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Speech

October 19, 1998

Modern Orthodoxy at the Brink of a New Century - Speech (1998)

Noach Passionate Moderation Europe Biographical Material
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Leader of Modern Orthodoxy Speaks to Students (2002)

An unusual silence pervaded the Isaac Levinstein Synagogue as formally dressed students and faculty stood anticipating the arrival of Rabbi Norman Lamm, the leader of Modern Orthodoxy and president of Yeshiva University. A sign posted on the stage read, “Your eyes should follow your teachers,” and indeed the students’ eyes did just that as the entire Judaic faculty escorted Rabbi Lamm into the room. After greeting the Frisch community, Rabbi Lamm proceeded to address a question that the Modern Orthodox community tackles daily: How do Jews take the best of Western culture and science—Madah—and connect it to Torah? His speech offered new insights and confirmed old ones for students, stimulating further discussion throughout the Frisch community. Rabbi Lamm explained that before one can achieve an integration of Torah, “the center of Jewish life,” and Western culture and science, one must first master the basics of each independently. He emphasized that if Frisch students integrate their Judaic and general studies, utilize Torah and Madah, respect other denominations in Judaism, and behave with dedication and integrity, they will be a source of pride and pleasure to the Jewish nation. Dr. Kalman Stein expressed his satisfaction that Rabbi Lamm chose to speak about the importance of linking secular and Judaic studies, noting that the school must “give students the opportunities to think about Torah and Madah in an integrated way.” According to Tali Fishel (’04), Rabbi Lamm’s speech “put into perspective the fact that the Torah we learn every day in school and elsewhere does not contrast with or limit our lives—it simply provides guidelines by which to live them.” Dr. Stein added, “The real challenge is not learning Torah and Madah separately, but figuring out how we can be part of an exciting world while deciding which of its attractions can be kept and which need to be filtered out.” To help Frisch students accomplish this integration, Dr. Stein announced plans to es…
Biographical Material

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Modern Orthodoxy at the Brink of a New Century (1999)

We are honoured to publish the full text of The Rabbi Isaac Bernstein Memorial Lecture which was delivered on 19 October 1998 at the Finchley Synagogue, London by Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm. Rabbi Lamm, President of Yeshiva University and its affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) since 1976, is the author of ten volumes, including Torah Umadda: The encounter of Religious Learning and Worldly Wisdom in the Jewish Tradition (London: Jason Aronson, 1990). His two most recent books are The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998) and The Religious Thought of Hasidism: Text and Commentary (Hoboken: Ktav, 1999). The founding editor of Tradition, he has edited some thirty volumes on Jewish themes and has been an ardent advocate of Modern Orthodoxy in the USA and throughout the world.This is a bitter-sweet occasion for me. It is bitter because it confirms for me psychologically what I already know rationally, namely, that Isaac Bernstein is no longer with us. And it is sweet because the memories are sweet and inspiring.Rabbi Bernstein was my successor at The Jewish Center in New York City. We became not only colleagues but firm friends. I was enchanted by his sparkling sense of humour, in awe of his range of knowledge and interests - from Torah, of course, to mathematics and opera - and I simply adored the man's dazzling personality. Because of this combination of talents - scholar, orator, wit, darshan -1 invited him to teach at our Stern College for Women, where he won a string of loyal students who speak of him with a reverence that survives to this day.One of his great strengths was his interpretation of the parashat hashavua, the biblical portion of the week. In deference to him, I shall present my theme as he would have done it - homiletically - by discoursing on this week's parashah, Noach, and that of last Shabbat, Bereshit.NoachThe great floods covered the face…
Noach Passionate Moderation Europe Biographical Material

Speech

The Theme of Moderation in Modern Orthodoxy (1989)

I begin on two contradictory notes, one apologetic, the other not only not apologetic but anti-apologetic. The apologetic note concerns my uneasiness in using the term Centrist Orthodoxy, but it is a term which I prefer principally for one reason, which I shall elaborate presently. Critics of the term assume that Centrist indicates that we locate ourselves at some midpoint between orthodoxy and assimilationism, and claim that territory as our religious home. But that is nonsense. Only slightly less absurd is the idea that centrist orthodoxy is the mid-point between Satmar and the few intellectuals who occupy the ground called the Orthodox Left. That is also inaccurate. It is no compliment to our intelligence to imagine that we who declare ourselves Centrist walk around the religious terrain with a yardstick, calipers and a calculator measuring the exact distance between Neturei Karta and Humanistic Judaism - so called - in order to locate the exact middle or centre. We are not, and do not aspire to be ideological geographers or spiritual statisticians who search out the exact centre between right and wrong, religious and non-religioua, mitzva and avera, and settle upon that as our religious goal. It may be wrong, but I submit that our centrism is not really that simple minded and religiously asinine.What of the title we have been called all along, Modern Orthodoxy? I am uncomfortable with that label because it is a combination of two highly infelicitous words. One is arrogant, modern: I'm modern, that makes me better than anyone else in the past. The other is inaccurate because orthodoxy implies ideological blindness and constricted thought, and that is not correct.Of course there are those who say that we should do away with all adjectives and simply identify ourselves as orthodox jews, period. It does away with the whole problem of labels, or it seems to. In fact if we did that that would leave 90 percent of this audience and all those who have come to the Sympos…
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