Dear Professor Gurock, let me update you with respect to the Higayon Conference. The conference is scheduled to open on the evening of Monday, October 26 and will take place in BMT as originally planned. On Tuesday there will be sessions throughout the day and on Wednesday there will be sessions until 3:00 p.m., followed by a closed session for mathematicians. The closed session will take place in the home of Mr. M. Brachfeld in Motza. As I mentioned to you, Mr. Brachfeld is contributing $5,000 towards the publication of the proceedings. I’ve just met with Rabbi Rackman who has confirmed that Bar-Ilan will match Yeshiva’s $7,000 contribution. The opening session will feature Rabbi Lamm and Rabbi A. Lichtenstein, pending final agreement of each to attend. Could you please ask Rabbi Lamm to confirm his participation as soon as possible – I’m leaving after Tisha B’Av for a month of miluim – and also please ask him to let me know if he intends to speak in English or Hebrew (Hebrew is preferable). I’ll keep you informed of further developments. Best regards.

Dear Rabbi Lamm, 7 Iyar 5752 May 10, 1992 We are very pleased that you have tentatively agreed to participate in the First International Higayon Conference on the use of modern concepts for the understanding of Talmudic ideas. The conference will take place from 29 Tishrei to 1 Cheshvan 5753 (October 26–28, 1992) in the auditorium of Beit Midrash L’Torah in Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem. A special closed session will be held at the estate of Mr. Meir Brachfeld in Motza on the afternoon of the third day. There will be a total of about thirty presentations, each allotted 25–30 minutes; if you feel this is inadequate, we can allot you extra time or schedule parallel sessions. Because the invited speakers have not yet submitted titles, it is hard at this stage to give a precise picture of the direction the conference will take. The fields of those who have tentatively agreed to attend are distributed roughly evenly among philosophy, economics, science, mathematics, and rabbinics. They include: Rabbanim: Norman Lamm (Yeshiva U.), D. Berkovich (Elul), M. Feldman (Bar-Ilan), N. Rabinovich (Birkat Moshe), S. Spero (Bar-Ilan), N. Taylor (Bar-Ilan), E. Zini (Technion); Philosophy: Y. Gellman (Ben-Gurion), A. Sagi (Bar-Ilan), D. Schwartz (Bar-Ilan), Z. Shteinfeld (Bar-Ilan), Y. Silman (Bar-Ilan), M. Steiner (Hebrew U.); Mathematics: Y. Aumann (Hebrew U.), Y. Choueka (Bar-Ilan), G. Ehrlich (Bar-Ilan), S. Epstein (Seton Hall), A. Fraenkel (Weizmann), E. Merzbach (Bar-Ilan); Economics: S. Gottesman (Columbia), N. Leff (Columbia), A. Levine (Yeshiva U.), Y. Lieberman (Bar-Ilan); Science: M. Kaveh (Bar-Ilan), Z. Mendlowitz (Howard U.), M. Schwartz (Jerusalem Torah College), M. Sprecher (Bar-Ilan). We urge you to confirm your participation in the conference as soon as possible. Please submit a tentative title and a brief abstract, and include any special requests you may have regarding the length and timing of your lecture, special equipment, etc. Sincerely, Moshe Koppel Department of Mat…

Dear Professor Gurock, I’ve finally finished a month of miluim and am back to work on the Higayon conference. The schedule is now set and invitations are being mailed out. You will receive the complete schedule in the mail some time next week. The opening session will take place on the campus of the Gruss Institute at 7:30 in the evening on Monday October 26. The speakers will be Dr. Lamm and Adin Steinsaltz. I am assuming that Dr. Lamm will be speaking on “Torah u’Mada” in Hebrew for a period of 45 minutes to an hour. If this is unsatisfactory please notify me at once. On another issue, I have clarified with the legal experts here that it would be far better for Yeshiva to pay the stipends of speakers flying in from the States directly to the speakers rather than via our account. This is because money which passes through our hands is subject to a 15% currency-exchange surcharge and is conceivably taxable as well. At the very least, we would expect that those speakers who are employees of Yeshiva (Levine, Rosensweig, Shindman) be paid directly by Yeshiva (with the $3000 then deducted from the $7000 to be sent to us). Please get back to me on this. Best regards, Moshe Koppel

Dear Rabbi Lamm, First, I am happy to report that we expect to receive the Higayon book from the printer next week and I will be sending you 25 copies as agreed. Second, I was wondering whether you received the manuscript I dropped off with your secretary before Pesach. Do you have any comments? Are you willing to provide a blurb? Best wishes to you and your family for a חג שמח. בצפיח לגאולה שלמה, Moshe Koppel