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April 1960

A Time To Speak: A Diagnosis of the Lack of Good Literature in English on Orthodoxy, and a Prescription for the Future (1960)

Torah Umadda
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Rav Hirsch and Rav Kook: Two Views on Limudei Kodesh and Limudei Chol (1966)

Carmi Y. Horowitz, Menachem M. Kasdan, Editors; Simon Posner, Associate Editor; Authur B. Levenglick, Copy Editor; Michael Joshua, Nosan Mikroy, Staff; Student Organization of Yeshiva: Gary Feder, President; George Finkelstein, Vice‑President; Eugene Kwalwasser, Secretary‑Treasurer; Norman Lamm. At Yeshiva College the student is confronted with both limudei kodesh and limudei chol. Rabbi Norman Lamm, Associate Rabbi of The Jewish Center and visiting assistant professor of Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University, examines the views of Rav S. R. Hirsch and Rav A. I. Kook on the encounter between Torah and Hochma, Kodesh and Hol. RAV HIRSCH AND RAV KOOK: TWO VIEWS ON LIMUDEI KODESH AND LIMUDEI CHOL – From the very beginning of Jewish history Judaism has, for better or for worse, experienced some interaction with its surrounding culture. A great part of the Bible is a warning, both explicit and implicit, against assimilating the cultic pagan practices. However, with the rise of Greek philosophy and the prominence given to reason and a more sophisticated culture, some Jews began to expose themselves to the non‑Jewish modes of thought and fall under their influence. Gradually, individual thinkers, such as Philo in Alexandria, and later, as in the "Golden Age" in Spain, whole schools concerned themselves with the direct confrontation of traditional Judaism and Western thought. With the Emancipation, this confrontation was no longer confined to a few individuals or even schools. The interaction between Judaism and the culture of the host people was now of major import to the Jewish community as a whole. The variety of responses to this massive challenge of Western civilization is represented by the spectrum of Jewish allegiances extant even today. They range from a complete abandonment of Judaism and Jewish loyalties to an utter and complete rejection of Western philosophical and scientific ideas. In‑between there exists a graduated fragmentation – a kind of Maxwellian di…
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The Voice of Torah In the Battle of Ideas: A Program for Orthodoxy (1967)

This is an exciting period for a thinking Orthodox Jew. It is a dangerous time too – when faith threatens to be swept away in the wildly whirling intellectual currents of the times. But the danger enhances the excitement and highlights the opportunities. Rarely before have we been faced with such an array of challenging, stimulating, and provoking ideas. And yet, rarely before have we reacted to such stimuli so passively, so defensively, so apprehensively, so uncreatively. What does the Torah have to say about the great issues that confront modern man and the modern Jew? Unfortunately, I do not know. My training has left me largely unprepared for them. I have even had to overcome powerful inhibitions in order to reach the stage where I am not suspicious of the very question. Assuming that by the "battle of ideas” we mean something that transcends the petty concerns of institutional rivalry, all I can say is that – to borrow a phrase from the Zohar—the Voice of Torah today is koi heli dibbur, it is inchoate: a voice without words, a general cry not yet reduced to clear speech. In an age which stresses the importance of communication, we have not yet developed clear guide-lines, not yet formulated convincing approaches, not yet spoken lucidly, to the cardinal issues of our century. I have faith that there are clear views and answers within Torah; but we have largely failed to express the koi Torah in dibbur, to articulate the vision of Torah, to spell out the im-plications of our tradition. Too often we have even refused to acknowledge the existence or the validity of the questions. I am therefore dispirited and vexed by our apparent unwilling-ness to engage in the Battle of Ideas, but optimistic as to the ultimate out-come if we finally do begin searching out the judgment of Torah and com-municating it effectively.THE RANGE of intellectual prob-lems that today confronts a think-ing Jew—especially a young one—is quite impressive. What is the meaning of chosenness in …
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Torah Umadda Speech (1992)

1. apolgy f treatg thme here/book. *TuM so self-evdt... Many/most yshvot except far Hasidic: nght collg; All – HS; halkhc diff'ce? *True, attackd mny reasns. But note, e.g.: *R. Hayym Brisker: totl rjctn M – evn lang/nwspprs... any ready forbd Eng tdy? *same tm: nt true w no precdnts! Evn in hal'c commy *Exs: הרמ"א התעניין גם בלמודי פילוסופיה, קבלה היסטוריה ואסטרונומיה. בספרו "תורת העולה" מצטט הוא בתמידות חכמים רבים במקצועות אלו, אע"פ שבנוגע לתורת חכמי האומות שאב את ידיעותיו מכלי שני. הוא מתיחס
Torah Umadda