Exchange with Dr. Golding about His Article "The Rational Defensibility of Being a Traditional Religious Jew" (1999)

1. Dr. Golding to R. Lamm (1999)

1. Dr. Golding to R. Lamm (Jan. 1, 1999)

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Exchange with Dr. Carl Goldschmidt about Statements by R. Soloveitchik about the Brisker Rav (1967)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, what I remember of Rabbi Soloveitchik at least 12 years ago is the following: he compared the Brisker Rav with Yehudah because he was a great fighter; according to Rabbi Soloveitchik, with his parable the Brisker Rav told him once that from nature he was a Rovler, and every day he had to fight with himself. To represent his difficulty he gave a lot of explanations which unfortunately I don’t remember, but probably there exists in the Yeshurun a tape which records Rabbi’s speech. He compared his other grandfather, the proud grandson of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik with Yosef, but that was into different, not much of a fighter being. Naturally he explained that the Brisker was a great real halachist.

General Jewish Thought

Exchange with Dr. Eckstein about His Book "Metaphysical Drift: Love and Judaism" (1992)

Dear Norman: I am pleased to send you the enclosed book. There are very few readers whose comments on it I would appreciate as much as yours. I hope all is well with you and the family. You have my best wishes for a חג כשר ושמח. As ever, Jerry

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Exchange with Dr. Lachman about Article on the State of Jewish Belief (1966)

Dear Rabbi Lamm: I have read with great interest the series of articles on the State of Jewish Belief: A Symposium that appeared in last month's Commentary. I found your article to be particularly challenging and incisive. I would, however, like to have some further information regarding a point that you expressed quite cogently on page 111. You wrote "These two functions, the tension between which is inherent in the concept of chosenness, are not antonyms, mutually exclusive, but supplementary ideas. In a study of how this doctrine was treated in Tannaitic times, a contemporary scholar has discovered that the greater the emphasis by an individual sage on chosenness and its inescapable particularism, the greater the breadth of his universalism." I would very much be interested in knowing who the contemporary scholar is that discovered this interesting pattern. Has this study been published? If so, under what title and which publication? Can I possibly receive a copy of this most fascinating work of scholarship?I am presently engaged in preparing an article that deals with American values and Jewish values and the yardstick by which one judges the other. A study which attempts to reveal a breadth of universalism as emanating out of an individual sage’s choseness and particularism is therefore particulary revealing and interesting to me.Thank you for your kind cooperation.Sincerely,Seymour P. Lachman, Director Kingsborough Community College in Mid-BrooklynAdministered by the Board of Higher Education Under the Program of the State University of Hew York

Faith