The facts about our community are rather encouraging. Numerically and institutionally, in terms of youth and influence, we are a significant group in this country. Objectively examined, what binds us together as a distinct entity is our full commitment to the Torah tradition and our openness, at the same time, to the wider culture of the world about us; to use the two dreadfully inadequate words which normally describe us as a distinct movement, we are both “modern” and “Orthodox.” I shall be using these terms only with the greatest hesitation. “Orthodox” is almost pejorative; it implies a stifling and unthinking narrow-mindedness. And “modern” is amusingly pretentious; it adds nothing to the validity or invalidity of a proposition. Jacques Maritain recently referred to this as “chronolatry,” the idolatry of what is newest or latest in time.But while this phenomenological observation is true enough as it goes, it does not go nearly far enough. Merely to describe what we are is not a sufficiently convincing reason for being what we are or for persuading others to acknowledge our rightness and join our ranks. The great problem of modern American Orthodoxy is that it has failed to interpret itself to itself. This failure, which reveals itself in many ways, derives from a remarkable intellectual timidity which we should have long outgrown.One should not be too harsh in judging the past. There were reasons — good reasons — for our apologetic posture. But it was humiliating. In confronting the outside world and those to the left of us, we seemed to be saying that while we hold on to the practices and doctrines of the Jewish tradition, we are really just like everybody else, perhaps even more so. We appeared to be whispering, in unbecoming shyness, that we were not really foreign or dirty.At the same time, we were and still are apologetic — almost masochistically — towards those to the right of us. We send our children to the universities. And we are going to continue to…

Twelve years ago, I was invited to address the Orthodox Union Convention in this city on a similar, far-ranging topic. I presented eight principles or suggestions for a strategy – ranging from the primacy of Torah to a non-apologetic attitude to secular studies; from a relevant exposition of Orthodox Judaism to a more significant curriculum for yeshivot; from the right attitude toward non-Orthodox Jews to the importance of teaching hashkafah; from a balanced conception of the Halakhah to our response to new challenges. I am pleased that I personally have had the opportunity, in the past two years, to begin to implement some of these ideas at Yeshiva University. I am not at all surprised that that talk, and its subsequent appearance in print in Jewish Life, did not receive a second thought from anyone else. I am reminded of what Rabbi Israel Salanter used to say: A musar-schmuess is always worth it, even if it results in only one person davening only one Maariv with a bit more kavannah, and even if that one person is – me… “Priorities of the Eighties”: This is not the place or the time for offering a detailed five- or ten-year plan. Such a schedule must be hammered out on the anvil of many minds, and requires the participation of the visionary as well as the pragmatist, the thinker as well as the doer, and is best prepared in long sessions away from the glare of publicity. Instead, let me propose a broad outline of what I consider the truly important problems, principles, and parameters for such a consideration. I operate on one basic premise: that American Orthodoxy is mature enough to examine itself critically without becoming demoralized. So, if I am critical, it is not because I want to be captious, but because the only way to be constructive is to trust your basic health and self-confidence in making suggestions for improvement. Our question, then, is: What must be the priorities of the Orthodox Union, of the entire Orthodox community, as we face the ninth dec…

It goes without saying that it is that common vision of Torah which we call "Centrist Orthodoxy" that unites us here today. But. we ought to bear in mind what Carl Becker, the great American historian, once said. "It is important, every so often, to look at the things that go without saying to be sure that they are still going." I would add the need for intellectual vigilance to this reminder for practical caution by paraphrasing his aphorism: "It is important, every so often, to look at what we are saying about the things that go without saying to make sure we know what we are talking about." In reflecting on some of the foundations of our Weltanschauung, I do not presume to be imparting new information. The task I have set for myself is to summarize and clarify, rather than to innovate. Dr. Johnson once said that it is important not only to instruct people but also to remind them. I shall take his sage advice for this discourse. We seem to be suffering from a terminological identity crisis. We now call ourselves "Centrist Orthodoxy." There was a time, not too long ago, when we referred to ourselves as "Modern Orthodox." Others tell us that we should call ourselves simply "Orthodox," without any qualifiers, and leave it to the other Orthodox groups to conjure up adjectives for themselves. I agree with the last view in principle, but shall defer to the advocates of "Centrist Orthodoxy" for two reasons: First, it is the term that today has greatest currency, and second, it is a waste of intellectual effort and precious time to argue about titles when there are so many truly significant issues that clamor for our attention. In no way should the choice of one adjective over the other be invested with any substantive significance or assumed to be a "signal" of ideological position. We are what we are, and we should neither brag nor be apologetic about it. These days, we do more of the latter than the former, and I find that reprehensible. Let us be open and forthright …

Yeshiva University is exceedingly proud of its alumni, both men and women, in Israel: their idealism, their personal deportment, their families, their professional achievements, and their varied contributions to the State of Israel. I have met our graduates in every part of this country and they are engaged in a dizzying variety of professions and businesses. In all cases, they have given us cause for pride and "nachas."But these accomplishments are, for the most part, personal, the result of individual efforts and successes. What has been missing is the collective voice of the Yeshiva University graduates in the State of Israel.The time has come for Yeshiva University, through its alumni, to become a clear and articulate moral force in this country. Our alumni must become a cohesive group united not only by a common alma mater, but by a comprehensive Torah outlook which, without keeping to any party line, will be idealistic yet realistic, both youthfully energetic and mature, assertive but balanced, and combining enthusiasm with sanity.A wave of extremism is sweeping the world, and America and the American Jewish community have not remained unaffected by it. But the negative results are far more palpable and consequential in Israel for a number of obvious reasons: it is a smaller country; this is a highly politicized and informal society; people here suffer from a low threshold of frustration because of the accumulated military, political, and economic pressures; and the country lacks an established tradition of civility in public discourse.Yet, these are only explanations, not excuses. The situation is too serious to ignore when it sometimes seems, at least to this observer, that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.At times of this sort, we all stand under a holy imperative: do not let the center collapse!What Yeshiva has taught us, both in theory and in practice — the joining of Torah learning and Western culture under the rubric of Torah Umadda; the opennes…

The initiation of a new administration is similar to the dawn of a new day. Just as the day begins with מודה אני, so the installation of a new president and officers ought to begin with מודה אני to the outgoing president and his associates. I am therefore pleased to acknowledge with gratitude the hard work, earnest efforts, and many achievements of Shimon Kwestel and his colleagues. These have not been calm years, and he has borne the weight of office with ease and conducted himself with endless dedication and enthusiasm. The entire Orthodox community is indebted to him and his fellow officers, who, we know, will continue to give of their wisdom and experience to the incoming administration. The next administration or two will put its stamp on the UOJCA as the 20th century draws to a close. And it comes into office as a new world seems to be emerging — both globally and for us in the Jewish and especially the Torah community. I generally distrust the hoopla so characteristic of conventions, in which organizational spokesmen point with pride at their own supposed achievements and view with alarm the alleged failings of their adversaries. I am suspicious when they overstate the positive and favorable and minimize or omit the negative and unfavorable. Yet I believe that at this point in our history, we can allow ourselves the luxury of just a bit of optimism — provided that we do not allow it to lull us into euphoric paralysis. Things are changing before our very eyes, as the sands of time shift beneath our feet — and for once, most of the changes seem to be for the good. These improvements in the condition of Orthodoxy, these brightened prospects for Torah, require of us not only an expression of gratitude, not only a surge of new confidence, certainly not the smugness of triumphalism — but a sober appreciation that these events constitute a historic challenge for us to exploit the new situations so as to make the prospects for the acceptance of Torah by Jews even gr…

In Halakha-difference between אנינות ואבילות-disbelief/onset of pain... A this very hour/Jerus/being led to קבורה; & we-still in state of shock, & just beginning to feel full impact of grief. So – is too early to take full measure of man, just enough for expression of initial grief and the bare beginnings of assessment of R. for us/historyBegin with an interpretation of this past Shabbat's Sidra: לך לך מארצךוממולדתך ומבית אביך...אבות פ״ה-עשרה נסיונות...ורמב״ם-א׳ מהן "לך לך". אבל קשה-רש"׳ --"לטובתך ולהנאתך"...אלא שהנסיון היה שאברהם הבחין בצער הנשארים....So: his passing-no matter which side of the political divide we stand on-leaves us bewilderd, grief-stricken, deeply vexed.אבלות contains within it an element of תשובה...It is therefore appropriate for us to examine ourselves & learn if we in any way can improve what we are doing/how acting so as to avoid such catastrophes in futureLet me begin these few ruminations by saying that in addition to shock and grief, I for one experienced a vital element of תשובה, and that is: בושה...It was one of us-a religious student, who did it-even if he is a mad man...We have been civilized-by Torah, by social sanctions, by parental training, by moral conscience. That constraining inhibition is powerful in most people. I But in some it is exceedingly weak. A person so poorly endowed can lead an otherwise normal life for a long time, but place him in an environment which is permissive of violence, which exposes him to harsh talk, to hype, to unrestrained overstatement, to irrational and undisciplined expression-and anti-social urges buried deep within his sick psyche will explode in an unspeakably ugly display of hostility that turns men into monsters, society into a jungle, and civilization into chaos.Our responsibility is to avoid such an environment, never to be guilty of having, knowingly or unknowingly, encouraged such bestiality.Our responsibility is to be responsible, to recognize that violent rhetoric invariably l…

Rabbi Lamm discusses the main characteristics that will determine the nature of Modern Orthodoxy and its place in the Jewish world. Rabbi Professor Norman Lamm received three degrees from Yeshiva University: B.A., Ph.D., and Rabbinic ordination. After twenty-five years in the pulpit and twenty-seven years as president of Yeshiva University, he is now the university's chancellor. He is the author of ten books, some of which were translated into a number of languages.

Rabbi Lamm discusses the main characteristics that will determine the nature of Modern Orthodoxy and its place in the Jewish world. Rabbi Professor Norman Lamm received three degrees from Yeshiva University: B.A., Ph.D., and Rabbinic ordination. After twenty-five years in the pulpit and twenty-seven years as president of Yeshiva University, he is now the university's chancellor. He is the author of ten books, some of which were translated into a number of languages.