Rav Hirsch and Rav Kook: Two Views on Limudei Kodesh and Limudei Chol (1966)

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Lecture Notes - Rav Hirsch and Rav Kook (1963)

SRH: J. Humanism – ישראל מענטש תורה עם ד"א. – Torah primary; but original identity human: crit: Maim, Mendellsohn; autochtonous – but if identity: not conflict, but so biology – Synth: pleasant... congruous; Orth not blind. K: Not ת' עם ד"א but ת' וד"א – (strawberries – woman with child). – come to grips each other. – metaphys frame – קו"ח → "enlightened". – centripital + centrifugal. – synth: not lock in T; but needs חידוש. – קו"ח = matter/form; יסוד קה"ק/ – no חול מוחלט – "not-yet holy". – no הבדלה? – של"ה...

Torah Umadda

Lecture on Torah Umadda (2002)

פותחין לכבוד יאכסניא – ... המורים והתלמידים. TOD: מדע only/תורה only/TuM – Y.U. and pattern all D.S. ST: 12-14 yrs ago, 2 divers emerg fr Medittrnean near Acco, 2 sacks snails, open dye changes yellow → green → blue → blue → deep purple: תכלת! They=2 br-I-1 (dentst/physcst – Sterman/Greenspan – YU grads) – EX: TUM! TOR = ות"ת כנגד כולם...והגית בו יומם ולילה AND: מורשה קהילת יעקב NOT only priestly clss... So; B proud Y J-only rel. Source TuM: בראשית-שמו; also: (רב בקר) שמואל (ירחינאה)

Torah Umadda

Two Versions of Synthesis (1962)

From the very beginning of Jewish history Judaism has, for better or for worse, experienced some interaction with its surrounding culture. A great part of the Bible is a warning, both explicit and implicit, against assimilating the cultic pagan practices. However, with the rise of Greek philosophy and the prominence given to reason and a more sophisticated culture, some Jews began to expose themselves to the non-Jewish modes of thought and fall under their influence. Gradually, individual thinkers, such as Philo in Alexandria, and later, as in the “Golden Age” in Spain, whole schools concerned themselves with the direct confrontation of traditional Judaism and Western thought. With the Emancipation, this confrontation was no longer con-fined to a few individuals or even schools. The interaction between Judaism and the culture of the host people was now of major import to the Jewish community as a whole. The variety of responses to this massive challenge of Western civilization is represented by the spectrum of Jewish allegiances extant even today. They range from a complete abandonment of Judaism and Jewish loyalties to an utter and complete rejection of Western philosophical and scientific ideas. In-between there exists a graduated fragmentation, a land of Maxwellian distribution of interpretations. The purpose of this essay is to present two versions of one particular type of response to the challenge of modernity, one that is more than a mere arithmetic decision on the proportion of Jewishness to be admitted in the make-up of the “modern Jew.” The modern Orthodox Jew in America represents the product of such a response resulting from the confrontation between authentic halakhic Judaism and Western thought He is a novel kind of Jew, a historical experiment in the reaction to the great dialogue. His survival and success may very well have the most fateful consequences for Jewry and Judaism throughout the world. What is the peculiar nature of this new type of Jew? …

Torah Umadda