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March 14, 1998

For Inclusionism, Against Exclusionism: Parshat Ki Tissa (1998)

Ki Tissa Orthodoxy & Other Denominations
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Outline

Centrist Orthodoxy and the Rest of the Jews (1997)

I. A friend has recently spent a Shabbos in a Chassidic community, and now he is bugging you to come with him. “It’s the greatest!” he says. “Those Chassidim really know how to do Shabbos!” You hesitated at first, but his persistent prodding finally coaxed you to come. Now it’s Thursday and you’ve called your Chassidic hosts for directions. It starts as a routine call, but after giving directions, your Yiddish-accented host continues: “Now, you must understand that on Shabb – I mean, on the Sabbath, we Jews don’t do any work, just like the Bible says, and this includes driving a car.” He then tells you by what time you have to arrive on Friday afternoon so you won’t “be mechal – I mean desecrate, the holiness of the Sabbath.” How should we view those (chareidi) denominations of Judaism which either don’t understand or simply refuse to accept the legitimacy of centrist Orthodoxy? Do they know something about Judaism that we don’t? Why do some of us seem to assume that we have to go to the chareidim to experience Shabbos? Is it worth it to expend our collective energies trying to educate and/or reach out to them? What about the fact that current demographic studies indicate that the chareidim will continue to grow even as Reform and Conservative Judaism will dwindle?II. “Minchah! Minchah!” You are visiting the campus of a different college when this familiar cry assails your ears. You turn to investigate, and sure enough, leaning out the window of a nearby building is a guy wearing a yarmulke and waving at you. “You’re number ten,” he yells. When you enter the room in which the minyan is being held, you stop short. Yeah, there are now ten people in the room, but only four of them are men. A smiling young woman walks over to you and extends her hand. “Welcome to our local egalitarian minyan,” she says. “Thanks for coming; it’s a really big mitzvah.” Should we support the religious practices of non-frum Jews? Granted, what they are doing is not halachically correct, bu…
Orthodoxy & Other Denominations Modern Orthodoxy & the Charedim

Speech

Integrity or Unity: Which? (1998)

I am grateful to you for the tribute extended to me, especially since I have been associated with the Union, one way or another, for almost my entire career. And I am pleased that my working relationship with the O-U leadership, from the visionary days of Moe Feuerstein to the enormously focused and effective era of Mendy Ganchrow, has been felicitous, friendly, and fruitful. I feel even more honored by being included in the group of distinguished rabbis who are my co-honorees. As one who has been in the pulpit rabbinate for 25 years, and out of it for over 20 years, I am in a good position to evaluate the worth of the pulpit rabbis to the American Jewish Orthodox community. And I tell you, without exaggeration, that these eleven men are the unsung heroes of Torah Judaism in America. As the Passover Haggada has it, “Who knows eleven? I know eleven—eleven are the stars of the heavens.” They are truly stars, representative of the hundreds of our pulpit rabbis throughout the country who are so often taken for granted, working assiduously, usually outside the confined perimeters of the bustling centers of Jewish life and the Yeshivot with their consuming intensity. They are, in many ways, truly the sentinels of Yiddishkeit in America. I am proud that the Orthodox Union is recognizing these rabbis and the colleagues whom they represent. They, and the Orthodox Union, are worthy of our most heartfelt approbation.The Problem of UnityPermit me to share with you a problem that has been the cause of deep distress to me. We stand today at a critical juncture in the history of our people. Our generation must make a fateful decision: will we remain one people, or will we be fragmented to two or more peoples unable to marry each other and therefore permanently divided from each other?Since the beginning, it has been Torah, our ancestral faith, that has kept us as one, despite all the centrifugal forces threatening to pull us apart. With the weakening of Torah study and observance…
Jewish Unity Orthodoxy & Other Denominations

Assorted

Teshuva: Examining our Relationship with Others (1997)

Vignettes for Panel Discussion. Case 1: The Federation has invited the local rabbis from all religious streams to plan and participate in a program entitled “A Day of Jewish Learning.” The idea of the program is to have each of the rabbis teach three classes on topics of their choice and invite the community to sit in on whichever classes they desire to attend. You have been asked to participate, will you? What are the factors which enter into your analysis of this situation? Does it matter who sponsors the event? Does it matter where the event is held? What if the Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis will be teaching the same subject and the audience will rotate so that different views on a single topic are presented?CASE 2: As an avid reader of the Israeli press, you have noted that there have been several articles of late about non-Orthodox rabbinical students’ desire to pray at the Kotel in the way in which they are accustomed, but which is not within halakhic parameters. They argue that the Kotel belongs to the entire Jewish People, so why shouldn’t they be allowed access to pray at this holy site? On a visit to Israel you are at the Kotel and these very students are beginning to get together to pray. How do you analyze their behavior? What is your reaction? Several yeshiva boys begin to yell at the students, cursing them, throwing things at them, and chasing them away. What do you do? When you return to America you see that much of the American Jewish community is talking about the “disgraceful” behavior of the yeshiva boys. Do you respond? How? In reaction to what they perceive as an attack on Orthodoxy, a rabbi publishes a statement that anything outside the pale of halakhic Judaism is not Judaism at all. How do you react to this public statement? How do you react to the reaction of the many non-Orthodox American Jews who feel they’ve just been told they are not practicing Judaism when they go to pray at their synagogues?CASE 3: You are the principal of an Orth…
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