The Rav’s words have been traditionally understood as an affirmation of the world-view of Brisk in which he was educated. But they are also of a piece with Sarton’s early-twentieth-century approach to studying great men[…]
Continue reading …
Category: Modern Orthodoxy
“…the religious leadership of an institution whose motto is “Torah U’Madda” has frozen its conception of religiously permissible Madda at that with which the Rav engaged at the University of Berlin in the 1920s…”
Yeshiva University faces many challenges, some reflective of broader societal trends and some of its own making. But at an intellectual level, the religious leadership of an institution whose motto is “Torah U’Madda” has frozen[…]
Continue reading …
“We need to believe that Torah U’Madda was not a limited-time offer that expired sometime in the last century…”
Today’s Centrist Orthodox world–the world of Yeshiva University, the world that produces the overwhelming majority of the Modern Orthodox world’s rabbis and Torah teachers–would generally be comfortable with an academic approach to Jewish history. Normative[…]
Continue reading …
“Among the many things that characterize modern Orthodox Jews…perhaps the most-defining is our embrace of the Talmudic maxim hokhma bagoyim ta’amin…”
Among the many things that characterize modern Orthodox Jews: religious Zionism; engaging with the secular world; commitment to expanding religious opportunities for women within the context of halakha; perhaps the most-defining is our embrace of[…]
Continue reading …
“Torah U’Madda, if it stands for anything, stands not for the ability to go to an excellent university, get a prestigious law degree, and make a wonderful living for a family in Teaneck, Woodmere, or New Rochelle”
Torah U’Madda, if it stands for anything, stands not for the ability to go to an excellent university, get a prestigious law degree, and make a wonderful living for a family in Teaneck, Woodmere, or[…]
Continue reading …
“The question is not…whether our Modern Orthodox high school students are prepared to engage with the non-Jewish world…”
The question is not…whether our Modern Orthodox high school students are prepared to engage with the non-Jewish world. It is whether they are prepared to engage without condescension (or at best, a sense of the[…]
Continue reading …
“Unity and comity are good things, but I am not at all convinced that the community is better served by a false front that tries to conceal or patch the deep discord behind it than by frank acknowledgment of irreconcilable differences”
Ultimately, as many areas of common ground as we can find, and as much agreed-upon progress as we can make, the divisions around women’s ritual participation and leadership roles may not be paper-over-able, and the[…]
Continue reading …
“The rift between centrist and open Orthodoxy is…about the nature of gadolhood and the structure of rabbinic authority…”
The rift between centrist and open Orthodoxy, is thus not only about who is a gadol in the narrow sense, but about the nature of gadolhood and the structure of rabbinic authority more broadly. This[…]
Continue reading …
“The imputation of unstated motives instantly renders toxic any conversation in which it is inserted”
In any debate over women’s communal and halakhic roles, the Orthodox community’s version of Godwin’s Law is that the longer the debate continues, the greater the certainty that not only one’s policy decisions or halakhic[…]
Continue reading …
“As much rancor and disagreement as there is in the Modern Orthodox world about women in the ritual sphere or leadership roles, there are many places where women’s participation is universally accepted and indeed welcomed, and where attempts to foster it would be generally agreed-upon and uncontroversial”
As much rancor and disagreement as there is in the Modern Orthodox world about women in the ritual sphere or leadership roles, there are many places where women’s participation is universally accepted and indeed welcomed,[…]
Continue reading …