A good part of the functioning of a rabbi, in the many aspects of his career as a teacher of Torah and leader of his community, depends upon his self-confidence – a psychological and also spiritual issue which involves his self-image as a rabbi and student of Torah, and his conception of his role, his identity, and his destiny. At first blush, the problem is a rather simple one. Self-image is a question of gaavah (pride) or anivut (humility), and Maimonides in his Hilkhot Deiot is quite clear on this. In all other attributes of character, as a matter of Halakhah, Maimonides demands that we follow the middle way between the ex-tremes. We are to shun the extremes and follow the path of moderation, the mean between the two polar opposites. This middle way, what is popularly known as the “Golden Mean,” Maimonides identi-fies as “The Way of the Lord.” But there are two exceptions that Maimonides makes in formulating this halakhah of character, and one of these is self-assessment. Here Maimonides identifies the two extremes as gaavah (pride) and shiflut (lowli-ness), and the middle way as that of anivut (humble-ness). Unlike other characteristics, or deiot, a per-son here must choose the extreme of shiflut — of self-abnegation or lowliness. Thus, we read con-cerning Moses that והאיש משה ענו מאוד , "and the man Moses was very humble” (Numbers 12:3). Maimonides interprets the intensive as indicating the extreme; thus, “very humble” (anav me’od) equals “of lowly spirit" (shefal ruah).Similarly, in the fourth chapter of Avot we read that R. Levitas of Yavneh says, “Be exceedingly careful (me’od, me’od) to be lowly of spirit.” Hence, with regard to a person’s self-definition, the “golden mean” or middle way does not apply and, instead, one must opt for shiflut or lowliness—the extreme or intensive form of anivut, humbleness.However, the matter is too complex and too con-sequential to leave it at that. An analysis of Maimonides’ view leaves us with a number of troubling questi…

ברצוני להתמקד במסיבה זו על עניין שכולנו ערים לו ובכל זאת כאילו גזרנו עליו את השתיקה, והוא, הבעיות הדתיות בבתי כנסת ובבתי ספר וישיבות בהם תשמשו בקודש. כמעט מן הנמנע, שבקהילה/בית ספר שלכם תהיה אוכלוסיה מעורבת, דהיינו, דרגת שמירת המצות ויראת שמים לא תהיה מעור אחד, אלא זה בכה וזה בכה. דבר זה לא יגרום לכם נחת רוח ושלות הנפש, אבל עליכם להתאזר ולהתכונן לזה ולהכין את ה"חלק החמישי של השלחן ערוך" שלכם נוסף להלכות קצובות והדרכת רבותיכם.וכתשורה לכבוד פרידתכם, יורשה לי להתוות לכם כמה קווים כלליים שאולי תוכלו להיעזר מהם כשתעמדו מול בעיות כאלה. ואתמך יתדותי בפרשת השבוע לגלות דעת התורה בהלכות ציבור.הגישה לשמאל — אלה שלא הגיעו עדיין למלוא קומתם הרוחנית: אחרי עוון המרגלים מתפלל משה בעד בנ״י לאמר: "ועתה יגדל נא כח ה׳ כאשר דברת לאמר, ה׳ ארך אפים ורב חסד נושא עון ופשע ונקה וגו׳". ורש״י על אתר מביא דברי הגמ׳ סנהדרין קי״א ע״א: ה׳ ארך אפים — לצדיקים ולרשעים; כשעלה משה למרום מצאו להקב״ה שהיה יושב וכותב ה׳ ארך אפים. אמר לו \[משה להקב״ה] לצדיקים; אמר לו הקב״ה — אף לרשעים. אמר לו, רשעים יאבדו. אמר לו, חייך שתצטרך לדבר. כשחטא ישראל בעגל ובמרגלים, נתפלל משה לפניו בארך אפים, אמר לו הקב״ה, והלא אמרת לי לצדיקים. אמר לו, והלא אמרת לי אף לרשעים. על פי הכלל של "והלכת בדרכיו", שומה עליכם להתייחס ל״רשעים" באותה מידה של אריכת אפים, לא להכות אותם על קדקדם, לא להרחיקם ולדחותם אם כי לא להיכנע לכל תביעה שלהם. תזכרו פירוש הנצי״ב על המשנה באבות "אהוב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה", שמוכח מעצם המשנה שהחיוב לאהוב את הבריות הוא כשהם רחוקים מחיי תורה ומצות. וודאי שאין לזלזל בהם או לביישם. ועוד: כמה פסוקים אחר כך, אומר ה׳ למשה ולאהרן, "עד מתי לעדה הרעה הזאת..." והמשנה ריש סנהדרין (מובא ברש״י על אתר) ש״עדה" הם המרגלים, מכאן לעדה שהיא עשרה. נמצאינו למדים שכל דין של עשרה לדברים שבקדושה מקורו ב—עדת רשעים! אין לזלזל איפוא בשום יהודי שהיום הוא בגדר רשע ואולי מחר יחזור בתשובה וישגשג. "טוב ארך אפים מגבור" (משלי טז:לב). קל מאוד לדחותם בזרוע, או בקול, אבל הרבה יותר חשוב לקיום היהדות הוא לקרבם, להתיחס אליהם באריכת אפים, ולאהבם. ר׳ ישראל סלנטר היה אומר, על מה שאמרו חז"ל "הוכח תוכיח אפילו אלף פעמים", שהפשט הוא שכל תוכחה צריכי…

1. The topic assigned to me, formally, is "The American Orthodox Rabbi in the Computer Age." In elaborating on the theme, my hosts informed me that I was expected to expatiate on the issues and challenges that will confront Centrist Orthodoxy in the coming years. Now, this leaves me in a dilemma. I know less than nothing about computers. Since I am away from the rabbinate for 6-7 years, I feel unqualified to elaborate my views before those who bear its daily burdens. And in so far as predicting the future is concerned, I am always mindful of what Samuel Goldwyn used to say: "Never make forecasts, especially about the future." I shall therefore ask your leave to make some general and some specific comments about Centrist Orthodoxy, especially as it relates to American Orthodox Rabbis, and therefore most especially to the Rabbinical Council of America. I apologize in advance if I occasionally stray from my assigned theme to include matters that appear to me either urgent or important.

This address is dedicated – as is my shiur tomorrow – to the memory of morenu ve-rabbenu Dr. Samuel Belkin, zikhrono livrakhah, whose tenth yahrzeit we will commemorate in a few weeks, during Chol ha-Moed Pesach. Because Dr. Belkin was not only my teacher for one year – the last year he taught – but also my predecessor as President, I had the opportunity to appreciate the full scope of his prodigious talents and insights – his greatness not only as a talmid chakham and as an educator, but also as a leader. And it is this quality of leadership that I choose to discuss on this, his tenth yahrzeit and the one hundredth birthday of our Yeshiva. Dr. Belkin taught us by example that to be a talmid chakham you need lomdus; to be a yerei shamayim you need emunah; to be a teacher you need love of your pupils as well as your subject matter. But to be a rav, a rabbi in the classic Jewish sense, you need all these – and much more: you need the gift of leadership.Dr. Belkin himself was an orphan from Lithuania who became a renowned תלמיד חכם at a young age, wandered to the U.S., got himself a doctorate at Brown University, and then came to Yeshiva as both a rosh yeshiva and professor of Greek. His contribution to the |ewish world, however, was not confined to what he knew and what he taught, but was distinguished by the way he combined these with his vision, his goals, his determination, his readiness to use either gentle persuasion or confrontation —in a word, his leadership. It was the ability to integrate his Torah and his Mada with his leadership qualities that ensured his place in Jewish history.Dr. Belkin was blessed with great gifts, both intellectual and personal, and few of us indeed can aspire to equal his achievements. But we can learn from him, each in his own way and in accordance with his own personality, to exercise leadership in our careers as rabbis; to bear in mind that the rabbinate is neither a service profession nor a lifelong kollel at the expense of a co…

Every morning, at the introduction to our Shacharit prayers, we recite the following words: Le’olam yehei adam yerei shamayim ba-seter uva-galuy – a person must always be in fear of Heaven, both in private and in public. The source of this statement is the Tanna de-Vei Eliyahu, where it appears in a slightly different form, omitting the word uva-galuy, thus reminding us to be God-fearing in private. This reading, which is also that of Rambam in his version of the Siddur, is obviously meant to encourage Jews living under oppression not to forsake their faith within the privacy of their own homes and hearts even if they are forced to do so in public. However, the popular version, which we recite daily, is puzzling. Why was it necessary to include uva-galuy? And if it was done in order to emphasize that for Jews living under comparative freedom piety had to be pursued at all times and occasions, why not simply say Le’olam yehei adam yerei shamayim – that a man should always be God-fearing – without specifying that he should do so both ba-seter and uva-galuy?I suggest that a hidden nugget of wisdom lies here — a teaching that there really are two different kinds of piety, one for ba-seter and one for uva-galuy, and that the two realms of the hidden and revealed, or private and public, are distinct from although continuous with each other. The ba-seter or “Inside" fear of Heaven is a piety of and for oneself; it fills one’s inner space. Such a person is concerned only with his own spiritual welfare and growth in Torah. He experiences a kind of noble egotism of the soul, one which may, however, lead to spiritual narcissism. His untiring efforts are focused only on his own avodat Ha shem as he shuts the world off in order for this kind of devoutness to flourish. Such an Inside person is, in effect, reliving the condition of Moses who was commanded to ascend Sinai by himself: "no other human may accompany you." The Inside piety is fashioned out of solitude and loneliness a…

I didn’t reveal the title of my talk – “Humility” – to the convention chairman, because if I had, no one would have come to listen. (When I mentioned this to a layman earlier this week, his reaction was: “Good – rabbis could use a talk on that...”) Actually, I don’t intend מוסר but עיון – not to admonish but to analyze, not to preach but to comprehend, not to lecture but to give a שיעור. I have long been fascinated by Maimonides’ theory of the דרך האמצעית, which he elaborates first in his שמונה פרקים בפירוש המשניות and later in his הלכות דעות. Recently, I’ve been speaking and writing about the relevance of his concepts for the contemporary communal concerns that increasingly occupy our attention. This evening, I hope to continue that exploration by focusing on one of the two exceptions to the Maimonidean rule of the Middle Way – namely, כעס and גאוה. For now, we shall dwell on גאוה וענוה, and try to understand them per se – and then apply them, if possible, to our own situation.2 Maimonides' Theory of Humility: ...The case of Moses/Aaron/Miriam: והאיש משה ענו מאוד מכלהאדם אשר על פני האדמה and later (in רבי לויטס איש יבנה אומר מאוד מאוד הוה שפל רוח (אבות פ״ד שתקות אנוש רימה. .My Four Questions on Maimonides:a) is it true? Does שפלות of Moses imply that he was an ignoramus? Is Humility supposed to conflict w Truth?b) is it psychologically desirable? One need not applaud the efforts of 2nd -rate psychologists ... professional mission to turn people w injured psyches^accomplished narcissists ... terrorize relatives/ w new-found egos, i-o apprect tht cumulative wisdom of psych’ll inquiry has yielded valid insight that i-o t function properly, one must hv strong sense of self/feelg of self-worth.: As parents, do we desire to raise our ch w feeling of extreme lowliness/crushing inferiority/exceedingly weak self-image?? גמ׳ מגילה דף ל״א ע״א, כל מקום שאתה מוצא גבורתו של הקב״ה שם אתה מוצא ענוותנותו c) what ofנה וגס׳ סוף סוטה: משמת רבי בטלה ענוה, א״ל ר׳ יוסף לתנא d) How can …

Let me begin by clearing up the title of this talk, "Sheep and Shepherds: Ruminations on Leadership in Jewish Thought and Practice." Sheep and shepherds, צאן ורועה, are the Biblical metaphors for followers and leaders. I prefer that particular symbol because of the relationship between sheep and lambs... And both, after all, are classified as ruminants, hence the beginning of the subtitle... Puns aside, I am concerned that in our own מחנה, especially in the ranks of the RCA as well as YU, the spurning of leadership roles has become a generational phenomenon. When I got סמיכה, leadership was something we were naturally expected to exercise; it was a self-understood element in the responsibilities that רבנות imposed upon us. Whether and to what extent my generation, and the one before mine, executed this duty, is beside the point; the fact is that we knew we were expected to be leaders and that leadership was part and parcel of the functioning Rabbinate. That does not seem to be the fact any longer. For years now, young men have been choosing education over the Rabbinate, and that is not only because of their love of Torah or the scathing criticism of the American Orthodox Rabbinate in some circles (and by people who, ironically, now regularly bemoan the decline of the Rabbinate) , but also because they fear the responsibilities of leadership—communal or halakhic—and prefer a profession which keeps them linked to Torah but limits their "leadership" to 20-30 children! The result is fewer men in the Rabbinate and, of those who do enter, hardly any assumption that a Rav must be a leader, a doer, a mover and shaker and challenger of the status quo. Such leadership is evident in some other Orthodox circles—witness the aggressive outreach programs and the en- trepreneurial enthusiasm of groups such as Lubavitch and some of the "Yeshiva" circles. I am concerned because the problem is far more than theoretical. It touches on the very destiny of our community—the community de…

There is a bitter-sweet quality to this celebration. On the one hand, there is a sense of joy when, at this impressive quadrennial Chag Hasemikhah, we initiate a new group of Rabbis into their roles as congregational Rabbis and educators. On the other hand, this is the first such celebration in my memory, since my student days, at which our two great luminaries, The Rav and Reb Dovid, of blessed memory, did not grace the occasion with their presence. In a sense, both the joy and the sorrow speak to the same theme – the transferring of spiritual authority from one generation to the next, the passing of responsibility for the entire mesorah and Thrall leadership from teacher to student.Permit me, therefore, to refer you back to an incident in the early history of the Jewish monarchy, when the prophet Elijah invested Elisha as his disciple and sue-cessor, as related in I Kings, chapter 19. It is a chapter which is itself worthy of study and also serves as a metaphor for your Semikhah at this juncture of our history.Elijah had just gone through a soulsearing experience. Having challenged the prophets of Baal, confronted their royal supporter, Ahab, and therefore earned persecution by the infamous Isabel, Elijah finds himself distraught, in to-tai despair, having given up hope that his people are ready for their mission as the am Hashem. He is so filled with grim fore-bodings and feelings of inadequacy that he wants to die. God instructs him to stand at the mouth of the cave, where He reveals Himself to him. Elijah learns that God speaks to him not in the howling winds or the raging fires or the savage earthquake, but in the sound of gentle stillness, i.e., in patience and sensitivity. God then gives him three very specific commands: to anoint Hazael as the new king of Syria, Yehu as the new king of Israel, and, last, “Elisha, son ofShaphat, as a prophet in your place.”What does Elijah do? Does he proceed to follow the divine instructions exactly as they were given, nam…

My theme is not primarily that of "community” as it is that of "leadership.” And within that subject, I am less interested in communal or congregational leadership in the political-social sense than I am in the purely spiritual sense. You have heard, are hearing, and probably will hear a great deal about the halakhic parameters of community/kehilla, and so often our conventions are devoted to the more mundane aspects of rabbinic leadership. They are all important and deserving of attention and scrutiny. But we rarely speak of ourselves as spiritual leaders in other than rhetorical ways. And that is a pity, because we underestimate our congregants if we are blind to some of their painful dilemmas which they may rarely articulate but which undoubtedly agitate them just below the level of consciousness. Or perhaps they are consciously aware of them but they are embarrassed to expose them to public view. Or, worse, they may once have raised the issue to a Rabbi and been put off by his answer—either in content or in manner. John W. Gardner, the eminent former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, once said, "People want to know whether the followers believe in the leader. I want to know whether the leader believes in the followers." If we are to be authentic spiritual leaders, we must learn to take the spiritual concerns of our followers seriously, even if they are unable to articulate what they mean, what bothers them, what they are striving for; we must believe in them. Let me be more specific. The single most critical and acute problem that any theistic religion must deal with—not excepting Judaism—is the existence of evil: How can a good God abide the presence of evil? It is a perennial problem, and it has engaged some of our very best minds over the centuries. But never has it done so with the same urgency and poignancy as in our times—the era of the Holocaust. How should a rabbi—a "spiritual leader"—steeped in Torah and in Jewish learning respond to such sh…

Permit me to begin with an expression of genuine regret for violating elementary decorum by discussing matters inappropriate to the happy occasion which brings us here this afternoon – but my excuse is that it would be far more inappropriate to ignore unpleasant and threatening facts that stare us in our collective face, that loom before us in all their frightful ugliness. The 60 years of RCA covered the most critical years of Jewish history. Of us it might be said, to paraphrase the Midrash on Noah, that ראינו שלשה עולמות – עולם בחורבנו, the world of Holocaust; עולם בבנינו, that of growth and State of Israel; and now, the third – עולם תלוי ועומד בין זה לזה – that of doubt, decline, and disillusionment. We are members of an organization that was born just as the demons of destruction were beginning to stir in all corners of Europe. The second period was one in which we participated in the halcyon post-war days as Americans took to building shuls and as the great migrations from Europe replenished our ranks, as day schools and kollelim and mikvaot were being erected all over the country, and as the Rav זצ״ל was teaching and speaking with unparalleled genius, as RCA became a powerful and significant actor on the stage of American Jewry. And, לדאבוננו הרב, we now witness the deep distress of Judaism as secularism rises, as the non-Orthodox movements grow further and further away from Torah and tradition, as intermarriage and assimilation increase here and even in Israel – which, in addition to being engulfed in Jewish ignorance (some 88% do not know the עשה״ד, about 40% cannot name any of the Patriarchs, and some 20% haven't heard the term חמשה חומשי תורה) – now has to put up with a virulent form of Jewish anti-Semitism called "Post-Zionism." It is a world of self-doubt and hesitation and trepidation – not exactly a great time to be a rabbi. A Besht parable (recorded in the writings of his disciples) tells of a king who appointed four ministers over his treasury, all …