What is the place and significance of progress in Traditional Judaism? This problem assumes additional importance in our own generation, when the rush of events, the increased momentum of life and the rapid growth of new and more complex sciences and philosophies leave the Traditional Jew in a maze of perplexity, striving to reconcile his faith with the newer systems of thought and lacking clearly defined criteria for the successful adaptation of Traditional Judaism to the contemporary intellectual environment. The very nature of the problem posed is difficult to treat. We cannot deny the existence of a progressive motion in Judaism without denying history, logic and science. At the same time, we cannot postulate unlimited change of any part of Judaism; to do so would be to reduce “Judaism" to a meaningless catch-word, and to strip Torah and Halacha of their very essence."Progress" in Judaism cannot be investigated as an isolated phenomenon. 'The examination of this problem must he based upon an understanding of the very form in which the dynamics of Halacha Judaism are manifested, both within Halacha itself and in the relation of Halacha to other systems, ideas, and concepts. This relationship is the substance of Jewish Philosophy. The preliminary phenomenon, the form of the dynamics of Judaism, is “conflict." To study these phenomena, their interrelationship and their application to the approach of the Traditionalist to modern life is the purpose of this essay.One of the most important aspects of Judaism[1], and one which can be said to set it apart from most other religions, is its constant engagement in conflicts of various sorts. Judaism is not a system at rest; it is a system in motion. The thinking, observing Jew cannot be intellectually or religiously static, because his very religion is based upon the resolution of a conflict, invites conflicts with other systems of thought, and predicates the path to ultimate Halachic perfection upon conflict. We are so a…

An analytic inquiry with the reasons and broad bases of the Jewish philosophical system with regard to capital punishment will reveal that three factors determine the moral sight, a preferably – the legal imperative, to take the life of a human being who has been found guilty of certain major crimes. Each of these factors plays a significant, major and independent role in the rationalization and justification of the punishment. Ethical, social and metaphysical – all independent as anti-reasons to arguments on capt. puni.

Talk before Sisterhood, Young Israel Grand Concourse, Jan. 20, 1950: Unfortunate that title of talk is "Renaissance" etc. This word means, in plain English, "rebirth", and as we shall soon see, the continuity of J. lit. is such that it needs no rebirth, whereas J. Art has not really been born in the first place. However, shall accept it at face value. 1950. Half-century mark affords us opportunity to review the new literature which had its birth at the turn of the century and which now is at crossroads, its major crisis in its 50 yr. life. But, as said, J. lit. as such is undisrupted since Moses and Torah. Luick tracing of major outlines. Chumash, Tanach, Apocrypha, Mishna, Talmud, Geonim, Rishonim—philosophy—poetry—prose—mysticism, Achronim—responsa—mysticism—Hasidic—Mussar—Haskallah. Ahad Ha’am at his prime at turn of century, died 1927, can be regarded as paver for last 50 yrs of Zionism & lit. Bialik first true son of 20th cent. In this National poet find expression of the new era, swing fr. melancholy which caused almost pathological inaction w. regard to J. bitter fate, to young pessimism. The wide open fields synthesized w. nostalgia for Beis Hamidrash. Nationalistic aspirations. First poems appear, coincide approx. w. Herzl’s "Judenstaat", conversion of Rothschild by Ahad Ha’am to Zionism, to provide the dramatic setting for a revived J. dynamism, inspired by Prophets, which was to see fruition in 50 years, culminating w. declar. State Israel. Until contemporary period, most lit. strong nationalistic kernel, optimism—outdoors etc till contemporary period.The contemp period, the mid–cent, coincides w. Israel, which creates new problems for the literary talents of the new state. Lit, because it is the most articulate of the arts, is most intimately involved in the cultural, political, and social & economic issues as they evolve. Lit not only reflects them, it also directs. Our discussion of contemp, or as we call it "renaiss" of J. lit. must therefore…

Le Flambeaue, dixie me anniversaire. Table des Matieres: Editorial, par le Redacteur _______________________________________________5, Renan, etait-il Judeophobe ? Par Maurice Lamin_______________________________________________6, Napoleon et le Sanhedrin, par Joseph Erushalmy_______________________________________________10, L’Ecolc Rabbinique de France, par Salomon J. Kohn_______________________________________________12, Esquisse de Jacques Halevy, par Gilbert S. Rosenthal_______________________________________________14, Variations sur un theme en S mineur, par F. Weindling --------------------- 15, Les influences bibliques sur Emile Durkhcim, par S. Wexler----------------- 16, Marcel Proust nous depcint une famille juivc, par T. Kronengold ----------- 19, Pocmc, par Jules Ehrman --------------------------------------------------- 24, Bernard Lazarc — Une biographic, par Philip Silverstein ------------------- 24, — Le Paria dans Le Fumier de Job, par Arthur Abramson ______ 26, Bibliographic de quelques oeuvres franchises traduites cn hebreu, par Jack. Adelman 28./Le Juif moderne d’apres "Israel” de Henry Bernstein, par Charles Spirit --- 30/Reflexions sur 1’Art et le Judaisme, par Norman Lamm ---------------------- 36le flambeau, la publication franfaise de, YESHIVA UNIVERSITY, CONSEILLER, Profcsscur Sidney D. BRAUN, REDACTEUR EN CHEF, Jules EHRMAN, REDACTEUR ASSOC1EJack ADELMAN, Washington Heights, New York 33, N. Y.sun adultere, il est chatie par son fils et fi- nalement vaincu, demeurant seul comme son peuple. Cependant, arriviste qu’il est, il continucra probablemcnt a avoir ses sue- ses, alors que le fils qu’il admirait meme en champion antisemite est une figure tragi- que. Nous rejetons naturellement son anti- semitisme aussi grossier que celui des autres gentlemen s’adonnant a ce jeu. Mais s’il y a de la verite dans la remarque de Gutlieb que "pour persuader a 38 millions de chre'.icns que la presence, parmi eux, de 60,000 juifs constituait un peril nati…

Not talking about after death, but about גן עדן התחתון. Paradise is here. Not spot on globe but globe itself, the Paradise which is life. Describe average man’s idea of Paradise: as, sit on soft couch, feet on desk, snip off plum with left hand, apple w. right, long straw to drink from sparkling clear stream, don't have to bend down etc. etc. This not Jewish conception. Not like Moslem ideal as cosmic harem wine women and song (elaborate), not American Indian — charging on white steed down infinite hunting ground, prize beasts to hunt etc. Midrash: G-d had to coax Adam into Eden בדברים נאים. Why? — because fundemantel element of Jewish idea of Eden is A לעבדה ולשמרה, work it and watch it. (Lamm:) story farmer after death taken to beautiful castle, wonderful room. Feet on desk, etc., only presses button and butler appears, brings him whatever he wishes — describe — then, after some weeks, rings for bellboy, says he's getting bored, wants work. Boy: sorry, that's only thing you can't get here. Man: then I'd rather be in hell. Boy: Well, where do you think you are? (polish up). לעבודה. Leisure hours given to modern man by scientific and industrial progress are his downfall. Literally as well as figuratively bored to death. Boredom causes: a) Infidelity of husbands. Too much time on hands, so speeds feet to wrong places. b) " of wives. Housework by mechanical gadgets, too much leisure, go where no belong. c) Gambling. May be part of social acheme in modern age — but only when limited. Describe how overdone in resort hotels when leisure maximum. d) Narcotics. Among rich too, but hushed up. Result of too much time, nothing to do. Talmud says לעבדה refers to תלמוד. Even 1/2 hour day. Everybody has ability to read something serious, not only for scholars. לשמרה refers to זו המצות. Ethics, etc. Watch, or preserve, Judaism. Democracy vs. McCarthyism etc. Anti-semitism etc. If will not do above, then, as with Adam, driven out of Eden, blocked by להט יורד המתהפכת. Rabbis expla…

Eulogy for man who came to America brimming w great ideas to build for Judaism, + whereas relied unpleasant test: יעקב ירד מצרימה, so down to America, יוסף ישת ידו על עיניך whereas Jos will do with his words what you fear with your eyes.

Twentieth century man is a lonely creature. This startling realization seems, on the surface, to be contradicted by a multitude of facts. Let us look at some of these facts. For one thing, statistics seem to refute the notion of loneliness. Numerically, the human family is larger than ever before in history. There are in the world today some two and one-half billion people. How can man be lonely among so many of his kind? How? Because in the language of Bacon, “a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures.”For another, the vast increase in urban life would seem to eliminate a sense of loneliness. Does it? Do our huge cities with their teeming millions make neighbors of us? Are the jostling multitudes that are belched forth from the industrial neighborhoods companions on their way home? Does a packed subway train consist of fellow travelers or merely of fare–payers? Oh, how desperately alone man can feel even in a populous city!Someone must be thinking now how strange it is to regard our generation as lonely. Has not the world of men been contracted? Have we not gotten closer to each other? Is not one continent as near the other as once upon a time one avenue was to the next? Do we not sit side by side in the family of nations? Lonely in such a world? How preposterous!Think, my friends, on the other hand, of the iron curtains that separate us; of the suspicion and fear that are all about us; of the ominous detonations of atomic weapons that deafen our ears and scare our hearts. “Oh, how lonely we are in the world,” said Thackeray, “you and I are but a pair of infinite isolations with some fellow islands a little more or less near to us.”Has Scripture nothing to say on this matter? It most certainly has. Almost at the very beginning of the Bible – in the second chapter of Genesis – when God contemplates His supreme handiwork, Man, Scripture records the divine judgment: “It is not good that man should be alone.” Long before the psychiatrist foresaw…

המקור העיקרי לרעיון של בטול המצהת לע״ל, רעיון שהכה שרשים בתולדות ספרותנו הדתית בפרט ובהווי' הדתית היהודית בכלל, הוא במדרש תהילים (שוחר טוב) מזמור קמ״ו. (הנוסח הבא שוה בכל ההוצאות של המדרש לרבות הוצאת באבער): "מתיר אסורים, מהו מתיר אסורים, י״א כל הבהמה הנטמאת בעוה״ז מטהר אותה הקב״ה לע״ל, וכה״א מה שהי' הוא שיהי' ומה שנעשה וה' טהורים היו מקודם לבני נח וכה״א לחן כי רק עשב נתתי לכם את כל, מה ירק עשב נתתי לכל אף החי' והבהמה לכל מתחילה, ולמה אסר אותה, לראות מי שמקבל דברין ומי אינו מקבל, ולע״ל הוא מתיר את כל מה שאסר. וי״א אינו מחירן לע״ל, שכח״א אוכלי בשר החזיר וגו' ומה אם למי שהי' אוכלת הוא מכריה ומאבד, הבהמה לא כל שכן. ומהו מתיר אסורים, אין איסור גדול מן הנדה, שאשח רואה דם ואסרה הקב״ה לבעלה, ולע״ל הוא מתירה, (זכרי' י״ג) וגם את הנביאים ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ, ואין טומא אלא נדה שנא' ואל אשח בנדח טומאתה. וי״א אף תשמיש המטה היא אסורה לע״ל, תדע לך שכן הוא שביום שנגלה הקב״ח סני ליתן התורה לישראל אסר תשמיש המטח שלש ימים שנא חיו נכונים וגו ומח כשנגלה עליהם יום א אסרן מתשמיש המטה שלשת ימים, לע״ל שהשכינה ביניהם אינם אסוריןן ומחו מתיר אסורים, אסורי מות ואסורי שאול." ע״כ דברי המדרש במלואם.קשה לקבע בדיוק מוצאו הראשון של מאמר זה. באבער כבר הוכיח בראיות ברורות וחותכות (1) כי המדרש הזה ממזמור קי״ח ועד הסוף אינו מעטו של אותו המחבר שחבר חציו הראשון. בדפוס חראשון של חמדרש (קאנשטאנטינא, ה״א רע״ב – 1512) נדפס רק עד קי״ח, ומשם ועד הסוף נדפס בפעם הראשונה בשאלוניקי שנח 1515 יחד עם פירוש ר מתתי חיצהרי. אך באבער (2) נוטה לדעת חאברבנאל (3) שמאמרנו זה עיקרו מפי ר משה הדרשן הידוע (4).השתלשלות נוסח המדד 2. חשש הזיוח.המלומד ר יעקב רייפמאנן (5) קורא תגר על תוכן המאמר הזח ומטיל בו חשד הזיוף. הנ״ל איננו מוסיף שום ידיעה חדשה על תולדות המדרש ויחוסו, ורק מטביעות עין של חכם אומר, "קרוב מאוד כי המאמר חזה נוסף במדרש מאח אחד המשגים עור בדרך", ובאמת אין זו הפעם הראשונה שנשמע קול הערעור על מאמר זה, האברבנאל (6) כבר כתב, "ואני חושד גם בהגדה זאת היש בלשונה עולה ואם זייפה המפקר כדרכו, וראוי לקבלו אחר שאין אתי הספר לבחינה מאחר שקבלוהו המתווכחים". ומתקבלת על הדעת השערתו זו של האברבנאל שאין עיקר המדרש מ״אחד המשגים…

1. Introduction. (Story: *decide topic... oranges; *repeat speech... 2 rabbis, from memory) A. Not a book review. You get enough of that. Probably read the book anyway. B. Not a sermon. Nor preaching to or at you. C. Rather, analysis of some of moral issues with which Wouk deals and which he raises. 2. Several Aspects. A. Of course, book has several major aspects: psychological, romantic, adventure, moral. B. I am interested primarily moral, think it's something vital each and every one of us

We are here gathered tonight because of a common purpose: the exercise of our democratic rights in seeking to secure the abolition of the death penalty in this Commonwealth. I believe that the origin of our commonly shared opinion and the goal of our activities, our starting point and end point, are the same. We all begin with a deep and ineffable reverence for human life, and we aim at the legal abolition of capital punishment, which outrages this sense of reverence for life. But the route we take from the starting point to the end point, from origin to goal, differs with each of us, and affects the quality, temper, and mood of our opinions. Jew, Christian, and agnostic, scientist and lawyer, each develops his opinion differently. I think, therefore, that we are acting wisely in giving expression to the different, individual, and unique ways in which many of us arrive at the same conclusion: the necessity of abolishing the death penalty. I speak as an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. To me, human life has infinitely more than sentimental or social value. It has the very highest religious value, for man was created in the image of God. When, therefore, we discuss the disposition of human life, we involve ourselves directly in our relations with the Creator. And if the problem of capital punishment is of such great religious import, my judgment on it must be derived from the classical sources of the Jewish tradition. Allow me to make several brief prefatory remarks on the nature of these sources. Jewish law, which includes Jewish religion, philosophy, theology, morals, and ethics, has two origins – they are the two avenues of the divine revelation to man. More well-known is the Written Law, which is Scripture. The Bible, or Written Law, is, to our way of thinking, the exact record of God’s revelation to Moses. It contains a good part of the civilized culture of the ages that preceded it (the “Noahide laws”) with certain changes and additions effected by divine inspiration. It…