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February 1969

Exchange with David Mamaux about the "New Morality" and College Life (1969)

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1. David Mamaux to R. Lamm

1. David Mamaux to R. Lamm (Feb. 13, 1969)

1. David Mamaux to R. Lamm (Feb. 13, 1969)

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New Morality (1969)

In "The Lessons of History," Will and Arial Durant, two somewhat older students of morality, past and present, declare: "Out of every 100 new ideas 99 or more will probably be inferior to the traditional responses which they propose to replace. "No man, however brilliant or well informed, can come in one life­time to such fullness or understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for these are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history."A youth boiling with hormones will wonder why he should not give full freedom to his sexual desires; and if he is unchecked by custom, morals or laws, he may ruin his life before he matures sufficiently to understand that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to con- surae in chaos both the individual and the group.”Dr. Ralph R. Greenson, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA's school of medicine, speaks of that same river of fire:"The 'cool' set is accustomed to quick and easy gratifications. Instant warmth and instant sex makes for puny love, cool sex and a turning to pot and LSD. The emphasis on security as the goal of life makes for peace of mindlessness and emotional uninvolvement."Love is risk-taking. It implies daring to be vulnerable and hurt. The search for security is the enemy of loving."
Marriage & Sexuality

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The New Morality under Religious Auspices (1968)

That the Western world finds itself in the midst of a continuing moral crisis is a self-evident fact which needs no documentation. Completely appropriate to our contemporary situation is the plaint of R. Haninah of Sepphoris: “Zimri was only one in his generation, and because of him 24,000 of Israel died — and we have so many Zimris in our generation!”[1] The traditional moral restraints that have prevailed for centuries in Western civilization are crumbling, and Jews are not the least of those affected by the moral and spiritual rootlessness of our generation. Indeed, we probably feel the consequences of this massive displacement even more than do others, for the fulcrum of Jewish life and continuity has always been the family, and it is the family that is the first victim of moral delinquency.[2]Nevertheless, for the sake of perspective it is good to remember that such anti-moral impulses are not new in history. The statement of R. Haninah itself is indicative of moral laxity in third century Palestine. There is considerable truth in a recent assertion that there is a permanent revolution against traditional Jewish sexual morality, but that the style and form and intensity of the revolt change in different historical epochs.³There are several strands discernible in the fabric of the current protest against traditional morality, that known as the New Morality. One of the most interesting aspects of this New Morality is the paradox of what is (by previously accepted standards) immoralism having its genesis in an excess of moral fervor. But this calls for some preliminary remarks. In speaking of the New Morality, we must distinguish between two layers. One is that associated with the name of **Hugh Hefner**, founder of that famous American institution known as the “Playboy Club.” This profitable commercial enterprise is accompanied by the exposition of a totally immoral “philosophy,” and made to appeal mostly to professional bachelors who prefer the pleasures of mar…
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Article

Yeshiva Professor Deplores the New Morality (1969)

An Orthodox rabbinic scholar said this week that the so-called New Morality was a threat to modern society and opened the door to the eventual destruction of the family as the "fundamental collective unit." The comment was made by Rabbi Norman Lamm in the current issue of Tradition, a quarterly published by the Rabbinical Council of America. The rabbi is a professor at Yeshiva University and spiritual leader of the Jewish Center, 131 West 86th Street.Rabbi Lamm found the New Morality's emphasis on not injuring anyone and its deep concern for personal sensitivities as "noble," but warned: "This negative rule of nit hurting anyone else is bound to become the sole normative criterion for all legal codes in the Western world."Thus, adultery and homosexuality will be legally permitted and where both parties consent — and are of the age of consent — and no third party is injured thereby. And what becomes legally permissible tends to become the moral norm as well for society at large."Barnard Case RecalledThe Rabbi had some harsh words for the Jewish and Protestant chaplains at Columbia University who last year came to the defense of a Barnard coed who shared an off-campus apartment with a male student.The two chaplains defined the "crucial question" as "whether or not the relationship is meaningful or worthwhile."The chaplains, Rabbi Lamm said, "revealed the bankruptcy of the moral relativism showing underneath their ecclesiastical cloaks."According to the rabbi, the New Morality has forced representatives of old and established religious traditions "radically to revise their inherited codes and, in effect, to incorporate a good deal of the New Morality into their stated church policies and to search out theological justifications for these changes."He cited a recent report prepared by a "working party" of the British Council of Churches.The report, in part, analyzed Christian attitudes toward sex and urged a shift away from objective rules for sexual conduct to personal…
Marriage & Sexuality