my sociological argument
to keep negi'ah in perspective. In the time
when pre-marital immersions became effec-
tively forbidden, marriage was an imposed
pragmatic phenomenon, and not the voluntary,
final expression of connectedness between a
man and woman that it is today in the Modern
Orthodox world.
Practically, though, what would such a re-
ality look like? First, I think it is patently ob-
vious why pre-marital immersion should not
become a commonplace reality among every
Orthodox high-schooler, college student, or
anyone else with a libido. I am not suggesting
that we give every person in the Orthodox
world the halakhic thumbs-up to do as he or
she pleases with his or her body. I think that
such immersions should be fiercely discour-
aged, and perhaps through a new edict, even
outright prohibited, to any woman who is not
of marriageable age, or in a serious relation-
ship, or some other criteria to be determined if
such a formal annulment would ever become
a reality. Such an annulment might also have
to come hand-in-hand with a blanket prohibi-
tion on pre-marital intercourse, since there are
some halakhic complications that lie therein (a
woman might become a zonah if she engages
in pre-marital intercourse). I recognize that I
am neither qualified nor knowledgeable
enough to offer a detailed halakhic proposal. I
can only offer the theoretical halakhic pream-
ble to facilitate it.
By no means does this essay constitute
anything near an exhaustive analysis of the
topic at hand. There are many issues to address
– hashkafic, halakhic, psychological, logistical,
and practical. In writing this essay, I hope to
have demonstrated a possible manner of ad-
dressing an issue which plagues our commu-
nity, but more importantly, to voice these
concerns in a public forum. Admittedly, I can
only relate anecdotal evidence to bolster my
claims, but I challenge my readers to take some
of their dating friends up on this matter. Sev-
eral people around the age of marriage that I
have spoken to have told me that they know no
observant Modern Orthodox couple who did
not violate the laws of negi'ah at some point
in their relationship. The sooner the problem
is fully exposed in a public arena, the sooner
solutions can be searched for and imple-
mented, because the problem is not going
away. I can only hope that an overly reserved
rabbinate will not be judged complicit in the
ubiquitous violation of biblical writ for its in-
Volume III, Issue 2
surmountable terror of innovating with respect
to controversial topics. Modern halakhic cre-
ativity has been shown in every arena except
those that quickly garner backlash. The ha-
lakhic status quo may have to bow to the pri-
vate status quo of a large part of our Jewish
community, and with a halakhic mechanism to
do so, we can only await the courage of our
posekim to enable such action. Inaction would
be far worse.
Reality Check: Lo Tikrevu le-Gallot
Ervah and Shemirat Negi'ah
BY: Shaul Seidler-Feller
Nathaniel Jaret is an Undecided sopho-
more at YC and is a Staff Writer for Kol
Hamevaser.
I
n his well-written and clearly sincere arti-
cle "Shemirat Negi'ah and Reality,"
Nathaniel Jaret attempts to provide a ha-
i Shira Schwartz, "The Word of Your Body,"
Kol Hamevaser 2,4 (February 2008): 9-10.
ii
Hassagot ha-Ramban to Rambam's Sefer ha-
Mitsvot, negative commandment 353; Hid-
dushei ha-Ramban to Shabbat 13a.
iii
Responsa Rivash 425.
iv
Gila Manolson, The Magic Touch
(Jerusalem: Har Nof Publications, 1992), p. 26.
v
Ibid, p. 52.
vi Ibid, p. 73.
vii
See Kobe Frances and Jennie Rosenfeld,
"Excerpts from Interviews with Orthodox Sin-
gles," in Rivkah Blau (ed.), Gender Relation-
ships In Marriage and Out (New York, NY:
Yeshiva University Press, 2004), pp. 121-130.
viii
"Dr. Greenberg Discusses Orthodoxy, YU,
Vietnam, & Sex," "Greenberg Clarifies And
Defends His Views," "Rav Lichtenstein Writes
Letter To Dr. Greenberg." The Commentator,
April 28th, May 12th, and June 2nd, 1966.
ix
Torat Kohanim on Parashat Aharei Mot 13:2.
oy "ypey
x Shabbat 13a.
xi Avodah Zarah 36b.
xii
Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Ishut 1:4.
xiii Haggahot ha-Ramakh and Maggid Mishneh
to Mishneh Torah, ibid.
xiv
Devarim 24:1.
xv Maggid Mishneh to Mishneh Torah, ibid.
xvi Hassagot ha-Ra'avad to ibid.
xvii
Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Mamrim 2:2.
xviii See Tsevi Zohar, "Zugiyyut al-pi ha-Ha-
lakhah le-Lo Huppah ve-Kiddushin," and re-
sponses, Akdamot 7 (2006): 11-82.
lakhic argument and mechanism for the annul-
ment of two rabbinic decrees that, he argues,
have caused serious halakhic problems for
many Modern Orthodox dating couples today.
The first decree, originating in the times of
David ha-Melekh and his beit din, prohibits a
man from yihud (seclusion) with a penuyah
(single woman), whether she is a niddah (men-
struant woman) or not. The impetus for the de-
cree, the Gemarot in Sanhedrin (21b) and
Avodah Zarah (36b) tell us, is the story of
Tamar and Amnon,i in which the lovesick
Amnon secludes himself with Tamar, his half-
sister, and rapes her. Rivash, in an attempt to
safeguard this Rabbinic decree and prevent its
violation, quotes in the name of his 13th century
predecessor, Ramban, a prohibition against
penuyot immersing themselves in a mikveh (rit-
ual bath) to cleanse themselves of their niddut
(menstrual status).ii By doing so, he effectively
ensures that single women will always retain
their niddut, which, he hopes, will prevent men
from secluding themselves with such women,
because seclusion with a niddah is an issur de-
Oraita (a biblical prohibition), not simply a
Rabbinic violation.
However, argues Mr. Jaret, Rivash, in
doing so, unintentionally contributed to the
contemporary violation of a serious issur de-
Oraita (biblical prohibition), namely negi'ah
derekh hibbah (affectionate touching) with a
niddah. This issur, first mentioned in the Sifraiii
and later codified by both Rambamiv and the
Shulhan Arukh,v prohibits a man from "ap-
proaching an ervah [a woman with whom sex-
ual relations are prohibited] by way of [his]
limbs or hugging and kissing in an affectionate
manner." Because so many young Modern Or-
thodox dating couples today violate this din
during their courtship, Mr. Jaret contends, it is
halakhically advisable, and possibly even im-
perative, for our community to annul Rivash's
prohibition against pre-marital tevilah (immer-
sion) and allow young dating women to
cleanse themselves of their niddut so that any
affectionate touching which takes place on a
date does not constitute a violation of biblical
law. He further makes the case that the Rab-
binic prohibition against seclusion with a
penuyah must be annulled, as it, too, is widely
violated today by young Modern Orthodox
men and women in the process of dating and
is, as it were, causing more trouble than it is
worth.vi
With this in mind, Mr. Jaret proposes an
interesting, innovative halakhic solution which
will, in his view, allow for the abrogation of
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both of these decrees. Basing himself on the
premise that most Modern Orthodox Jewish
dating couples nowadays do not observe the
decree against yihud properly, he argues that
the Talmudic principle of "Ein gozerin
gezeirah al ha-tsibbur ela im ken rov ha-tsib-
bur yekholin la-amod bah" (we do not decree
an edict on the community unless its majority
can withstand it) applies here. He further
quotes a statement of Rambam's in Hilkhot
Mamrim to the effect that this principle applies
even if lack of acceptance of the decree devel-
ops over time.vii Thus, Mr. Jaret contends, there
is no reason that a beit din today should not be
able to annul these decrees:
"Therefore, a course of action would re-
quire, by means of 'Ein goezrin gezeirah
al ha-tsibbur ela im ken rov ha-tsibbur
yekholin la-amod bah,' the annulment of
the Davidic prohibition of yihud with a
penuyah, as well as the annulment of what
has become Rivash's prohibition of pre-
marital immersion."
While I appreciate Mr. Jaret's obvious
concern for the spiritual welfare of Kelal Yis-
rael and its observance of Hashem's mitsvot,
which is rather refreshing in light of the atti-
tude taken by other authors published by this
magazine, I believe there are a number of im-
portant, sizeable gaps in his argumentation that
undermine his conclusions significantly.
Leaving aside the issue of how many
Modern Orthodox dating couples actually, sta-
tistically speaking, violate the laws of negi'ah
or yihud during their courtship and taking Mr.
Jaret's friends at their word that they "know no
observant Modern Orthodox couple who did
not violate the laws of negi'ah at some point
in their relationship," there are a number of ha-
lakhic problems that Mr. Jaret does not address
fully.
First, and most obviously, the decree of
Rivash should not, on the face of it, fall under
the category of a "gezeirah she-ein rov ha-tsib-
bur yekholin la-amod bah." After all, as far as
I know, virtually no mikveh under Orthodox
auspices intentionally allows penuyot to im-
merse. In other words, with the possible excep-
tion of those few penuyot who feign married
status in order to use a mikveh, the Jewish na-
tion is in universal compliance with this ruling.
Even if the ramifications of a gezeirah create
halakhic conundrums for its adherents, as in
this case not going to mikveh apparently does,
it does not take away from the fact that the
gezeirah in itself is being upheld. If it were
truly intolerable and "einan yekholin la-amod
bah" for these women to not go to mikveh and
be able to touch their boyfriends, they would
find other creative solutions to accomplishing
tevilah, like immersion in the ocean or in an-
other (still) natural body of water. However, as
far as I know, no women are so bothered by
this inability to go to mikveh before marriage
19

Kol Hamevaser
that we can pronounce Rivash's decree a bone
fide gezeirah she-ein rov ha-tsibbur yekholin
la-amod bah. Even if the argument holds for
annulling David ha-Melekh's decree, it seems
not to in the case of Rivash's.
Second, I am not altogether convinced
that Mr. Jaret's reading of Rambam as permit-
ting the retroactive annulment of a decree
which at one point was observed by Kelal Yis-
rael but is no longer observed is correct. He
"From the Torah's perspective, one cannot
separate the issur negi'ah from the violation of
gillui arayot – the two are inextricably connected
and one leads into the other."
population who cares about these halakhot
anyway, at least in principle), I would argue,
does observe the laws of negi'ah and yihud
properly while dating. This is because about
one third of the observant Jewish population
today is Haredixi and so has different societal
norms and mores than does the Modern Ortho-
dox community. Thus, even if the majority of
Kelal Yisrael were not observing these dinim
(according to Mr. Jaret), a sizeable minority
certainly is. Therefore,
even if a beit din could
theoretically retroac-
tively annul a decree
based on lack of ac-
ceptance or obser-
vance of it by later
bases this interpretation largely on the words
of the Kesef Mishneh, commenting on that ha-
lakhah in the Mishneh Torah: "It would have
appeared to me to say [hayah nir'eh li lomar]
that even if it [the decree] spread originally,
since now the majority of Yisrael does not be-
have this way, we can permit it [the decree]..."
From this, he concludes that "an edict can be
abrogated, according to the simple meaning of
halakhah 7, merely by virtue of the fact that the
universal observance of this halakhah by all of
the Jewish nation is no longer a reality."
However, he fails to quote the remainder
of the Kesef Mishneh's comment, in which he
cites Rashi's viewviii that only if the gezeirah
never caught on can a subsequent generation's
beit din annul it:
"...Except that I saw [ela she-ra'iti] that
Rashi (s.v. "lo pashat") wrote: 'The ma-
jority of them [Kelal Yisrael] had not ac-
cepted that decree to treat it as a
prohibition.' It sounds from his words that
R. Yehudah Nesi'ahix checked whether
from the day the decree was enacted until
his times the prohibition had spread, even
at one point, and he found that at no point
had the decree spread to all of Yisrael."
Indeed, it would appear, based on the
phraseology of the Kesef Mishneh, that not
only is he sympathetic to Rashi's view, but he
may even have adopted it himself. After all, he
starts off by saying, "It would have appeared
to me..." and ends with, "Except that..." If so,
we have no basis for interpreting within Ram-
bam's words that he would allow a subsequent
beit din to annul the decree of a preceding beit
din simply because circumstances had changed
since the times of the original gezeirah. Only
if the gezeirah never caught on would he per-
mit this. And since neither I, nor, presumably,
Mr. Jaret, can prove either way whether there
has never been a time when most Jews ob-
served these two gezeirot properly,x the status
quo would have to remain, perforce, in place.
Third, even if one were to assume that this
mechanism has some validity within the Kesef
Mishneh's formulation, the comparison of our
case to that of R. Yehudah Nesi'ah is difficult.
In the latter, R. Yehudah Nesi'ah looked at
all of Kelal Yisrael and, when he saw that the
gezeirah was not being upheld as it should, de-
cided to annul it. In our case, however, a sig-
nificant portion of the Torah-observant
population within Kelal Yisrael (which is the
20
generations, the metsi'ut (reality) today does
not fit those criteria when one looks at world-
wide adherence to these laws by Orthodox
Jews.
Fourth, and as a corollary to my first point
that ours is not a situation of ein rov ha-tsibbur
yekholin la-amod bah, it is important to point
out that the struggle here in the Modern Ortho-
dox community is one of willpower, not re-
sources. In other words, in R. Yehudah
Nesi'ah's times (and, according to Rashi, going
back all the way to the period in which the
gezeirah was instituted), Jews found it so dif-
ficult to observe the prohibition on non-Jewish
oil that they could not fulfill the gezeirah (oil
was a staple of ancient agricultural societies'
diets). In the issue at hand, though, the "press-
ing need" which leads people to violate the
biblical prohibition of "Lo tikrevu" and the
gezeirah of David ha-Melekh is the desire to
follow one's ta'avot (desires) and yetser ha-ra
for intimacy with one's boyfriend/girlfriend.
This is obviously not a question of survival, but
of personal willpower and religious fortitude.
The fact that most Modern Orthodox dating
couples (again, according to Mr. Jaret) do not
stand the test may re-
flect their inner strug-
gle, but it does not
mean that we, as a
community, should
validate their deci-
sions and allow them to submit to the yetser
ha-ra by annulling two important, traditionally
accepted and codified, rabbinic edicts. Where,
outside of the mitsvot of eshet yefat to'arxii and
neta revai,xiii do we apply the concept of "lo
dibberah Torah ela ke-neged yetser ha-ra" (the
Torah only spoke to a man's Evil Inclination)?
I see no reason that Halakhah should have to
bend in the face of personal weakness,xiv even
if, as Mr. Jaret says, "the status quo is one to
be reckoned with, not dismissively
criticized."xv
If we stopped here, I think there would be
emergency situation) or that we should apply
the pasuk of "Et la-asot la-Hashem, heferu
Toratekha (At a time [when they needed] to do
God's will, they annulled Your Torah)"xvi in
order to rule in accordance with the Kesef
Mishneh's opinion (if it is, indeed, his opinion
in the end), does not, in my view, hold water,
as demonstrated above.
But beyond these arguments, Mr. Jaret's
proposal cannot, I believe, practically work.
The very concept behind "Lo tikrevu le-gallot
ervah," as understood by Rambam, is that cer-
tain affectionate acts lead almost directly to
sexual intercourse. Indeed, as Avot de-Rabbi
Natan points out,xvii this mitsvah is one of a se-
lect group of Torah-legislated seyyagim
(fences) around a different mitsvah, namely the
mitsvah of not engaging in gillui arayot (for-
bidden sexual relationships). As a result, from
the Torah's perspective, one cannot separate
the issur negi'ah from the violation of gillui
arayot – the two are inextricably connected
and one leads into the other. The idea, then,
proposed by Mr. Jaret, that "such an annulment
[of the decree against pre-marital tevilah]
might also have to come hand-in-hand with a
blanket prohibition on pre-marital intercourse,
since there are some halakhic complications
that lie therein (a woman might become a
zonah if she engages in pre-marital intercour-
sexviii)," is both halakhically impossible and re-
alistically naïve – the first, because Halakhah
clearly associates affectionate touch directly
with intercourse, and the second, because once
a couple is allowed to engage in affectionate
acts like hugging and kissing, how can we ex-
pect them to draw the line there? Is that even
fair to them? As Rashixix famously quotes from
the Yalkut Shim'oni,xx if one spoils a child,
dresses him up nicely, and places him in front
of a brothel with a bag of money, how can he
not sin ("mah ya'aseh ha-ben ve-lo yeheta")?
Fundamentally, if a couple is already unboth-
"The issues are real and the author's concerns are
valid, but the solution, I believe, does not lie in ab-
rogation of basic Jewish legislation."
ered by the biblical prohibition of negi'ah, how
is a rabbinic decree allowing them to touch but
prohibiting them from engaging in intercourse
going to prevent them from taking their rela-
tionship in that direction?
All of this is true from a halakhic and/or
sufficient evidence to argue that Mr. Jaret's ha-
lakhic mechanism for undoing gezeirot is, at
best, disputed, and at worst, completely in-
valid. Not only that, but I know of no post-Tal-
mudic, historical precedent in which this ruling
of Rambam's was carried out to annul gezeirot
that are no longer observed by the majority of
the Jewish population. The claim that we are
somehow living today in a she'at ha-dehak (an
www.kolhamevaser.com
practical perspective. But there is also a major
public policy concern here. If we allow women
to go to mikveh before marriage, we will create
two classes: those who are "frum" and do not
use the mikveh, and those who are "not" be-
cause they rely on this potential hetter (ha-
lakhic dispensation). Not only will this further
divide an already divided Modern Orthodox
community but it will mean that a young man
will have to decide which type of young
woman he wants to date – one who will satisfy
his need for pre-marital negi'ah by going to
mikveh for him or one who will not. I can even
imagine a situation in which a girl belonging
to the "frum" camp is pressured by her
boyfriend to go to mikveh against her will be-
cause he wants to have a more "hands-on" re-
lationship with her. In other words, allowing
women to immerse in a mikveh will solve one
set of problems but open up an entire new set
at the same time – one that could have delete-
rious effects on the community as a whole and
its women in particular.
Finally, we have to consider meta-ha-
lakhic issues in the final analysis. What does
abrogating these edicts for the purpose of al-
lowing men and women to engage in negi'ah
and yihud say about Jewish values of "ke-
doshim tihyu"xxi (you shall be holy) and "kol
makom she-attah motse geder ervah attah
motse kedushah" (any place you find a fence
against forbidden relationships, you find holi-
ness)xxii? Is this the new ideal we want to teach
the children of the Modern Orthodox commu-
nity – that it is perfectly alright to submit to the
yetser ha-ra when it becomes strong and wide-
spread enough in its influence? How will they
learn the importance of "le-olam yargiz adam
yetser ha-tov al yetser ha-ra" (a person should
always arouse his Good Inclination over his
Evil Inclination)xxiii if not through trial and con-
frontation with their desires?
In conclusion, I am neither a posek, nor
the son of a posek (though a rabbi), but I will
say that, based on my limited knowledge of
and familiarity with the sources, I cannot imag-
ine that the rabbinic world would approve of
this motion. The argument, while articulately
formulated and halakhically sensitive, is not
well enough grounded in the texts, lacks his-
torical precedent, does not accord with reality,
and skips over important social and meta-ha-
lakhic concerns that need to be raised and
properly dealt with. The issues are real and the
author's concerns are valid, but the solution, I
believe, does not lie in abrogation of basic Jew-
ish legislation.
Shaul Seidler-Feller is a senior at YC ma-
joring in Jewish Studies and is an Editor-in-
Chief for Kol Hamevaser.
i II Shemuel 13:1-22.
ii Responsa Rivash 425.
iii
Sifra on Parashat Aharei Mot 9:13. The pro-
hibition is derived from the pasuk (Va-Yikra
18:6) of "Lo tikrevu le-gallot ervah," which,
according to Rambam (see below, n. 4), means:
"Do not [even] come close to matters which
lead to sexual intercourse."
iv
Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Issurei
Bi'ah 21:1.
v
Shulhan Arukh, Even ha-Ezer 20:1.
vi Though Mr. Jaret does not make this argu-
ment himself, it is conceivable that were the
Davidic decree annulled, there would ostensi-
bly be no need to annul Rivash's decree as
well, since the latter was meant only to enforce
the former. In other words, nafal ha-yesod,
nafal ha-binyan (once the foundation falls, so
does the building).
vii
Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Mamrim
2:7.
Volume III, Issue 2

Family and Community
viii Rashi to Avodah Zarah 36a, s.v. "lo pashat."
ix The Mishnah in Avodah Zarah (35b) reports
that R. Yehudah ha-Nasi was responsible for
annulling the earlier gezeirah against shemen
Akku"m (non-Jewish oil) after, the Gemara ex-
plains, having surveyed the Jewish people to
find out whether or not the gezeirah had been
accepted.
x
I would like to believe that it is highly un-
likely that there was never a period of Jewish
history in which the two gezeirot were properly
observed by most of the Jewish population.
xi
Matthew Wagner and Talya Halkin, "Haredi
Population to Double by 2020," The Jerusalem
Post, November 9, 2005. Available at:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=11
31367051001&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Sho
wFull. The article states that about 550,000
Haredi Jews live in Israel, a little more than
one third of the total number of observant Jews
in that country. I assume, here, that a similar
proportion exists in other parts of the world.
xii
Kiddushin 21b.
xiii
Yalkut Shim'oni on Parashat Kedoshim.
xiv Indeed, Rambam in Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot
ryansytat
Yesodei ha-Torah 5:9 writes that if a person be-
comes lovesick for a woman and the doctors
say that his only cure will come through inter-
course with her, he should rather die than have
intercourse, even if she is only a penuyah.
xv
In talking with Mr. Jaret about his article, I
suggested that perhaps this discussion of Mod-
ern Orthodox dating patterns provides an op-
portunity for our community to do some
introspection and reconsider the ways in which
our young people interact with one another.
Maybe it is time to take a leaf out of the mod-
erate Haredi community's book and impose
stricter standards of modesty and limit social
interaction somewhat between the genders in
an effort both to observe Halakhah better and
to avoid sticky situations like these. While he
clearly thought otherwise, I maintain that if we
have come to the point where we are violating
issurim de-Oraita regularly due in large part to
relaxed social mores, that signals that it is time
to reconsider our direction and change our
course. See Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot
De'ot 6:1 for how to behave when residing in
a corrupt society.
xvi
Tehillim 119:126.
xvii
Avot de-Rabbi Natan 2:3. It is interesting to
note that Avot de-Rabbi Natan does not asso-
ciate this pasuk with the issur negi'ah men-
tioned by Rambam, but instead with the issur
yihud between two people who are arayot to
one another. Still, Avot de-Rabbi Natan's view
that this pasuk serves as a seyyag de-Oraita, as
it were, against arayot is valuable for my point.
xviii
Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Ishut
1:4.
xix
Rashi to Shemot 32:31, s.v. "Elohei zahav."
xx Yalkut Shim'oni on Parashat Devarim.
xxi Va-Yikra 19:2.
xxii Va-Yikra Rabbah on Parashat Kedoshim
a] pyyy
24:6.
xxiii
Berakhot 5a.
T
General Jewish Thought
Musar's Incomplete Victory
BY: Rabbi Yosef Blau
this environment, inevitably leads to a dimin-
ished concern about the effect of actions on
outsiders.
Another factor in reducing emphasis on
he Musar Movement, started by a sin-
gle individual, has become an integral
part of the world of yeshivot. The
daily schedule in many yeshivot includes a set
time devoted to the study of Musar, and the
Mashgiah Ruhani plays a major role in estab-
lishing the atmosphere of the beit midrash.
Some have claimed that the movement has de-
feated its antagonists. The disputes over
Musar in the major yeshivot of Eastern Europe
in the latter part of the nineteenth century are
largely remembered only by the historians.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, zts"l, the founder
of the Musar Movement, intended to trans-
form all of Jewish society, not only the
yeshivot. With the narrowing in focus from
the broader community to the
yeshivot, however, a critical
part of his program lost its
significance. Associated with
Musar today are fiery talks
about increased commitment to diligent Torah
study and slower praying. The study of classic
Musar works is stressed, coupled with a deni-
gration of secular influences. R. Salanter's
ethical sensitivity and concern for character
development, though, are rarely mentioned.
In Or Yisrael, R. Salanter contrasts the
ethical concerns is the difficulty in determin-
ing the appropriate response to complex
human interaction in strictly halakhic terms.
Many areas of interpersonal relations are
barely mentioned in Rambam's Mishneh
Torah or in Shulhan Arukh. Looking in formal
halakhic codes for guidance becomes less ef-
fective, particularly when dealing with shifting
societal norms.ii The idea of adopting the more
stringent view, which is relevant to the laws of
Shabbat or kashrut, is not applicable when bal-
ancing not speaking lashon ha-ra and protect-
ing someone from potential harm (lo ta'amod
al dam re'ekha).iii The decision whether it is
appropriate to speak negatively about a person
to prevent his hurting another requires judg-
tion for the other. One can learn a great deal
from mentors in a classroom setting, but edu-
cation in ethics comes primarily from observ-
ing such individuals' behavior. Even there,
copying does not work. First we have to prop-
erly understand our own nature; only then can
we adapt what we have observed so that it will
be true to who we are.
At a time when Orthodox Judaism is per-
ceived to be essentially ritualistic and formal,
the need to rededicate ourselves to greater eth-
ical concerns is critical. R. Salanter is quoted
as acknowledging that changing a single char-
acter trait is extremely hard.vi Yet there can be
no ethical personality without a refined char-
acter. Furthermore, ethical development is a
religious obligation. Both Rambamvii and
Rambanviii stress that proper adherence to
Torah must lead both to improved character
and the development of an ethical personality.
Whether or not we
"Our obligations as the Chosen People and the representa-
tives of Torah demand of us the kind of behavior that will
truly cause others to admire a Torah way of life."
ment and cannot be reduced to a formula. In-
variably, in such cases, there will be
consequences affecting other individuals. In
monetary disputes, a similar dilemma arises:
what is favorable to one side is damaging to
the other.
Complicating this issue is the fact that
extensive study by Orthodox Jews of the laws
of kashrut with the neglect of Hoshen Mish-
pat, which focuses on business dealings.i This
was a strong indication of the Orthodox com-
munity's concern with proper ritual behavior
and not interpersonal relations. When the
movement became centered in yeshivot,
where the students are not involved in com-
merce, this aspect of his thought became ig-
nored. Even today, all semikhah programs
teach Yoreh De'ah but only those training for
dayyanut (rabbinic adjudication) study
Hoshen Mishpat.
Part of this is a natural change of empha-
sis when focusing on yeshivah students who
have limited interaction with broader society.
The key relationships, in these contexts, are
with the Rosh Yeshivah and the havruta (study
partner). Going home to parents is a time of
reduced devotion to Torah study and of greater
influence by values that differ from those of
the beit midrash. Exhortations to remain
strong and not be enticed by the external world
dominate the pre-vacation talks. The growing
isolation of yeshivah students, coupled with
their being encouraged to stay permanently in
Volume III, Issue 2
two major twentieth-century Orthodox Jewish
thinkers promoted seeing all questions in ha-
lakhic terms. The Hazon Ish, in his essay
"Musar ve-Halakhah," criticizes those who
rely on ethical sensitivity without knowing
what the Halakhah prescribes.iv One might
draw the conclusion that there is always a spe-
cific halakhic answer in every circumstance.
Similarly, the Rav's Ish ha-Halakhah (Ha-
lakhic Man) can be read as arguing for a sys-
tem of Halakhah that can respond to all
occurrences.v
The stress on total acceptance of author-
ity figures also reduces the development of
ethical sensitivity. Yeshivah students are not
trained to trust their own judgment. The rebbe
(an apt adaptation of a Hasidic term) is asked
all kinds of questions, including those outside
the realm of Halakhah, and his responses are
often seen not as advice but as da'as Torah
that must be followed.
In order to have the judgment necessary
to interact with the endless variety of human
beings and be sensitive to their feelings and
needs, one has to be oriented toward an ac-
ceptance of their differences and an apprecia-
www.kolhamevaser.com
view ourselves as disciples
of the Musar movement, it is
imperative that we return to
this aspect of R. Salanter's
thought. There are many questions about how
best to educate to affect character. However,
the present situation where the ethical dimen-
sion is ignored cannot continue. Our obliga-
tions as the Chosen People and the
representatives of Torah demand of us the kind
of behavior that will truly cause others to ad-
mire a Torah way of life. This will lead to
Hashem and His Torah becoming beloved.ix
Rabbi Yosef Blau is the Mashgiach
Ruchani at RIETS and is the president of the
Religious Zionists of America.
i R. Yisrael Salanter, Or Yisrael (Jerusalem:
Beit ha-Musar, 1992), Iggeret ha-Musar.
ii
See the Maggid Mishneh to Mishneh Torah,
Hilkhot Shekhenim 14:5.
iii
Va-Yikra 19:16.
iv
R. Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, Emunah u-
Bittahon, ed. R. Shemuel Greineman (Tel
Aviv: Sifriyati, 1997), chapter 3.
v
See Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic
Man, trans. Lawrence Kaplan (Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society of America, 1983).
vi
Or Yisrael, section 30.
vii
viii
Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Temurah 4:13.
Ramban to Devarim 6:18 and 22:6.
ix See Yoma 96a.
21

Kol Hamevaser
Rav Soloveitchik's "A Yid iz Geglaychn tzu a Seyfer Toyre"
BY: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Editor's Note: The following is a transla-
tion from the Yiddish of the second section of
R. Soloveitchik's yortzayt shiur entitled "A Yid
iz Geglaychn tzu a Seyfer Toyre" – "A Jew is
Compared to a Torah Scroll." [The first sec-
tion appeared in the previous issue of this
paper.] Dr. Hillel Zeidman transcribed and
published the shiur, with an introduction, in R.
Elchanan Asher Adler (ed.), Beit Yosef Shaul,
vol. 4 (New York: Rabbi Isaac Elchanan The-
ological Seminary, 1994), pp. 17-67. A Hebrew
translation by R. Shalom Carmy appeared in
the same volume (pp. 68-103).
The present translation – the first rendi-
tion of this shiur into English – was prepared
by Shaul Seidler-Feller, utilizing Dr. Zeidman's
original Yiddish transcription and R. Carmy's
helpful Hebrew equivalent.
Section II
That [potential] sanctity in the externali-
ties, which waits to be imbued into the objec-
tive-concrete forms of place, time, parchment,
and letters, is born in the subjective internali-
ties of human existence: everything that exists
on the outside exists on the inside. Without a
holy "inside," the "outside" would remain
mundane and gray.
Inner and Outer Mikdash (Sanctum)
If Halakhah recognizes the holiness of
Mikdash – Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, the
Azarot (Courtyards), the Temple, and the Holy
of Holies – in the outer world, it is an indica-
tion that the Halakhah is also familiar with the
sanctity of Mikdash in the inner world. For in
what is the idea of the sanctity of Mikdash –
[the concepts of] "being before God,"i the Rev-
elation of the Shekhinah (Immanent Presence
of God), and the appearance of God, Blessed
be He – expressed? In place – "They shall
make for me a Mikdash and I shall dwell
among them."ii And where does the Shekhinah
rest even more – in which corner of Creation
is the Master of the Universe more interested
in finding a place of rest, as it were – than in
the human soul?
"He dreamt...and behold – God was
standing above him."iii Hazal say: "The right-
eous – their God is sustained above them."iv
The Master of the Universe adorns Himself in
the personality of Israel. Jewish consciousness
is the Mishkan (Tabernacle) of the Ein Sof(the
Infinite One). A human being, as a subjective
Mikdash of God, is capable of reflecting some-
thing of his inner world in the world of action
and of building an Outer Mikdash to give ex-
pression to the original Inner Mikdash.
The Eternal God's Dwelling Place...
Moshe Rabbeinu, in the last hours of his
life, called out: "The Eternal God's dwelling
place, and underneath are the arms of the
world."v
The Master of the Universe's dwelling
place was created on that mysterious Friday
when Man first appeared in the world. "You
have created me, back and front."vi The Beit
ha-Mikdash is old, as old as Man himself.
"The Eternal God's dwelling place:"
22
What Halakhah desires from a human being is
a duplicate construction, a copy of the Eternal
God's dwelling place. In order to manifest the
ancient Mikdash, a concrete Beit ha-Mikdash
must be built externally, below [on Earth], out
of stones and wood, on a sandy mountain smit-
ten by desert winds and caressed by breezes
from the Sharon Valley.
"And underneath are the arms of the
world:" On the pillars of the physical world an
external Mikdash should be built to represent
the true dwelling place of the Eternal God.
Who Sanctified – Shelomoh or David?
The Gemara in Zevahim (24a) ponders the
following question:
"[R. Ami asked:] If a stone [from the floor
of the Beit ha-Mikdash] is uprooted from
its place, what is the halakhah [may a
Kohen serve in that spot]? What is his
question? [R. Ami is unsure –] when
David sanctified, did he only sanctify the
upper floor or did he sanctify all the way
down to the depths?"
Tosafot comment on that very passage:
"David sanctified it [the Beit ha-Mik-
dash], as Rashi explained, and even
though Shelomoh built the Beit ha-Mik-
dash, David sanctified it."vii
Tosafot's observation is a bit difficult to
understand. The Gemara in Shevu'ot (15b)
states that "we require sanctification at the time
of construction." In other words, after the con-
struction one may not delay the sanctification.
If the sanctification is so bound up in the con-
struction that one may not push off the sancti-
fication to the next day, one certainly should
not be able to sanctify before the construction
[begins]. Perforce, the question arises: How
was David able to sanctify an empty, desolate
mountain?
When we examine Tanakh closely, we
find an explicit verse [which states] that Shelo-
moh conducted the sanctification. We read in
Divrei ha-Yamim: "On that day, the king [Sh-
elomoh] sanctified the inside of the Courtyard
which is before the House of God..."viii The
Gemara in Zevahim (60a) states that R. Yosei
understood the simple explanation of the verse
as follows: he sanctified it in order to place the
Altar there. In other words, Shelomoh sancti-
fied the Azarah so that it should be ready for
the Altar.ix
Hence, the verse contradicts the passage
in Zevahim cited earlier which says that David
conducted the sanctification of the Beit ha-
Mikdash, not Shelomoh.
The Design of the Mikdash and the Sancti-
fication of the Mikdash
In truth, however, these passages deal
with two different halakhic ideas: 1) the sanc-
tification of the Azarah and 2) the design of the
Mikdash. The sanctification of the Azarah
through [the eating of] the remnants from the
Minhah offerings and through song was cer-
tainly conducted by Shelomoh. Rambam in
Hilkhot Beit ha-Behirah says explicitly that
Shelomoh sanctified the Azarah, as the verse
asserts, but the architectural plans [for the
building] of the Beit ha-Mikdash were pre-
pared by David through ruah ha-kodesh (di-
vine inspiration).x As it says in I Divrei
ha-Yamim 28:11-12:
www.kolhamevaser.com
"David gave Shelomoh his son the plans
of the Temple Hall (Ulam), its houses, its
treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner
chambers, and the room of the Ark-cover
(Kapporet), as well as the design for all
that he perceived through [divine] spirit
with regard to the Courtyards of the
House of God and for all the chambers
around the treasuries of the House of God
and the treasuries of the hallowed things."
It would appear that Shelomoh only actualized
the plans of David. By himself, he would not
have had permission to change even one iota
of the design of the Mikdash. In truth, [then,]
Shelomoh did sanctify the Beit ha-Mikdash,
but he did not have the ability to sanctify that
which David [himself] had not foreseen.
Therefore, the Gemara asks whether
David sanctified [only] the upper floor or [all
the way] to the depths of the ground – even as
Shelomoh actually conducted the sanctification
– since Shelomoh could not sanctify that which
was not prepared in David's original plan.
This halakhah, however, has a philosoph-
ico-aggadic ramification. Shelomoh created
holiness for the external Mikdash, for the out-
ward House – for the stones of the floor, for the
chambers, for the various places in the Beit ha-
Behirah. He busied himself with sanctifying
that which is "underneath the arms of the
world." David, in contrast, sanctified the holi-
ness of "the Eternal God's dwelling place," of
the inner Mikdash, of the Mishkan of God in
the human personality. Therefore, he was enti-
tled by the Master of the Universe to finish the
building design.
And who could better understand with di-
vine spirit how the Mikdash "under the arms
of the world" should look if not the architect
who helped complete the "Eternal God's rest-
ing place?" How beautifully the verse in Divrei
ha-Yamim expresses this: "...And the design for
all that he perceived through [divine] spirit."
The external form of the Beit ha-Mikdash is a
reflection of the Beit ha-Mikdash which "he
perceived through [divine] spirit," of the "Eter-
nal God's dwelling place."
David, the Architect of the Inner Mikdash
And who has better depicted human long-
ing for the Creator of the World than David?
"As a gazelle pants after the water brooks!"xi
Who has nestled up to the Ein Sof like David
in "Bless God, O my soul?"xii Who has
widened his personality to create a place of rest
for the Creator of Everything like David, who
enthusiastically cried out, "If I should give my
eyes rest or my eyelids sleep before I find a
place for God, a dwelling for the Mighty One
of Ya'akov"?xiii Who has brought the Jew to-
gether with the Shekhinah if not the creator of
pleasant songs in Israel with his, "Come, let us
sing to God, let us shout with joy to the Rock
of our salvation"?xiv
If the Congregation of Israel became the
Mishkan of the Creator of the World, David
manifested this in his Book of Tehillim, where
the Jewish soul cries out in pain and loneliness,
rejoices in her friendship (havruta) with
Hashem, may He be Blessed, prays to Him,
walks before Him...
Yes, David finished the "Eternal God's
dwelling place" which the Creator of the World
prepared during the Six Days of Creation.
Volume III, Issue 2
Therefore, he drew up the plans of the Beit ha-
Mikdash. Shelomoh had to execute his
[David's] instructions and, because of that, the
Beit ha-Mikdash is considered David's work,
not Shelomoh's: "A psalm; a song of Dedica-
tion of the House of David..."xv
If the Destruction of the Beit ha-Mikdash
did not annihilate the Jewish people, it is only
because the Jew, watching the burning of the
Beit ha-Mikdash "under the arms of the world"
and the disappearance of Shelomoh's building,
knew that Nevukhadnetsar and Titus and their
armies had no power over David's Mikdash,
over "the Eternal God's dwelling place."
That is why Asaf sang a psalm over the
Destruction of the Beit ha-Mikdash – "A Psalm
of Asaf"xvi – since "He poured out His wrath
on wood and stones."xvii The "Eternal God's
dwelling place," the Beit ha-Mikdash which is
in the eternity of Israel, remained forever.
The idea of an internal Mikdash in the
Jewish personality is a foundation of the Kab-
balah and of Jewish Thought. Rema (R. Moshe
Isserles, zts"l) wrote an entire book, Torat ha-
Olah, about the structural parallels between the
internal Mikdash and the external Mikdash.
The same idea also runs through the book Ne-
fesh ha-Hayyim, by the Gaon R. Hayyim
Volozhiner, zts"l.
R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993)
was Rosh ha-Yeshivah at YU/RIETS, was ac-
tive in the Boston Jewish community, and is
widely recognized as one of the leaders of
Modern Orthodoxy.
Shaul Seidler-Feller is a senior at YC ma-
joring in Jewish Studies and is an Editor-in-
Chief for Kol Hamevaser.
i Shemot 27:21.
ii Ibid. 25:8.
iii Be-Reshit 28:12-13.
iv Be-Reshit Rabbah 69:3.
v Devarim 33:27.
vi Tehillim 139:5.
vii
Tosafot to Zevahim 24a, s.v. "ho'il ve-
ritspah mekuddeshet."
viii
II Divrei ha-Yamim 7:7.
ix See Rashi with regard to the opinion of R.
Yehudah.
x
Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Beit ha-Behirah
6:14.
xi
Tehillim 42:2.
xii
xiii
xiv
Ibid. 104:1.
Ibid. 132:4-5.
Ibid. 95:1.
xv Ibid. 30:1.
xvi Ibid. 79:1.
xvii
Midrash Tehillim 79.

Family and Community
Don't Read This Essay
BY: Reuven Rand
I
n January 2003, Rabbi Daniel Mechanic
arrived at Ner Israel Yeshiva College of
Toronto. He was a one-man Aish Ha-
Torah, traveling from school to school to talk
to Jewish teenagers about the God of Abra-
ham. From among descriptions of the wonders
of the Bible Codes and the incontrovertible
proof offered by Ma'amad Har Sinai, one mo-
ment stood out for me. During a discussion of
omnipotence and free will, a 15-year-old
raised his hand and posed a question that had
been greatly troubling him. "If one had a com-
puter," he began, "that could model every par-
ticle in the universe from its inception,
couldn't he plot all their future interactions?
edge of Tractate Gittin – is that as Orthodox
Jews we have no right to question the Torah's
validity. This argument is straightforwardly
circular: our Orthodoxy is predicated upon the
assumption of Torah mi-Sinai and without this
assumption we have no reason to accord any
validity to the Torah. We are left, then, only
with the vast difficulty of the Documentary
Hypothesis, a problem that the article deliber-
ately refused to confront head-on. It is ever
portrayed as a terrifying specter; we cannot
question its presence as it rears its head before
us. What can the confessions of a rabbi about
his fear of the Redactor do to the reader's faith
but convince him of the strength of a hypoth-
esis that goes beyond even the evidence be-
hind it?
Lempel's article is only one example of
an article that poses a question far stronger
"Can we forbid the honest, thought-out discussion of a real
theological dilemma?"
And if so, wouldn't he know that I'd be raising
my hand now and asking this question?"
"No," Mechanic responded, with the confi-
dence of a missionary. Almost seven years
later, mention of the Bible Codes elicits laugh-
ter and the Ma'amad Har Sinai "proof" seems
far less convincing than it once was, but I still
have that question, quantum physics notwith-
standing.i
This sort of problem did not go unrecog-
nized by Ner Israel's administration. They re-
alized that any arguments that Mechanic might
bring would not constitute proof and decided
that the dangers of raising these questions
were far greater than any benefit gained from
his lectures. Though its official name is Ner
Israel Yeshiva College, Ner is not a university
and it pays no lip service to the principle of
free inquiry. Hence, the yeshivah declined to
invite R. Mechanic to return the following
year. Ner was not far removed from the Ortho-
dox Judaism that had recently banned the
works of Rabbi Natan Slifkin, so from its rab-
bis' perspective this sort of censorship was not
unreasonable. But they are not the only ones
to claim that some shelter from the dangerous
ideas "out there" may be necessary.
On occasion, Kol Hamevaser appears to
publish an article solely for its questionable
content. Case in point: Last year's article by
Jesse Lempel, written in the name of one
Rabbi Arthur Balanson.ii In effect, Lempel
makes two claims in his article: Firstly, he as-
serts that there are rabbis who are terrified of
the Documentary Hypothesis. The second
claim – his answer, based on a limited knowl-
Volume III, Issue 2
than its answer. In the last edition of Kol
Hamevaser, Eli Putterman discussed the the-
ological implications of Mitsvat Mehiyyat
Amalek (the requirement to wipe out
Amalek).iii In part due to the limited number
of sources he consults, Putterman concludes
that he cannot reconcile the commandment
with basic morality. Even had he explored the
issue more thoroughly and entertained the pos-
sibility of a Torah which is generally compat-
ible with morality but abrogates it when
necessary, his article would have had the same
effect. We still would have been left with the
feeling that the Torah is deeply immoral at
times and wondered if the Torah and morality
were ever made to coexist.iv
Have we, then, adopted a strident oppo-
sition to censorship and a commitment to ex-
ploring theological conflicts as central to our
belief system and our university community?
Clearly, we have not. A recent commentator
article entitled "Kol Hamevaser Pulls Issue On
Relationships & Sexuality" noted that "[a]s a
result of a confrontation with Rabbi [Yosef]
Blau…some of [Kol Hamevaser's] editors de-
cided to remove the 60 copies remaining on
the shelves."v Shortly before that, Dr. Moshe
Bernstein wrote an article for The Commenta-
tor arguing that Dr. James Kugel should not
have been invited to speak at Stern last year.vi
So why this selective censorship, and is it suf-
ficient?
In truth, there is no paradox in this ap-
proach to what is and is not acceptable at
Yeshiva University because the censor will
only protest when he feels comfortable doing
so. In general, this means framing the subject
as a stumbling block for the blind and not a
real theological difficulty, creating a distinc-
tion between the discerning censor and the one
being sheltered. To the educated reader, Shira
Schwartz's confident declaration that "[shemi-
rat negi'ah] is a Halakhah about a relation-
ship, it is meant to guide that relationship,"
will seem no less egregious than the argument
that pork is prohibited to avoid Salmonella
poisoning. Hence, he will not hesitate to ban
her article, to save the ignorant from the diffi-
culty of confronting ta'amei ha-mitsvot (the
commandments' rationales) – or the lack
thereof. However, when Eli Putterman por-
trays a Torah that conflicts with our basic val-
ues, the censor can neither deride nor ban it
because Putterman raises a serious difficulty
which he himself cannot resolve. And can we
forbid the honest, thought-out discussion of a
real theological dilemma?
We saw a similar reluctance to object, at
least in a straightforward manner, to the intro-
duction of "heresies" around the time of last
year's lecture by James Kugel. When Dr.
Bernstein protested against Kugel's invitation,
he never argued that Kugel's presence was a
danger for his students, the best and brightest
of Har Etzion and Kerem B'Yavneh and
among those most open to unorthodox world-
views. Rather, he argued on behalf of the out-
sider, the ignoramus who might learn that
James Kugel spoke at YU and take it as R.
Hershel Schachter's haskamah (approbation)
on How to Read the Bible. We may shake our
heads in disbelief at his words and wonder
how he can worry about this one-in-a-million,
half-connected Orthodox
Jew when an Orthodox
Bible scholar has walked
into his Yeshiva University and effectively de-
clared – by his presence and by the book he
wrote – that the bedrock of Judaism has be-
come its bane.
Bernstein's solution to this difficulty is
suming the existence of starfish poses no the-
ological problems) should maintain their igno-
rance. They "are not the intended audience of
this book and they are advised not to read it."vii
Assuming we are not among Bernstein's
balabatim or Slifkin's starfish, we may wish
to address the problems Kugel poses as they
may shed light on this issue. Why is there
Kugel? There are two deeply unsettling ques-
tions contained in this simple query, which
comes part and parcel with this deeply unset-
tling Jew. The first question is simple: What is
so compelling about the Documentary Hy-
pothesis that would force an Orthodox Jew
to... well, to write an entire book on it?viii
Kugel poses the same problem as Balanson
but more powerfully: James Kugel is not some
unknown rabbi – he is a renowned Bible
scholar! And yet... the J and E sources, a
Priestly source, a Deuteronomist and a Redac-
tor... Last year, during a Friday night tish, R.
Jeremy Wieder briefly touched upon the real
difficulty Kugel posed, responding that, "How
to Read the Bible isn't good source criticism,"
for James Kugel is a foremost authority on
Midrash, not biblical criticism. While this does
take some weight off our hearts, we may yet
reply that surely James Kugel of Harvard is no
ignoramus. And in light of his witness, the
Documentary Hypothesis does seem that
much more compelling.ix
But there is another question raised by,
"Why is there Kugel?" and I cannot even
begin to answer it. "Why," we may ask, "why
do good people become koferim?" The "Ques-
tion of Evil" does not pose so great a problem,
because suffering does not necessarily have
"Why do good people become koferim?"
simple. As an academic, he cannot candidly
object to free inquiry so instead he writes
about the side effects of Kugel's visit on those
outside academia. He therefore takes the ap-
proach that we should protect the ignorant
from information because they are unlikely to
seek real understanding of it. Ironically, Kugel
adopted this same conceit when he told a
teacher at a Jewish high school not to instruct
from his book, as he recounted in the Q and A
session after his lecture at Stern. As Natan
Slifkin prefaces his The Challenge of Cre-
ation, those people who have achieved a level
of ignorance that would shame a starfish (as-
www.kolhamevaser.com
real theological import.x But Torah is the foun-
dation of our universe, hayyeinu ve-orekh
yameinu (our life and the length of our days).
A man stands before us who is a paragon of
Torah u-Madda, having brought academic
methods to the Torah, our most fundamental
text, and where did that get him? He taught
Bible to the largest class in the world's greatest
university, and from that position concluded
that one of the Ikkarei ha-Emunah (essentials
of faith) was untrue. The very angels must
have ascended to Heaven at that moment and
cried in anguish before their Lord, "Zo Torah,
ve-zo sekharah? (This is Torah and this is its
reward?)" Surely the Asarah Harugei Malkhut
(the Ten Martyrs) ascended directly to
Heaven, but where go the Asarah Harugei
Da'as (the Ten Victims of Knowledge)?
The Talmud addresses both of these ques-
23

Kol Hamevaser
tions in Hagigah 14b-15a. It tells the story of
Elisha ben Avuyah, the leading light of his
generation, and his ascent to paradise. At this
religious pinnacle, he is struck by theological
difficulties and becomes a heretic. A voice
rings out from heaven and declares that all
may repent and return to God – except for
Aher ("the Other"), as Elisha will hereafter be
called. A page later (Hagigah 15b), the scene
shifts to R. Yehudah crying against a door. He
weeps for Do'eg ha-Edomi and Ahitofel, bib-
lical figures and great sages by tradition who,
nevertheless, have no place in heaven.xi "How
could these righteous men lose everything," R.
Yehudah sobs, "and what does it mean for
me?" Shemuel consoles him in the only way
he can. Deep inside, Do'eg and Ahitofel were
bad people, he responds, not like you and me.
"What, then, of Elisha?" the Talmud asks. El-
isha was influenced by the outside; he listened
to classical Greek music, it answers. More-
over, he read heretical works, and that did him
in.
The very Mishnah in Sanhedrin that de-
claims the fate allotted to Do'eg and Ahitofel
lists the three transgressions that cause a per-
son to forfeit the Afterlife: denying the Resur-
rection, claiming the Torah is not from Heaven
and heresy (appikorsut). R. Akiva adds read-
ing "outside works" to the list.xii Rambam
takes this even further, arguing that one may
criteria for "a net gain, both qualitative and
quantitative, in the yir'at shamayim of its
readership,"xv and raises many questions it
cannot hope to answer. So why do we delve
further? The Torah says stop, Halakhah says
stop, experience says stop; why, then, do we
go on absorbing the most troubling of ques-
tions?
"So," my friend asked me as he reached
the conclusion of a draft of this essay, "what
do you suggest?" "Well," I can only reply,
"what do I suggest for Torah, or what do I sug-
gest for intellectual honesty?" because it has
become terribly clear to me that the two are
not aligned. Should we sacrifice intellectual
honesty on the Altar of God? This calls to
mind the famous question posed in The Broth-
ers Karamazov: If you could found Utopia
upon the tears of a small child, would you do
so?xvi If you could build Olam ha-Ba upon one
base lie, upon Bible codes or Hillel's supposed
knowledge of molecular physics, could you
pronounce that lie? Perhaps it is the rational
and wise man among us who says, "Give me
the child and I will enshroud him in falsehood
until he can know no truth," and thereby per-
petuates our faith. But I, for one, do not know
that I would be building Olam ha-Ba on those
lies, nor that I would not come to rue what I
had built. I cannot claim to know truth and
only seek "how to respond to the heretic;"xvii I
"The Torah says stop, Halakhah says stop, experience says stop; why,
then, do we go on absorbing the most troubling of questions?"
not read "any work that may cause one to re-
ject a tenet of the Torah." Reading such works,
he writes, will cause a person "to destroy the
world according to the limits of his knowl-
edge... at times [he will examine] the Torah,
[thinking to himself:] maybe it is from Heaven
and maybe not."xii Hence, Rambam contends
that studying heresies is not only dangerous,
but halakhically proscribed.
So maybe Rambam is right, and Ner Is-
rael is right. Maybe we should not search out
knowledge and we should not read Kol
Hamevaser. Perhaps we should not take
courses in Bible even, and, if forced to, take
only those offered by Rabbis Shalom Carmy
and Hayyim Angel. In his response to Dr.
Bernstein, Kugel argues that such an approach
is doomed to fail.xiv He is wrong. We only need
to look at the attrition rates of Reform Judaism
and liberal Christianity worldwide to realize
that enlightenment attitudes lead to an aban-
donment of religion altogether. On the other
hand, America's Evangelical Christians have
created alternative sciences to replace real sci-
ence wherever it conflicts with doctrine, and
they have thrived doing so. Muslim Creation-
ists and, indeed, Haredi Jews have been no
less successful.
And yet, despite our knowledge of the
consequences, we read on. We read this very
article, which clearly fails to meet Alex Ozar's
24
cannot bifurcate the world into two groups,
one with the divine imperative to study com-
parative religion and come to Orthodox Ju-
daism (or Noahidismxviii) and the other with the
obligation to scrupulously avoid enlighten-
ment. Furthermore, I simply cannot believe
that any religion could fail to recognize truth
as the primary value and one worth pursuing.
If, then, it is my duty to grapple with these dif-
ficulties, I would not dream of usurping that
prerogative from any Jew, no matter how ig-
norant.
Reuven Rand is a senior at YC majoring
in Mathematics and Computer Science.
Please note that the author cites many articles
in making his point but means no offense to
the distinguished scholars and fellow students
who have written them.
i That is to say, neither the arguments against
the possibility of Laplace's Demon (as the om-
nipotent computer is known) existing, nor
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, invalidate
the basic observation that humans, like cars
and apples, are governed by mechanistic
processes. Hence, free will is very difficult to
www.kolhamevaser.com
explain.
ii
Jesse Lempel, "My Documentary Hypothe-
sis," Kol Hamevaser 2,6 (April 2009): 4-5.
iii
Eli Putterman, "Mehiyyat Amalek and Mod-
ern Orthodoxy," Kol Hamevaser 3,1 (Septem-
ber 2009): 9-10.
iv
II Samuel 21 may illustrate this point even
better. In that chapter, the Gibeonites request
that the sons of King Saul be given over to
them to be executed in retribution for their fa-
ther's crime against them. David acquiesces to
their demands, and God, now appeased, stops
the famine that had ravaged the land. The tra-
ditional commentators deal with this gross vi-
olation of traditional morality, as well as the
law against vicarious punishment in Deut.
24:16, by arguing that David acted in response
to a direct command by God. This reflects the
classical approach that God can override
Torah and morality, but the episode will tend
to leave a bad taste in the mouth of the modern
reader, nonetheless.
v
must often use others' conclusions to make our
own decisions, while recognizing that writers
also have preconceptions and limited intelli-
gence. In that case, the evidence of a scholar
fighting against his biases may be valuable in-
deed.
x
The Book of Job may either support or con-
test this view. Both seem equally likely; it is
Job after all.
xi
Mishnah, Sanhedrin 10:1.
xii
Ibid.
xiii Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Avodat
Kokhavim 2:2,3. It may be worth noting that
any conceit I have ascribed to Bernstein,
Kugel and Slifkin could also be attributed to
Rambam, who famously refused to restrict
himself to the four cubits of Halakhah.
xiv
Dr. James Kugel, "An Open Letter to Pro-
fessor Moshe Bernstein," The Commentator,
April 3, 2009. Available at: http://www.yu-
commentator.com/2.2826/an-open-letter-to-
Ezra Alter and Noach Lerman, "Kol
Hamevaser Pulls Issue On Relationships &
Sexuality," The Commentator, April 21, 2009.
Available at: http://www.yucommentator.
com/2.2830/kol-hamevaser-pulls-issue-on-
relationships-sexuality-1.297048.
vi
Dr. Moshe Bernstein, "Why Lines Need to
be Drawn (and Where)," The Commentator,
February 11, 2009. Available at: http://www.
yucommentator.com/2.2826/why-lines-need-
to-be-drawn-and-where-1.297090.
vii
Rabbi Natan Slifkin, The Challenge of Cre-
ation (New York: Yashar Books, 2006).
viii
Here, we arrive at another difficult question:
What does Dr. James Kugel actually believe?
On his website (http://www.jameskugel.com/
critic.php), he states that "'Torah min ha-
shamayim.' There's nothing in my book (or in
me) that denies that belief." He may intend for
us to mistake "Torah min ha-Shamayim" for
Rambam's eighth Principle of Faith. If so, per-
haps he should not have followed that state-
ment with a frank discussion of the J source's
knowledge of hunter-gatherers or preceded it
with a discourse on the authors of J and E.
When Kugel responds to the claim that "mod-
ern Bible scholars like yourself would say that
even if Moshe did write a Torah, the modern
Pentateuch we have raised before us is not it"
with a discussion about an evolving tradition
– one initiated "as if by revelation" – we may
take him at his word that he believes in a di-
vinely influenced law, but not "that the entire
Torah that is now in our possession is the same
one that was given to Moses our teacher," as
Rambam would require us to believe. Hence,
Bernstein and I depict Dr. Kugel as a heretic
by traditional Orthodox standards.
ix
Does this conclusion appear unworthy of the
"best and brightest" referred to above? I can
only respond that in an ideal world we would
all possess the time and ability to master
everything from philosophy to biology. Since
we do not live in such a world, though, we
Volume III, Issue 2
professor-moshe-bernstein-1.297016.
xv
Alex Ozar, "Editor's Response," Kol
Hamevaser 3,1 (September 2009): 5.
xvi
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Kara-
mazov, part 2, book 5, chapter 4, p. 291
(1945).
xvii
Mishnah, Avot 2:14.
xviii
In response to the suggestion that it is suf-
ficient to simply keep the Seven Noahide
Laws out of moral or other considerations,
Rambam (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Melakhim
8:11) states that a non-Jew may only enter the
World to Come if "he fulfills them because
God commanded [him] about them in the
Torah" – the vast majority of which he is, in-
cidentally, forbidden to read (ibid. 10:9).

Family and Community
Book Review
Beginning the Conversation:
A Review of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' Weekly Readings of Be-Reshit
BY: Shlomo Zuckier
Reviewed Book: Rabbi Sir Jonathan
Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: Genesis –
The Book of Beginnings (New Milford, CT:
Maggid Books and Orthodox Union Press,
2009).
Introduction
G
enesis – The Book of Beginnings, by
UK Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks,
represents yet another publication by
the newly invigorated OU Press under the stew-
ardship of Rabbi Gil Student. This commen-
tary is the OU's second publication of the work
of the Chief Rabbi, following the successful re-
lease of his siddur earlier this year.i The book
is essentially a compilation of several years'
worth of his weekly "Covenant & Conversa-
tion" insights, organized by parashah within
Sefer Be-Reshit. OU Press plans to publish an-
other volume for each of the four remaining
books of the Torah, and "Covenant & Conver-
sation" continues to be published weekly on-
line.ii
In his introduction to the series, R. Sacks
presents an interesting if tenuous theory con-
necting the different books of the Torah with
the seasons of the year in which they are read
(p. 2; Be-Reshit is read during the autumn), re-
lating this to the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe's di-
rective to "live with the times." But the
timeliness of the weekly portion does not end
there: "Time and again, in the midst of troubled
times or facing difficult decisions, I've found
the words of the weekly parasha giving me
guidance – or, conversely, the events them-
selves granting me deeper insight into the Torah
text" (2). Indeed, the book comprises both in-
sights into the parashah that can be applied to
a person's life, as well as intuitions about the
broader world used to explicate the biblical
text. In addition, R. Sacks describes his ap-
proach in this book as "look[ing] at it [Torah]
through a telescope: the larger picture and its
place in the constellation of concepts that make
Judaism so compelling a picture of the universe
and our place within it."
Peshat vs. Derash
The cover refers to the book as "A Weekly
Reading of the Jewish Bible." In a certain
sense, this is accurate, as the author reads the
biblical material and builds off of it. However,
while the book occasionally employs literary
methods in its treatment of the material, and
while it often deals with broad themes of the
narrative, a more accurate name might be
"Weekly Homilies on the Jewish Bible." I will
demonstrate this point with a broad sketch of
the types of articles presented in the book.
There are a few pieces in the book which
Volume III, Issue 2
present novel and interesting interpretations of
the biblical story on a literary-peshat level. The
essay "Does My Father Love Me?" (315-322)
deals with the perplexing question of why
Yosef did not contact his father to inform him
that he was alive while in a position of power.
R. Sacks claims that Yosef thought that his fa-
ther had purposely arranged for him to be
brought as a slave to Egypt as a punishment for
his arrogant dreams, and felt that he was not
wanted back home. The article acknowledges
that this is only one of many possible answers,
but it does offer a new angle from which to read
the story. In addition,
"A Tale of Two Women"
(265-269) presents a
strong literary compari-
son of the related char-
acters Ruth and Tamar,
whom R. Sacks consid-
ers to be role models
who earned their way
into the Bible.
On the other side of
Recurrent Themes
Like any good darshan, R. Sacks has a
message or theme in each section which exists
independently of its value as a reading of the
Bible per se. He returns to several themes
throughout the book, which serve both to con-
nect the otherwise mostly discrete essays and
to reflect messages he is trying to impress upon
his readership.
One theme that appears several times is
Rass JONATHAN SACKS
the peshat-derash di-
vide, the piece "When
the 'I' is Silent" (191-
193) represents an ex-
treme manifestation of a
homiletically oriented
approach. The thrust of
the essay is the idea that
Ya'akov negated himself
in his prayers, based on
the derashah that reads
"Ve-Anokhi lo yada'ti"iii
not as "And I did not
know (that God was in
this place)," but rather as "And I did not know
anokhi (myself)." The book quotes this inter-
pretation in the name of R. Pinhas Horowitz's
Panim Yafot, and R. Sacks takes it to mean that
one comes closer to God when he forgets about
his own ego. While spiritually invigorating and
meaningful for some, this reading blatantly ig-
nores basic rules of Hebrew grammar and syn-
tax – a standard operating procedure for derash.
Overall, most articles follow the derash mode
more than that of peshat, though not as obvi-
ously as in this example.
R. Sacks betrays his affinity to the derash
CNN a
bovragiieha sal
oat ers
AUC
that of morality. As R. Sacks mentions in his in-
troduction to Sefer Be-
Reshit (6), Be-Reshit (at
least as it is presented in
Covenant & Conversa-
tion) deals with philo-
sophical issues through
the medium of stories,
and most prominent
among the philosophical
issues is that of morality.
Several articles discuss
the acceptance of moral
responsibility or the fail-
ure thereof in the bibli-
cal stories, while other
pieces deal with more
contemporary ethical is-
sues. Back-to-back es-
says contrast four stories
in Sefer Be-Reshit that
present the failure of dif-
ferent biblical characters
to undertake personal,
moral, collective, and
ontological responsibil-
ity to Avraham's successful acceptance of them
all.vi In a different vein, "Physical Fear, Moral
Distress" (213-218) discusses the moral
dilemma facing Ya'akov: 'Should he kill Esav
or be killed by him?' against the backdrop of
other moral dilemmas in which the correct path
is unclear. In addition, there are several exam-
ples of moral issues relevant to our time where
the Torah's insight is invoked, including in the
articles "On Clones and Identity" (147-151)
and "The White Lie" (331-336).
R. Sacks also focuses on several historical
approach in a comment he makes on p. 169: "In
Torah, form follows function. Nothing is acci-
dental. If there is a marked stylistic feature to
a given section, it is there for a reason." This
statement is a close approximation of the un-
derstanding, seen throughout the literature of
Hazal, of omnisignificance, the idea that every
word of holy texts has maximal meaning.iv At
the same time, he does utilize certain methods
that can be construed as academic, using liter-
ary analysis on several occasions and referring
to Near Eastern culture as the backdrop against
which the Torah should be read.v
themes, and prominent among these is the his-
torical and religious impact of the Holocaust.
In discussing how breaking boundaries be-
tween earth and heaven can lead to violence, R.
Sacks mentions the fact that there was less than
a century between Nietzsche and the Holo-
caust.vii An article on "Parental Authority and
the Choice of a Marriage Partner" (135-140) in-
vokes Janusz Korczak as a defender of a
"child's right to respect," a reference that con-
comitantly refers to the Holocaust. In a discus-
sion of resilience against anti-Semitism, several
examples relate to the Holocaust (159-165).
Additionally, passing references to the Holo-
www.kolhamevaser.com
caust are made on pages 47 and 231.
Many of the articles in the book foster a
feeling of hope and inspiration. These include
not only issues of a political nature – "On Ju-
daism and Islam" (141-144) provides hope that
religious fundamentalist terrorism can be over-
come – but also issues relating to a person's
personal struggles. The success of the figures
in Be-Reshit at overcoming their internal
demons is used as a source of inspiration for
those living in the real world to draw upon.
Examples of this can be found in "The Courage
of Persistence" (159-165) and "In Search of
Repentance" (303-310).
The book dedicates some time to the topic
of prayer, as well. (This should not be surpris-
ing for someone who recently published a sid-
dur.) Three of the five articles on Parashat
Va-Yetse deal with prayer, each focusing on a
different aspect of it. "Encountering God"
(179-183) contrasts a few theories on how the
Avot each correspond to one daily prayer and
explains why Ma'ariv is non-obligatory. "The
Ladder of Prayer" (185-189) discusses the three
parts of prayer – ascending to God, standing in
His presence, and descending back to normal
life. Finally, "When the 'I' is Silent" (191-193)
presents an argument for self-negation in order
for a person to best succeed at accepting the Di-
vine Presence.
Issues of Modernity
R. Sacks develops a combination of
themes, and though some do not take particular
positions in religious ideology, many provide a
clear Modern Orthodox perspective. One arti-
cle in particular, "Beyond Obedience" (43-47),
presents Noah as one who always obeyed, who
did everything God commanded and no further,
and discusses the drawbacks to such an ap-
proach. Based on the Midrash'sviii criticism of
Noah for his inability to take initiative and
leave the Ark prior to the divine command as
well as another Midrashix stating that Noah only
walked with God but not before God, R. Sacks
determines that Noah lacked ambition in his re-
ligious life. As partners with God in the world
(a thoroughly Modern Orthodox conceptx), he
inveighs, we must not only adhere to divine
commands but must ambitiously strive to im-
prove the world ourselves by taking initiatives
that were not commanded.
One Modern Orthodox ideal that seems to
be underemphasized in the book is that of Israel
and aliyyah. While Israel is referred to in pass-
ing as the Jewish land and a cause worthy of
support,xi it does not receive as full a treatment
as one would have expected, relegated always
to short notes and never appearing as the topic
of an entire essay. Furthermore, the prospect
of aliyyah is never discussed in the book. This
is especially underscored by the fact that
Parashat Lekh Lekha presents an obvious op-
25

Kol Hamevaser
portunity for darshanim to discuss aliyyah as
an ideal and to encourage people to follow
Avraham's footsteps to Israel. Instead, the fol-
lowing messages are related to Avraham's
travel at the beginning of Lekh Lekha: accept-
ing personal responsibility,xii Avraham as a Jew-
ish hero,xiii four meanings of the words lekh
lekha,xiv and balancing kibbud av va-em with
religious ideals.xv It is possible that, being that
this book is aimed at a broad public, R. Sacks
preferred not to risk alienating those entrenched
on American or British soil with a call to
aliyyah. In any case, the themes of aliyyah in
particular and Israel in general are sorely miss-
ing in the book.
There are several essays included in
Covenant & Conversation that clearly mark it
as a 21st-century composition. The essays on
"Violence in the name of God" (29-32) and
"On Judaism and Islam" (141-144) reflect the
prominence of the issue of Islamic terrorism,
which achieved its current level of urgency
only in 2001. Additionally, the article "On
Clones and Identity" considers the moral im-
plications of technology that have only been on
the table since the cloning of the first mammal
(a sheep) in 1997.
Sources
R. Sacks' sources often come from classic
Jewish tradition. This starts with, but is not
limited to, discussions of relevant parshanim
for the topics discussed, as well as Talmudic
and/or midrashic explications of the biblical
material. He will often try to find a message
behind the textual explication supplied by the
midrash, while staying true to the midrash at
hand. At times, R. Sacks also makes reference
to relevant halakhic material. For example, in
"Parental Authority and the Choice of a Mar-
riage Partner" (135-140), he quotes responsa
from Rashbaxvi and Maharikxvii which allow a
person to choose his marriage partner himself,
under normal circumstances. Additionally, on
several occasions other biblical verses are in-
voked for reasons of comparison or contrast
with the material under discussion, as above in
the comparison between Ruth and Tamar.
R. Sacks also routinely cites classical
ideas in Western thought for purposes of either
contrast or convergence with Torah ideas. One
can view this as the "conversation" between the
world and Torah that he refers to in the intro-
duction (2). The piece "A New Kind of
Hero"xviii contrasts the Greek idea of a hero with
the Jewish one, and "Violence in the Name of
God" (29-32) presents three theories (those of
Sigmund Freud, Rene Girard, and postmod-
ernists) explaining the existence of religious vi-
olence before developing his view of the
Torah's position (that religious violence is re-
flective of insincere religious devotion). On the
other hand, "The Essence of Man" (29-22) ap-
provingly uses Pico della Mirandola's Oration
on the Dignity of Man as a source underlining
the idea that Adam, and Man in general, has
freedom to use his free will.
As this book includes not only R.
Sacks' ideas but also his tapping of Western
culture to support the points he makes, a quick
survey of the type of thinkers he uses is in
order. R. Sacks includes points made by sev-
eral academic Bible scholars, making reference
to Nahum Sarna's Understanding Genesis,xix an
allusion to Michael Fishbane on Midrash (155),
26
and mention of Robert Alter (295). The book
reveals the broad base of philosophy, history,
literature, and other areas of knowledge in
which its author is proficient. Philosophers
quoted include both early modern [e.g.
Friedrich Nietzsche (54)] and contemporary
[Hilary Putnam (151) and Emmanuel Levinas
(168)] thinkers for the different issues that
come up. References to such authors as Shake-
speare (109, 228, 277) and historians like Mar-
tin Gilbert (218) pepper the book as well.
The use of famous thinkers ranges from
the more rigorous intellectuals to the more pop-
ulist writers. There are a few references to writ-
ings in the areas of populist psychology and
history, for example the works of Viktor Frankl
and Nikolai Berdiaev. "Surviving Crisis" (229-
233) presents Ya'akov's ability to deal with
challenge in his struggle with the angel, and it
invokes Frankl's biography and his theory of
logotherapy as a way of demonstrating man's
resilience. "Jacob's Destiny, Israel's Name"
(235-241) deals with the Jewish people's ability
to prevail in all sorts of unfavorable situations,
quoting from Berdiaev's The Meaning of His-
tory to the effect that the Jewish nation some-
how manages to override any historical rule.xx
much attention while others receive short shrift.
For example, the first Rashi in the Torah is cited
in each of the first three articles on Be-Reshit
(15, 21, 23; though, quite amazingly, each re-
ceives a distinct treatment!). Similarly, all five
pieces on Parashat Lekh Lekha quote and deal
with its first pasuk (Be-Reshit 12:1; see pp. 71,
73, 77, 81, 87), but no attention is paid to the
other themes which appear in the parashah.
The four pieces on Parashat Va-Yishlah all dis-
cuss Ya'akov's fight with the mal'akh or with
Esav, again limiting the book's treatment to the
first third of this parashah alone. As a result,
the reader feels that he is receiving a collection
of essays on the parashiyyot and not a compre-
hensive picture of the biblical narrative.
In "The Objectivity of Morality" (57-60),
R. Sacks attempts to invoke game theory and
evolutionary biology to indicate that morality
has an objective basis, demonstrated by the fact
that ethical behavior is advantageous to the
process of natural selection. There are several
problems with this approach: First of all, it ig-
nores details within game theory, such as the
fact that "cheating" works in many systems. In
more direct terms, if a society is generally
moral but there are certain people who are self-
"While the book occasionally employs literary methods in its treat-
ment of the material, and while it often deals with broad themes of
the narrative, a more accurate name might be 'Weekly Homilies on
the Jewish Bible.'"
Criticisms
Despite many of the bright and positive
aspects of Covenant & Conversation, no pub-
lication is perfect, and this book is no excep-
tion.xxi One point that was somewhat odd in the
book is the translation of biblical verses, which
are never quoted in the original Hebrew. R.
Sacks often chooses not to use a preexisting
translation but rather to fashion his own. This
can sometimes prove helpful, as original trans-
lations can be used to expedite or underscore
messages of the book. However, the approach
also holds the danger of being taken too far,
which I believe to be the case in Be-Reshit
26:34-35, which is translated on p. 136. After
a discussion of Esav's marriage to two wives,
the pasuk reads: "Va-Tihyena morat ruah le-Yit-
shak u-le-Rivkah," lit. "And they (the wives)
were a source of bitterness to Isaac and
}- Fyre ree vray ta. it
Rebecca."xxii R. Sacks, however, translates it:
"This was a source or bitter grief to Isaac and
Rebecca." The translation could be seen as
close enough to the biblical text if not for the
fact that Esav is here contrasted to Ya'akov who
"obeyed his father and mother" in finding a
wife, implying that Isaac and Rebecca were
upset at Esav because they were not consulted
about his choice of wives, which is clearly not
the meaning of the words. If R. Sacks wants to
provide his own midrashic understanding of the
pasuk, then he is entitled to do so, but it is un-
fair to translate a verse in a way that fits his
reading without clearly stating that this is not
an exact translation.
In addition, possibly due to the fact that
the book functions as a collection of several
years' worth of weekly insights, there are cer-
tain gaps in the handling of the material. While
all the parashiyyot are more or less equally rep-
resented, some parts of the parashiyyot get
www.kolhamevaser.com
Shlomo Zuckier is a senior at YC majoring
in Philosophy and Jewish Studies and is an As-
sociate Editor for Kol Hamevaser.
Volume III, Issue 2
ish (and do not manage to be "caught" and thus
lose the benefits of the moral society), those
people will fare better than the moral members
of their society.xxiii Second, evolution is usually
used to indicate that there are no ethical norms
– humans are moral because it is evolutionarily
convenient, not because it is the right thing to
be a moral person. Just because morality
"works" does not mean that it is "right" in any
sense. Finally, and most importantly, it is de-
meaning to the actual basis of ethics (whether
that be Divine Command Ethics or some inter-
nally moral source for ethics) to attribute its
reason to some cocktail of game theory and
evolutionary biology. This "scientific" study,
which points to morality as having positive side
effects, may be inspirational to the general pub-
lic, but it does not add any theological or philo-
sophical substance to the literature on ethics.
Conclusion
Covenant & Conversation represents a
compilation of masterful derashot by Rabbi Sir
Jonathan Sacks on the parashiyot in Be-Reshit,
both relating them to life and relating life to the
Torah. At times analytic and at others inspira-
tional, it weaves together insights from me-
dieval and modern Bible scholars,
philosophers, and historians, and R. Sacks him-
self, as it applies the parashiyyot to daily life in
a homiletical fashion. An interesting and re-
freshing read, it represents the conversation be-
tween Torah and life, and it is this author's hope
that this genesis is followed by a quartet of sim-
ilar value.
i
Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, The Koren Sacks
Siddur: A Hebrew/English Prayer Book
(Jerusalem: Koren and OU Press, 2009). See
the insightful and positive review of the siddur
by R. Jonathan Rosenblatt at: http://www.the-
jewishweek.com/viewArticle/c39_a15840/Ne
ws/International.html.
ii
See the Chief Rabbi's website: http://www.
chiefrabbi.org/CR_Covenant_Conversation.asp
x.
iii
Be-Reshit 28:16.
iv
For usage of this term and discussions of its
significance, see James Kugel's The Idea of
Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History
(New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 1981), pp. 103-4; Yaakov Elman's "It Is
No Empty Thing: Nahmanides and the Search
for Omnisignificance," The Torah U-Madda
Journal 4 (1993): 1-83; and Elman's "The Re-
birth of Omnisignificant Biblical Exegesis in
the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," Jew-
ish Studies, an Internet Journal 2 (2003): 199-
249.
v
One place where he does this is on p. 31,
which refers to the common Near Eastern
pagan practice of placating gods as the basis for
Kayin's activities.
vi
"Drama in Four Acts," pp. 61-64, and "The
Long Walk to Freedom," pp. 67-71.
vii
"Babel: A Story of Heaven and Earth," p. 54.
viii
Midrash Tanhuma, Parashat Noah 13-14.
ix Be-Reshit Rabbah 30:10.
See R. Soloveitchik's Adam the First in The
Lonely Man of Faith (New York: Doubleday,
1992) and R. Lichtenstein's essay on the con-
cept of "le-ovdah u-le-shomerah" in By His
Light: Character and Values in the Service of
God (Jersey City, NJ: Ktav; Alon Shevut, Is-
x
rael: Yeshivat Har Etzion, 2003), pp. 1-26.
xi
See, for example, p. 126.
xii
xiii
"The Long Walk to Freedom," pp. 67-71.
"A New Kind of Hero," pp. 73-75.
xiv "Four Dimensions of the Journey," pp. 77-
80.
xv
"Fathers and Sons," pp. 81-85.
xvi Responsa Rashba 272.
xvii
Responsa Maharik 164:3.
xviii
xix
Pp. 73-75. See also p. 299.
See pp. 50 and 90, for example.
xx I have heard this point – that a historian's the-
ory is completely undermined by the continued
existence of the Jewish people – said in the
name of Hegel, underscoring the populist na-
ture of this idea and the concomitant lack of
rigor of those employing it (other than R.
Sacks).
xxi
I am not now referring to editorial oddities
such as the fact that the article starting on p. 153
and the piece beginning on p. 341 bear the same
title, "The Future of the Past," or the fact that
the "About the Authors" section is on p. 349
and not p. 355. Nor am I here criticizing the
sometimes-repetitive nature of the book (to be
expected of a serial publication transformed
into a book), as manifest in the repetition on p.
79 of the point made on pp. 73-76.
xxii
This follows the JPS translation (parentheses
mine).
xxiii
Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (New
York: Norton, 1997), "Hotheads," pp. 363-424.

Family and Community
Get excited for the coming issues of Kol Hamevaser!
The rest of the semester brings with it many opportuni-
ties for writing and exploring Jewish Thought. The fol-
lowing are the upcoming editions of the paper with
different ideas for articles (articles unrelated to the
topic of these editions are always welcome, too):
Academic Jewish Studies
Academic Bible and Talmud, historical approach to Ha-
lakhah, scientific method in studying Jewish texts, the
Positive-Historical school of Jewish Studies, tradi-
tional learning vs. mehkar, the value of Jewish Philos-
ophy, issues of girsa'otand their effects on Halakhah,
and the history of Wissenschaft des Judentumsand its
relationship to the development of new streams of Ju-
daism.
Denominations and Sects
Jews for Jesus (messianic Judaism), Karaites, Essenes,
Sadducees, the Dead Sea Sect, relating to the
right/left, non-denominationalism, pluralism, peace
among sects, denominations in Israel vs. in the Dias-
pora, Israel's Hillonim, Ashkenazim and Sefardim,
Chabad, Hasidim and Mitnaggedim, Aseret ha-Shevatim,
and intermarriage.
E-mail all submissions and letters-to-the-editor to:
kolhamevaser@gmail.com!
Volume III, Issue 2
www.kolhamevaser.com
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