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Rabbinic Leadership in the Congregation and the Community: Translating Vision into Reality

Rabbinic Leadership in the Congregation and the Community: Translating Vision into Reality. The Rabbi’s Relationship with Non-Orthodox Rabbis and the Broader Jewish Community. November 19, 2010 RIETS - Yeshiva University Rabbi Dale Polakoff.

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Rabbinic Leadership in the Congregation and the Community: Translating Vision into Reality

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  1. Rabbinic Leadership in the Congregation and the Community: Translating Vision into Reality The Rabbi’s Relationship with Non-Orthodox Rabbis and the Broader Jewish Community November 19, 2010 RIETS - Yeshiva University Rabbi Dale Polakoff

  2. Today our focus will be on just two of the groups:

  3. Historical Perspective

  4. Historical Perspective

  5. Interacting with Non-Orthodox Background: • Pivotal events of 1956 • Psak by 11 Roshei Yeshiva prohibiting participation in the Synagogue Council of America • Response of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) Halacha Commission chaired by Rav Soloveitchik

  6. Interacting with Non-Orthodox Rabbis - Background: “[T]he question submitted to us... was temporarily taken off the agenda of the Halakhah Commission. Our decision not to take action at the present time is motivated by the fact that under the present circumstances that now prevail and for which we bear no responsibility, it is humanly impossible to discuss impartially this most serious matter and to render an opinion meeting high standards of halakhic objectivity and truthfulness.” (Community, Covenant and Commitment: Selected Letters and Communications, pp. 151-152)

  7. Interpretation of RCA response • Rabbi Walter Wurzburger, “Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik as Posek of Post-Modern Orthodoxy” in Tradition, Volume 29, 1994 • Brit Avraham and Brit Mitzrayim establish the Jewish community of fate (pre-dating Sinai, the community of faith) • This community of fate prevented Rav Soloveitchik from signing the 1956 Psak • Didn’t object to participation in the SCA as long as it was klapei chutz • Had no sympathy for Jewish religious movements which deviated from halachik norms

  8. Rav Soloveitchik in an interview in Di Tog Morgen Journal, November 19, 1954 • When representation of Jews and Jewish interest klapei chutz (vis-à-vis the non Jewish world) are involved, all groups and movements must be united. There can be no divisiveness in this area for any division in the Jewish camp can endanger its entirety… In the crematoria, the ashes of Hassidim and Anshei Maseh (pious Jews) were mixed with the ashes of radicals and freethinkers and we must fight against the enemy who does not recognize the difference between one who worships and one who does not… [However] when the unity must be manifested in a spiritual-ideological meaning as a Torah community it seems to me that Orthodoxy can not and should not join with such groups that deny the foundations of our Weltanschauung.

  9. Important Concepts • Brit Yiud – Covenant of Faith • Brit Goral – Covenant of Fate • Klapei Chutz • Klapei Pnim

  10. Nuances • Rav Soloveitchik’s letter to Rabbi Joseph Shubow, printed in “Reproach, Recognition and Respect: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Orthodoxy’s Mid-Century Attitude Toward Non-Orthodox Denominations”, by Seth Farber • “One People, Two Worlds: A Reform Rabbi and an Orthodox Rabbi Explore the Issues That Divide Them” by Yosef Reinman and Ammiel Hirsch

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