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1994

The Rabbi as Posek and Counselor (1994)

The Rabbinate
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Outline

Address to Rabbinical Council of America (1992)

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.” So, let’s take a good look at ourselves – to see if things are still going, and if not, why not; where we seem to be heading in the future; and what we can do about influencing that future direction. Of course, talking about the future is a thankless task – אמרו חז״ל: מיום שחרב בית המקדש ניתנה נבואה לשוטים... Maybe that’s why a great חכם, Albert Einstein, said: “I never think of the future; it comes soon enough.” The categories of gadlut and katnut – drawn from Kabbalah and popularized by the Hasidic movement – apply not only to individuals but to collectivities as well. These terms, which denote states of spiritual and intellectual expansion (gadlut) or constriction (katnut), help us understand where we are and perhaps how to move forward. At present, we are clearly in a state of katnut. Those who deny it – such as Charles Silberman (A Certain People) and others – do a great disservice. The data are sobering: the CJF reports a 52% intermarriage rate; Prof. Seymour Martin Lipset noted that only one-quarter of children raised Orthodox remain Orthodox (a statistic I question, but still find disturbing); Prof. Samuel Heilman reported at a recent OU–YI–RCA conference that Orthodoxy comprises only 6–12% of the Jewish population, and that a significant portion of Modern Orthodox Jews are defecting or becoming marginalized; there is growing financial stress, even before the Reichmann collapse – median incomes have declined, families are smaller, and women working outside the home adds pressure; Modern Orthodox education has been ceded to teachers to the right, leading to either a deepening rift with Haredim or a merging into “nominal Orthodoxy”; Orthodox synagogues are shrinking and may no longer be able to support full-time rabbis; an AJC report (“The High Cost of Jewish Living”) highlights further strai…
The Rabbinate

Speech

The Rabbi as Spiritual Leader

The following comments refer mainly to those who are professionally involved in melekhet ha-kodesh (sacred activity). As one who has been deeply immersed in this activity for well over twenty-five years, I think I understand some of the problems a rabbi faces. I specifically address myself to the internal psychological tensions that afflict a rabbi, tensions that could become a source of creativity but also are reason for great anguish and moral torment. If there is one clearly identifiable mood that looms above all others as a threat to the effectiveness, happiness, and even sanity of a committed Rav in this last quarter or a century, it is... frustration. There is nothing quite as noxiously potent as frustration in defeating a rabbi, and in robbing him of his inspiration, his ability to function, and his idealism. I can think of no better paradigm of this dangerous defeatism than the story of Elijah in the famous passage in Kings I:19. The evil queen, Jezebel swears that she will kill the prophet. Elijah retreats into the desert to think. He sits under a tree - and he gives up: vayish'al et nafsho la-mut. Vayomer rav atah — “enough! Now take my life!” A spiritual leader who is prevented from leading spiritually sees no point to life. The emptiness is a fate worse than death. His audience has evaporated, his admonitions fall on deaf ears, his miraculous achievements fail to impress these obdurate Jews, and now they want to kill him. Well, let them! His prophetic mission is stillborn, he is a frustrated and defeated and desperate man, and he might as well resign and give up the ghost. But God will not accommodate Elijah. An angel feeds him and sends him on a forty-day and forty-night trek to Mount Horeb. Elijah sleeps in a cave, and the devar Hashem comes to Elijah and inquires: mah lekha poh Eliyahu - what are you doing here, Elijah? His pathetic plaint is poured out, and the gall and the bitterness still affect us across the centuries: vayomer kano kineiti la-Has…
The Rabbinate

Speech

The Who, What, and Where of the Rabbinate (1998)

In greeting you on our last Chag ha-Semikha of this troubled century, and on the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel, permit me to share with you some thoughts as to your role in a future that is, at one and the same time, both frightening and beckoning. To help you in your transition from a relatively cloistered existence in the Bet Midrash and college classroom to that varied and oft fearsome “outside world,” allow me to turn practical and offer you some thoughts on the “who,” “what,” and “where” of your developing careers, (The “when” is obvious – Now – and requires no elaboration.) And while I address you as pulpit rabbis, those of you going into education or allied fields, simply apply my words to your own context. The “Who” consists of your relationships with your “baalebatim,” your lay people, whether congregants, pupils, parents, board members, etc. Many of you have expressed apprehension, during the sessions I have had with you as Semikha I and Semikha IV students, as to how to deal with the myriad of problems a rabbi has to contend with. I sympathize with you. We at Yeshiva hardly expect you to be full-fledged posekim and accomplished experts in human relations from the moment that you are placed in your first or even second position. But your “baalebatim” do not know and perhaps do not want to know this, and so you must be prepared with some guidelines even as you expect to learn much “on the job.”Of the many things that ought to be on your agenda regarding your “baale-batim,” let me mention three.The first obligation of a Rabbi is cbessed—loving-kindness, care, generosity. I must repeat what the Rav, of blessed memory, would always caution us about. He would tell us what his grandfather, R. Hayyim Brisker, told his son—the Rav's father and predecessor here at Yeshiva, R.Moshe Soloveitchik—when the latter was about to leave for his first “shtelle”: “Listen to me, Moshe: a Rabbi must not only know 'how to learn'; the test of a Rabbi is if he practices…
The Rabbinate