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Correspondence

September 1965

Exchange with Dr. Milton Birnbaum about Reading "Man's Search for Meaning" (1965)

General Jewish Thought

1. R. Lamm to Dr. Milton Birnbaum

1. R. Lamm to Dr. Milton Birnbaum (Sep. 7, 1965)

1. R. Lamm to Dr. Milton Birnbaum (Sept. 7, 1965)

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Exchange with Michael Tabor about Halacha, Morality, and Building a Relationship with God (1969)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I have time just for a short note to extend to you and your family the season's greetings. This period since I saw you has truly been one of turmoil. About [redacted] whom I believe you met while you were in Israel – well, apparently she has turned out to be the exceptional student of this new sem for mature girls (Oy vey!). It is still in the balance with all the agonizing uncertainty that that involves... didn't know that a strong healthy young man like me could suffer so much emotionally from waiting for the lady of my choice. Anyway, I suppose one must have patience for the fairer sex and realise that virtue is not only on one side. She knows I am a bit eccentric and I think it is worrying her whether to take the jump of marriage. All women I suppose want security. Time will indeed tell and in the meantime we both suffer – such is life.Next September I am going to Sheffield to do a post grad diploma in education – a must here after 1972 if one wants to teach in a state school. After that I'll have to wait and see. My stay in N.Y. did not solve all my internal problems and altho' I gained something very special from my yechidus and attending the vabrengen, I still have to relate to the dilemma of my own life. I can't and don't want to shake off my secular skin and adapt an east european weltanshaung and I don't mean this is a pejorative sense. Its difficult to explain in words but thank G'd my Lubavitch friends understand to a degree otherwise I would not be faced with an unbearable either-or dilemma of identity. For the moment I am quiet and keep in the background as much as possible. I think living away in Sheffield will do me good – it will be a challenge in more ways than one and make me more aware of what I am.I received a letter today from my teacher Rav Carmel who is now in Jerusalem and has set up together with a Rabbi Horovitz a special yeshiva for western type students. He mentioned about the effects of dew years of solid learning woul…
General Jewish Thought

Correspondence

Exchange with Morton Merowitz about His Introduction to R. Kook Translation (1969)

Dear Rabbi Lamm: I am taking the liberty of sending you a copy of the introduction to the R. Kook translation which I am doing for Judaism. Dr. Schwarschild already has the translation itself; as I have only my own copy, I am not sending that herein. Are there any mis-statements or misinterpretations of the message? Any comments would be welcome. Hoping this note finds all well, I remain, Respectfully, Morton J. Merowitz. Born in the small Latvian town of Grieve in 1865(?), Abraham Isaac Kook studied in the yeshivot of Lutzin and Volozin. A distinguished student of the Law and of mysticism, R. Kook served as rabbi in Zimel and Boisk. In 1904 he settled in Palestine to serve as Chief Rabbi of Jaffe. In 1909, the shemittah problem, which had troubled the new agricultural community of the Second aliyah, was approached with boldness and erudition by Kook in his Shabbat HaAretz (Jerusalem,1909). While attending a rabbinic conference in Europe in 1914, R. Kook was forced to remain in England for the duration of the War. Returning in 1919 to serve as Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, R. Kook remained in the presence and at the core of the Palestinian society so dear to him. Despite a mystical view of the nature of Jewish history and a rather unsystematic philosophic terminology, R. Kook, who served as the first Chief Rabbi of Ashkenazic Jewry from 1921 until his death in 1935, was beloved by all factions and persons.theOne of the more noteworthy cultural milestones of/nre-State yishuv was the long awaited onening of the Hebrew University. The event,held on Wednesday,Anril 1,1925 attracted more than seven thousand persons to the *campus’ of the school which consisted of a remodeled house,"a copner-domed wing" and a specially constructed ampitheatre. Present were Dr. Chaim Weizmann (who had laid the cornerstone on July 24,1918) President of the World Zionist Congress,Sir Arthur Balfour who delivered the main address, Chayim Nachman Bialik and others. Among the less noted speeches o…
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Correspondence

Exchange with R. Hollander about Free Will, Miracles, and Nature (1966)

After three sessions I finally finished your piece in the recent Tradition and was much inspired by it as I have been from your other mighty articles. יישר כח for your endeavor to articulate those fundamentals of Yahadut, and may we very soon see you assuming the lofty position of one of our foremost spokesmen – a position which will recognize the זכויות of our time. There was one passage in your piece which does an injustice to traditional מדרשים, in my opinion, and I trust you will forgive me. On p. 39 you write that a מדרש on “motivation at the very beginning of His formation after the initial act of Creation is to attribute to Him an inconsistency.” This statement says that the saintly מדרש has attributed to Him an absurd inconsistency. For the מדרש in בראשית רבה denounces any attempts to interpret the six days as anything but literal 24-hour days. Furthermore, different rates of acceleration in טבע do not represent inconsistency. You may have the impression that מדרשים are slightly absurd. You might be interested to read the ספר נזר הקודש of R. Eliezer Lipman (עמוד א׳ סימן קכ״ד סעיף ו׳ וסימן קכ״ו סעיף ט׳) which clarifies the subject considerably. בברכת התורה, Ort. Hollander, St. Louis
General Jewish Thought