Torah and Western Thought: Intellectual Portraits of Orthodoxy and Modernity by Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik, Dr. Stuart W. Halpern, and Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier, editors, Magid Books, New Milford, Connecticut; ISBN 978-1-59264-436-0©2015, $29.95, p. 313, plus index and appendix
By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
WINCHESTER, California–Over its nearly 5,000 years of existence, Judaism has struggled with assimilative forces and destructive internal strife. Beginning in the recent past, the industrial and technological revolutions, which created numerous products undreamed of in biblical times; the Enlightenment, leading to a rise of personal freedoms; the Holocaust; the civil rights and women’s movements; the creation of the Jewish state; and evolving Judeo-Christian dialogue are just a few of the secular and theological challenges facing traditional Judaism in the modern world. Some forms of Judaism, such as the Ḥaredi, have adopted a cloistered lifestyle to keep the world’s pluralism at bay; others traditional Jews, such as modern Orthodoxy, have met the challenge through acculturation, confronting worldly forces and changing societal norms through the interpretive lens of a Torah-centered life.
Editors Soloveichik, Halpern, and Zuckier in Torah and Western Thought present ten essays describing the philosophy of a leading twentieth-century Orthodox Jewish religious leader and thinker as he or she espouses, through word and deed, a viable and authentic form of traditional Judaism in the face of challenges presented by modernity. Briefly:
Dr. Daniel Rynold discusses Rabbi Abraham Kook’s unique understanding of the constructs unity and plurality as they apply to God and creation and how these ideas led him to a broad acceptance of Zionism and secularism.
Dr. Itamar Warhaftig considers Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog’s approach to conflicts between Jewish law and democracy, particularly how his outlook applied to the new role of women in society, secular courts in the fledgling State of Israel, and the rights and responsibilities of religious Jews toward the draft and Israel’s security.
Dr. Meir Soloveichik’s essay contrasts the thinking of brothers Rabbis Joseph B. and Ahron Soloveichik, both of whom worked to unite traditional Judaism with American democracy. On one hand, Dr. Soloveichik stresses Rabbi Joseph’s understanding of religious liberty and “the distinct similarities between his vision and those of America’s Founding Fathers”; comparing him to James Madison in his role as an author of the Federalist Papers. On the other, he points out Rabbi Ahron’s emphasis on equality, noting that “the doctrine that ‘all men are created equal’ entails a positive duty for Jews to act toward everyone with what the Bible terms tzedek.”
Prof. Nehama Leiboiwitz is the subject of an essay by Yael Unterman, who skillfully portrays Leibowitz’ elegant classroom teaching methods, which substantially differed from the standard teaching models of her day, and “had a profound influence on Tanakh [Hebrew Bible] studies within the Israeli National Religious educational system.”
Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits’ career and impact on Jewish medical ethics is covered in an essay by Dr. Alan Jotkowitz, who meticulously shows how Jakobovits’ draws on his modern Orthodox-Jewish perspective to develop moral pathways in such areas as bioethics and autonomy, end-of-life care, abortion, artificial reproduction, cosmetic surgery, and autopsies.
In an essay on Rabbi Yehuda Amital, Drs. Ziegler and Mirsky note that although Amital lived a simple life, he investigated complex moral and ethical questions. Amital settled in what is now Israel after his liberation from a Nazi work camp by the Russians. Despite his dehumanization, he called on Israel’s army to defend itself, while, at the same time, recognized Judaism’s implicit responsibility for “upright behavior.” His life work reflects serious study of Torah combined with concern for the outside world in general and the Jewish people in particular, along with “striving for truth and authenticity.”
Rabbi David Shatz offers a look at the ideas of Torah and secular education in a sketch of the life of Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, who argued that for one to be properly engaged in both Torah and secular education, one needs to acknowledge the primacy of Torah learning. For him, both personally and as Head of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, Torah education was not a droning repetitive task, but “a vibrant subject for philosophical analysis and exploration,” which speaks to the modern world.
Professor Isadore Tewesky, whose biography is presented by Rabbi Dr. Carmi Horowitz, is the scion of a family with a long line of Ḥasidic rabbis and the husband of Atarah Soloveitchik, the daughter of an illustrious American Orthodox family. Horowitz cites numerous examples showing that throughout his adult life, Tewesky, who held an unquestioned commitment to Jewish law and a Jewish way of life, applied academic rigor in the style of Eastern European Orthodox Jewish scholars called Ḥokhmat Yisrael (Jewish wisdom) to the study of Jewish law, successfully functioning at such scholarly institutions as Harvard and Hebrew Universities.
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, the subject of the last essay by Rabbis Shalom Carmy and Shlomo Zuckier, also stands as a role model for those who wish to pursue secular academic studies which maintaining strong ties to Torah education and traditional Judaism.
Torah and Western Thought paints deep and rich portraits of ten Orthodox academics who showed the compatibility between serious secular scholarship and modern Judaism by living such profound and meaningful lives.
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Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator. He is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars; Public Education in Camden, NJ: From Inception to Integration; Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Revealed; and a fiction book, Reclaiming the Messiah. The author may be contacted via fred.reiss@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)