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Speech

March 10, 2002

Chag Hasemicha Convocation, Sunday March, 10, 2002

The Rabbinate

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Outline

Address to Rabbinical Council of America (1992)

Carl Becker, the great American historian, once said, “It is important every so often to look at the things that go without saying to be sure that they are still going.” So, let’s take a good look at ourselves – to see if things are still going, and if not, why not; where we seem to be heading in the future; and what we can do about influencing that future direction. Of course, talking about the future is a thankless task – אמרו חז״ל: מיום שחרב בית המקדש ניתנה נבואה לשוטים... Maybe that’s why a great חכם, Albert Einstein, said: “I never think of the future; it comes soon enough.” The categories of gadlut and katnut – drawn from Kabbalah and popularized by the Hasidic movement – apply not only to individuals but to collectivities as well. These terms, which denote states of spiritual and intellectual expansion (gadlut) or constriction (katnut), help us understand where we are and perhaps how to move forward. At present, we are clearly in a state of katnut. Those who deny it – such as Charles Silberman (A Certain People) and others – do a great disservice. The data are sobering: the CJF reports a 52% intermarriage rate; Prof. Seymour Martin Lipset noted that only one-quarter of children raised Orthodox remain Orthodox (a statistic I question, but still find disturbing); Prof. Samuel Heilman reported at a recent OU–YI–RCA conference that Orthodoxy comprises only 6–12% of the Jewish population, and that a significant portion of Modern Orthodox Jews are defecting or becoming marginalized; there is growing financial stress, even before the Reichmann collapse – median incomes have declined, families are smaller, and women working outside the home adds pressure; Modern Orthodox education has been ceded to teachers to the right, leading to either a deepening rift with Haredim or a merging into “nominal Orthodoxy”; Orthodox synagogues are shrinking and may no longer be able to support full-time rabbis; an AJC report (“The High Cost of Jewish Living”) highlights further strai…
The Rabbinate

Note

Ideas for Chag Hasemicha (1989)

The address should consist of a kind of manifesto of Yeshiva University's philosophy of the rabbinate. It should include the primacy of Torah; Torah U'Madda; the ideal of service to the community; the combination of commitment and open mindedness, loyalty to Orthodoxy and Outreach to the non-Orthodox community, dedication to our own religious growth and the spiritual and well-being of others. Included in this, should be a statement on the combination of a sense of responsibility to Torah (and, hence, the careful consultation with Roshei Yeshivah and older colleagues on important questions) together with the assumption of one's own professional, spiritual, and halakhic responsibility. Speak about Rav Chaim Volozhener's teaching of intellectual independence, and how he learned this from the Gaon, and how he even used it in refusing to go along with the Gaon's fulminations against Hasadism. In this connection, two of my greatest recollections of Rabbi Soloveitchik are: when he scolded me in class (see my Introduction to the two volume Soloveitchik Festschrift) and when I asked him about the Manhattan eruv, he told me to go figure it out myself and do what I think is right.
The Rabbinate

Article

Message to Musmachim (1998)

We at Yeshiva University hardly expect you to be full-fledged posekim (those who rule on Jewish law) and accomplished experts in human relations from the moment you are placed in your first, or even second, position. But your baalebatim do not know — and perhaps do not want to know — this, and so you must be prepared with some guidelines even as you expect to learn much "on the job.Of the many things that ought to be on your agenda regarding your baalebatim, let me mention three. The first obligation of a rabbi is chesed — loving kindness, care, generosity. You will be judged by your menschlichkcit (decency) as much as, or more than, your lomdus (learning).You are not only going to sit in your synagogue office or class- room and dispense wisdom or offer a fine analysis of a halachic text. You will also have to take care of the poor and the single par- ent and the latchkey child. You will have to hear people's problems and counsel them and find help for them. And that is a state of mind, a spiritual mission, and an art — all rolled into one. It will take time, but you will learn it. So, work on yourselves! Both you and your people will benefit.The second thing you must leam is courage — the courage to resist and to stand alone. You are entering a world that is crazy —from the French, ecrase, split or cracked — confronted by new problems even while wrestling with stubborn old ones, full of paradoxes and antinomies and contradic- tions and absurdities — espe- cially those thrown up by sci- ence and technology, such as the potential for humans to direct the future evolution of the species.You will have to consult your rebbeim (teachers) and older colleagues, and some day you may be called on to make such fateful decisions. You will confront a Jewish world disappearing at the margins, with an entrenched secularism that refuses to budge from old and tired for- mulas. You will be faced by young Jews who have …
The Rabbinate