Caras: Rabbi, is there anything in the philosophy of the Jews that militates against there being extraterrestrial life? Lamm: In Jewish thinking throughout the ages there has been a general tendency to regard man as the sole concern of God in this world. Accompanying this there has developed an idea that man is the purpose of the entire universe. This has been a rather general tendency, although it never has been enshrined into dogma. However, one of the very greatest of all Jewish thinkers of all days, perhaps the greatest Jewish philosopher of all times, Maimonides - about eight hundred years ago - strongly opposed this view and he maintained that man may be the superior creature on Earth but it would be foolish to consider that he is, therefore, the purpose of the universe or, in fact, that he is necessarily the most advanced creature in the world. And according to his whole approach, Judaism today can welcome with remarkable openness the idea that intelligent races exist elsewhere, species even more intelligent than man.CARAS: If there are intelligent races and they have had millions of years longer than we have to develop, what would happen if they are not men? What would happen to the theological position, or must they be known as man?LAMM: I think the problem as to what form these extraterrestrial intel ligent sentient races take .is really irrelevant. They may look like elephants, they may look like seals, or look like the little men from Mars that science fiction has always portrayed in the comics. The point is that it is not morphology or form that counts. What does count is their intellectual and spiritual development. If they are more intelli-■ gent than man, then I suppose they will be less hostile than man and that therefore we can enter into some dialogue with them - assuming, n of course, that we ever can contact them.CARAS: Do you think we will contact them?LAMM: I am not a scientist and I think even the scientists don’t have י any definite answer.…

Orthodoxy is not a movement within Judaism, no, it is Judaism itself. Orthodoxy is the sole legitimate heir of Judaism, and if it has any faults, these are not the faults of Orthodoxy as a movement but rather those of contemporary Judaism. Certainly there are faults. The chief fault lies with that wing within Orthodoxy which has run away from history, which has shut itself off from the world, which refuses to come to terms with changing reality, which has made “splendid isolation” its watchword while awaiting the arrival of the Messiah. Yet there is another wing within Orthodoxy, too, which proclaims that, although the Jewish people as a people does not indeed follow the ordinary course of history and is not subject to the standard laws of history, and therefore cannot be “normal” in the true sense of the term—nevertheless it should not decline to partake in history. This trend in Orthodoxy has grown especially strong in the United States. The great difficulty facing the Jew today is that of living in both worlds—a difficulty which has found concrete expression in the way of life of the State of Israel—but most Orthodox Jews in the United States have already learned how to live in both worlds, and the introduction of combined programs of secular and religion education is one proof positive of this.As for convenience—that is a relative notion. Personally, I find it very convenient to be an Orthodox Jew, because I find it convenient to be at peace with myself as a whole Jew. But he who defines convenience not in terms of making peace with himself but rather with the pleasures of the moment, with easy life, will doubtless find the Conservatives more convenient, and even more so the Reform. Convenience of this kind has been one of the great American principles (at least until three years ago), and, as Rabbi Yehuda the Pious used to say, “As is the custom of the Christians, so too is the custom of the Jews. . .”The success of the Conservative and the Reform is based mos…

Jewish Review: Dr. Lamm, what is the problem of Torah-U-Madda (Torah and Secular Knowledge) and why is it necessary to present a halakhic and philosophical defense of this concept? Dr. Lamm: Let me begin by providing you with one perspective on this problem. The highest ideal or the highest value in Judaism is talmud Torah, the study of Torah. The obverse of this value is, therefore, also true: that a major infraction is bitul Torah or the wasting of time that should otherwise be used for the study of Torah. The consequence of this principle would appear to be that one must use all of one’s available time for the study of Torah and this would seem to rule out any other kind of cognitive activity such as the study of history, philosophy, science, astronomy, etc. It is for this reason that secular study presents a problem. It presents a problem, of course, only for those who are inside the Torah community, those who are within the halakhic fraternity. People who are outside of this fraternity have no problem with secular learning. For them, we might say, the problem is “Who needs Torah?” But for those of us who are committed to Torah, we are automatically faced with the question of what to do with all other areas in the cognitive universe, all knowledge other than Halakha. A similar problem confronts even those who are committed to a “Torah only” point of view. This is because once they have ruled out all so-called secular and profane learning, then they must confront the question of whether all Jewish learning is good or whether certain types of Jewish learning are to be preferred over others. There are those, for example, who will learn nothing but Halakha and who regard everything outside of Halakha not as strictly forbidden, but as not really appropriate for the educational elite.Jewish Review: You state that you and your second generation American peers at Yeshiva University have been far more concerned, and al times even critical, of the confluence of Jewish an…

RD: I'd like to begin with recollections of Yechidus you have had with the Rebbe in 1956. NL: It was probably In 1956 that I met the Rebbe ZT'L. It was about the day school we had in Springfield Mass., where I was a Rabbi. We had a day school and there was a Lubavitcher day school. My concern was that there was competition for a very few students. I came to the Rebbe. I saw him quite late at night, I don't remember exactly what time, K'darko Bakodesh. He took a halachic stance, that there is no Hasogas Gvul when it comes to Talmud Torah. That's the way it remained. He didn’t order any change. To this day there are two schools that operate separately. I was not necessarily pleased with this decision but I respected it.RD You were the principal of the other school.NL I wasn't the principal -I was a rabbi in the community. I felt responsible for that day school because it was the day school that serviced my congregation. Like so many suburban or out of New York day schools, it had quite a number of nori-orthodox kids from non-orthodox families who we tried to be mekarev. The same was true of the Lubavitcher day school. .I had tried to see hm some sort of unification a it didn't work. I accepted the Rebbe's decision, never held it against him or the Lubavitcher in Springfield, who are still very dear friends, people I like very much like the Adelmans.RD Were there any personal or philosophical things discussed?NL No.RD Were you here in America when the Previous Rebbe came in 1940Nt I was a Bar-Mitzvah boy at the time. I was born here. I must tell you that to my recollection, the Impact that the Previous Rebbe had was nowhere near as widespread and powerful as the last Rebbe. There were a number of Chassidishe Rebbeim. All of them had a certain amount of prominence, but no one really-overwhetrnwrTKe^Mom. It's the most recent Lubavitcher Rebbe who had this tremendously wide influence and brood impact on the Jewish community as a whole.RD How do you see this in detail.Nl.…

AH: What do you feel to have been your greatest achievements over the past two decades at Yeshiva University? RL: You’ve asked me what I think my greatest achievements have been since I came to Yeshiva a little over twenty years ago. A number of them: one of them is guiding the university through debt reconstruction when I first came, for the first two or three years, when we were on the brink of bankruptcy, and we had to decide what to do. It was a very difficult time, a very threatening time, but, with the help of the Almighty, we overcame it, and since then we have no debt of any serious consequence.The second thing is the formation of the Kollelim. When 1 came here, we had only one Kollel; now we have four Kollelim here and one in Israel; that, to my mind, says something about harbatzat haTorah. Also Torah U’Madda - the emphasis on Torah U’Madda, the publica- tions about Torah U’Madda - we have several volumes already, we have a journal on Torah U’Madda, we have lectures on Torah U’Madda. I am now convinced that no matter what we do, students will always complain about the fact that we don’t have anyone to talk about TorahU’Madda, which means that they’re not reading and they’re not listening, but if they did. they would find that there’s quite a bit they can learn from.I think that the next element would be - I don’t know if it’s my achievement; maybe it’s in the air - the growth of the midtown campus, Stern College and Sy Syms - especially the midtown campus, and the tremendous increase of Jewish learning not only in quantity but in quali- ty, which may even go beyond that. Finally, I would say, the emphasis on aca- demic excellence, which means the Honors programs which are going into effect, im yirtzeh Hashem, both at Stern and at Yeshiva College, and I think we increased recognition of Yeshiva University in the world community.Those, I think, are my contributions. For none of these was I alone personally responsible - and don’t think I say it because I wa…

When Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University, announced earlier this year that he would retire in the summer of 2002, he set off a maelstrom of speculation about who from within the ranks of an increasingly fragmented Orthodox world could take the helm of an institution that, in its effort to be the standard-bearer of Modern Orthodoxy in the U.S., seeks to be at once a yeshiva and a university. Well-aware of naysayers who warn that YU will not be able to find someone who can be both university president and rosh yeshiva (yeshiva head), and will need two directors, Rabbi (Dr.) Lamm says, “You can't separate ‘Yeshiva’ from ‘University’ without damage.” It would be a “schizoid existence,” he said in a speech at YU’s annual dinner in June. He urged his supporters to keep faith in YU’s dual mission, Torah U’Madda — literally, Torah learning and scientific or secular learning. “I plead with you,” he said. “Do not believe that we are the last of the Mohicans… We will continue, we will rise, and we will conquer.” As YU’s selection committee narrows down its list of candidates for the presidency, the 70-year-old Lamm is taking stock of his 25 years at YU, 50 years in Jewish communal life, and the future of both the school — which this year reported its largest undergraduate enrollment ever — and Modern Orthodoxy. He recently sat down to share some of his thoughts. Excerpts from the interview follow. Q: How has Yeshiva University changed in your quarter-century tenure? A: We have a closer relationship with Israel, where every year we have hundreds of our students in the S. Daniel Abraham (freshman-year-in-Israel) program. As a matter of fact, this year, with all that’s happened in Israel — with all the problems of terrorism — when one of the Jewish newspapers announced that less than 50 percent are coming to Hebrew University and to other universities — we maintained an identical number to last year, not counting shana bet (those who return to Israel for a second year …

יהודי ארצות הברית, כמו כלל האמריקאים, עדיין לא הפנים את מלוא משמעותו של האסון הכבד ביותר שפקד את ארצם. העובדה שכעשרה אחוזים מהקורבנות היו יהודים מעצימה את תחושת חוסר הוודאות שלהם. מקהילה שראתה את עצמה תמיד כיציבה ובטוחה, הנותנת כתף ליהודים נזקקים, הפכה הקהילה היהודית האמריקאית בעצמה לקהילה הנזקקת לתמיכה והזדהות – ואולי אף ליותר מכך. הרב פרופ’ נחום לאם, נשיא ישיבה יוניברסיטי בניו יורק, אומר שיהודי ארצות הברית חייבים להתמודד עם המציאות החדשה לא בשאלה מדוע זה קרה, אלא מה יש לעשות כדי להתעלות ולהתגבר על המשבר. לאחר מתקפת הטרור של 11 בספטמבר, ארצות הברית שוב אינה כשהייתה. היא הוכתה בהלם, גאה שפלתה, אזרחיה שוב אינם בטוחים ונינוחים כבעבר. לפתע התברר שגם “ארץ האפשרויות הבלתי מוגבלות” – המדינה האדירה בעולם – אינה חסינה, אינה יכולה להבטיח ביטחון לתושביה. קומץ טרוריסטים חמושים בסכינים טלטלו את יסודותיה. גם יהדות ארצות הברית כבר איננה בטוחה בעצמה ואדישה – מי שראו עצמם “אחים למורשת” אך לא “אחים לגורל” מצאו עצמם לפתע באותה חרדה קיומית שבה שרויים יהודי ישראל כבר שנים. “אנחנו שרויים עדיין בעיצומו של הלם נורא”, קובע הרב לאם. “עדיין לא קלטנו את מהות השינוי שהתחולל באמריקה”. לדבריו, מדובר בשינוי פסיכולוגי עמוק – הפעם הראשונה מאז 1812, אז שרפו הבריטים את הבית הלבן, שאמריקה מותקפת בשטחה. בישראל, גם מתוך צער, חיים עם הידיעה שפגיעוּת היא חלק מהמציאות. אך האמריקאים טרם קיבלו את עובדת פגיעותם. לשם המחשה, מדמה הרב לאם את ההבדל למושגים הלכתיים: ישראל יושבת באבל – ואילו אמריקה עדיין באֲנִינוּת, כלומר מצב תודעתי טרום־אבלות, בו האדם עוד לא קולט את משמעות האובדן. ולכן – אמריקה עדיין לא עיבדה את האסון. כשנשאל האם דור ניצולי השואה מצוי במצב נפשי אחר, השיב הרב לאם: הדור הזה הולך ונעלם, ורוב הקהילה נולדה לאחר מכן – יש הבדל בין לדעת היסטוריה ובין לחיות מציאות טראומטית. מספר הקורבנות היהודים נאמד במאות – רובם צעירים, בשיא חייהם, ומובחר הנוער. בנוגע להשלכות הרוחניות, מציין הרב לאם שהתגובה של יהודים לא הייתה שונה מזו של שאר האמריקאים – רבים פנו לבתי תפילה. אך הוא מבקר את הכמרים שניסו להסביר מדוע התיר ה' את האסון – תשובות דחוקות ושטחיות שאין להן מקום. לשבחם של הרבנים, מציין הרב לאם, שהם נמנעו מתשובות מסוג זה…

As this marks Rabbi Dr. Lamm’s final year as president of Yeshiva University, the Observer editors spoke to Rabbi Lamm about his accomplishments as president of the University, how the University has changed, where he sees the University headed, and what message he would like to leave the students. Asked what he views as his greatest accomplishment as president of YU for the past 27 years, Dr. Lamm replied: “From one point of view, considering the difficult earlier years, the greatest accomplishment was survival – for me and for the University. The colleges and RIETS are on a much more firm financial basis. There is no comparison to where we were when I came in and we were talking about Chapter Eleven, going bankrupt. Baruch Hashem, we were saved from that disaster. There are things that I did that, while I am pleased that I did them, I wish I could have done more. I think the improvement of the undergraduate colleges is important. The Honors programs have added to the intellectual level of conversation in the classroom. They have been able to attract more gifted students. We have more students coming in now than ever before. I am pleased with the kollelim we have established at RIETS. I am pleased with Stern College, especially with the strengthening of the school as the years go by – and the same is true of Yeshiva College and Sy Syms.” He added: “There is a great deal to be done in getting the Stern students more aware of the fact that there is a University as well as getting the University to know that there is a Stern College.” Asked to describe the greater commitment to Torah U’madda he has witnessed, Dr. Lamm explained that it has become more explicit, more articulated. “Before I came in, people didn’t talk about it. They questioned it, but didn’t look for or wait for any answers. They called it a ‘synthesis’ in those days. They didn’t talk about it. No one really knew what it meant, except in a very general way. Today we have the Torah U’madda Project, Tor…

Interviewer: I will ask you questions in three phases of Jewish history – questions referring to the past, the present, and the future. The question vis-à-vis the past is the following: exactly what do we mean when we say Torah Shebe’al Peh, and how much of it really comes from Mount Sinai? Rabbi Lamm: The usual answer, which I believe is completely valid, is that Torah Shebe’al Peh includes the entire body of Jewish traditions – excluding Scripture – Customs, gezerot, and takkanot; which means: all essential law that we attribute as halakhah le-Mosheh mi-Sinai, plus the authoritative interpretation of the Written Torah.How far back does it go? Once upon a time – say thirty, forty, fifty years ago, or even less – we who maintained that the Oral Law can be traced back to Sinai sounded dogmatic and doctrinaire, and much out of touch with the world. However, now we have come to understand that in any community with a long history, oral law always precedes star-written law. A written constitution is never created de novo by people sitting down and writing a social contract. A constitution – a written law – always issues from a cultural context, in which certain procedures and guidelines for social behavior are understood as part of the conventional mores and accepted ideals of the community before they are put down in writing. The constitution comes only afterward.So, if anything, Torah Shebe’al Peh is older than the Torah Shebikhtav.Interviewer: Would that mean, therefore, that the Mishnah and the Gemara originate directly from Mount Sinai?Rabbi Lamm: Yes – not word for word, by any means...Interviewer: As part of a tradition that was transmitted at Sinai to the people?Rabbi Lamm: Yes, by all means. In other words, when the Gemara says that something is halakhah le-Mosheh mi-Sinai, and it means it literally – and I’m making this exception, which I’ll explain in a moment – then as far as I’m concerned, it goes back to Mosheh Rabbenu and possibly even earlier. It is ju…

You recently received the inaugural Norman Lamm Prize recognizing your scholarship and commitment to Rabbi Dr. Lamm's ideals. Could you tell us what you think R. Lamm 's greatest achievements were in his over 50 years of leadership in the American Jewish community? First, he saved Yeshiva from closure, from one of its most severe financial crises. Second, he built up an immense educational institution, and those elements of it that 1 have seen in my week’s stay here have been truly impressive. 'There is no other institution like Yeshiva University in the Jewish world. It is an astonishing achievement, and it owes an enormous amount to Rabbi Lamm. And third, he has shown tremendous courage and tenacity in carrying Torah u-Madda forward without any deviation whatsoever. At times when it was quite difficult to do so, he had the koach (power) to build and the gevurah (strength) to stay true to his principles.