Sefer Ha-Hayim Blog

Welcome

2008-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Sefer Ha-Hayim Blog of Yashar Books (what's a blog?).
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New Book: In The Footsteps Of The Kuzari

2008-05-04T19:00:00.001-05:00

Announcing the publication of a new book by Yashar, published in conjunction with ATID:

In the Footsteps of the Kuzari
An Introduction to Jewish Philosophy

by Shalom Rosenberg
(link to the book's webpage)

In the Footsteps of the Kuzari is an exciting work that guides readers through Judaism’s views on the most pressing philosophical issues of the day. Combining a keen sensitivity to the religious dilemmas of our day with the intellectual rigor of the university, this book serves as an introduction to Jewish philosophy, and unapologetically argues that Judaism presents a coherent and sophisticated religious worldview that is as relevant today as it has been for millennia. Building on the classic work of Jewish thought, The Kuzari, noted Orthodox thinker Prof. Shalom Rosenberg takes readers through the Jewish views that have been voiced throughout the ages and shows how they can be transformed into a compelling worldview in this postmodern age. Intellectually stimulating and philosophically creative, this important work made large waves when published in Hebrew and is now being offered to the English reading public. Take a tour through Jewish philosophy over the ages, from the Talmud to Maimonides to Rav Kook and beyond, and learn where the next stage of Jewish thought will take us.

The book addresses such pressing issues as:

The sources of the individual’s religious experience,
Religious truth in the context of changing intellectual trends and fads,
Jewish uniqueness and the nations of the world,
The relations between the individual and the collective,
The challenges of educating toward a rich religious life.

Prof. Rosenberg has for decades been one of the leading intellectual forces in Israeli Modern Orthodoxy. In the Footsteps of the Kuzari will be an important resource for teachers and students of Jewish thought, as well as for English-speaking Jews in search of a rich, sophisticated, and coherent Jewish voice. Readers of Prof. Rosenberg’s work will discover his rare ability to use medieval texts to address contemporary issues, without sacrificing an awareness that these same texts are not themselves contemporary.

Learn more about the book here: link
Download a chapter from the book here: link (PDF)
Buy the book here: link

The Challenge Is Back

2008-04-17T09:57:00.000-05:00

The second edition of Rabbi Natan Slifkin's The Challenge of Creation is now available in stores and online (link). For those who already own the book, you can download a list of the significant changes here: link - PDF

New Book: A Philosophy of Mitzvot

2008-04-11T06:29:00.000-05:00

Now available from Yashar Books:

A Philosophy of Mitzvot: The Religious and Ethical Principles of Judaism, their Roots in Biblical Law and the Judaic Oral Tradition

by Rabbi Dr. Gersion Appel

What divine purpose do the mitzvot, the Biblical commandments, serve? What moral and spiritual goals do the mitzvot envision? In a book made newly available to the reading public, Rabbi Dr. Gersion Appel presents a comprehensive view of the structure and meaning of the Torah’s commandments.

The Sefer ha-Hinnukh, one of the principal works in Jewish ethical and halakhic literature, is a primary source for ta’amei ha-mitzvot, the reasons and purpose of the divine commandments in the Torah. In A Philosophy of Mitzvot, originally published in 1975 and revised for this second edition, Rabbi Dr. Gersion Appel sets forth the Hinnukh’s objectives and his approach to revealing the religious and ethical meaning of the mitzvot.

In this wide-ranging study that is ideal for school courses, the author presents a comprehensive view of Jewish philosophy as developed by the Hinnukh and the classical Jewish philosophers. The Hinnukh emerges in this study as a great educator and moral and religious guide, and his classic work as a treasure-trove of Jewish knowledge, religious inspiration, and brilliant insight in the molding of human character.

“Appel’s study is a definitive evaluation of the Hinnuk’s approach. But, more than this, it is an exploration of significant perspectives and new directions for further studies of the meaning of the commandments. The book is comprehensive, informative and authoritative. It is a work of immense scholarship and deserves to be widely read.” —The Jewish Law Annual

Learn more about the book at http://www.yasharbooks.com/Mitzvot.html
Buy the book at http://www.yasharbooks.com/shop

Table of Contents

The Taryag Mitzvot
The Quest for the Meaning of Mitzvot
The Divine Purpose
The Preamble of Faith
A Rationale of Mitzvot
Man's Ethical Duties
The Individual and Society
Man's Spiritual Dimension
The Service of God
The Divine Imperative
Perspectives on the Mitzvot
Conclusion: The Continuing Quest

About the Author
Rabbi Dr. Gersion Appel is Yeshiva University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Jewish Studies, and formerly Adjunct Professor of Graduate Hebrew Studies in New York University. He received his Torah education in Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah V'Daas and Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, where he received his Rabbinic ordination (Semicha - '41). He graduated Yeshiva College ('38) and has a Doctor of Hebrew Literature degree from Yeshiva University ('45) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard University.

Legacy of Maimonides on Tradition Website

2008-04-02T16:06:00.000-05:00

A review of The Legacy of Maimonides in Tradition Online (link):

New Books on Rambam

Mar 19, 2008 -- The Legacy of Maimonides: Religion, Reason, and Community, ed. Yamin Levy and Shalom Carmy, Yashar Books, 2006. 307 pages.

Maimonides after 800 Years: Essays on Maimonides and His Influence, ed. Jay M. Harris, Harvard University Press, 2007. 343 pages.

"Yet another book on Maimonides?" So exclaims Jay Harris in the introduction to his new book. Yet nonetheless, these two collections, published in honor of the 800th anniversary of Rambam's death, offer extremely enjoyable readings in the thought of Rambam.

The first work, sponsored by the Maimonides Heritage Center, includes 14 essays, 8 of which are translations or reproductions of previously published articles. The opening essay by Prof. Isadore Twersky details Rambam's unique image within Jewish historical consciousness, comparing laudatory statements about him with those about other great sages, and then continues to delineate Twersky's understanding of how and why Rambam achieved such a unique status. It's a great article, and note as well the dedication: "Dedicated to the memory of my teacher and father-in-law, the ga'on R. Yosef Dov ha-Levi Soloveitchik, zz"l - the Maimonides of our generation."

Other pieces include Rabbi Lamm's article on Ahavat Hashem and Arthur Hyman's introduction to interpreting Rambam. Roslyn Weiss and Hayyim Angel contribute stimulating articles regarding the role of Rambam in parshanut. This is a useful collection which both scholars and laymen will enjoy.

The second work, drawing from a 2004 conference sponsored by Harvard Center for Jewish Studies, includes 16 new essays by leading Maimonidean scholars. Moshe Halbertal's fantastic essay analyzes the ambiguous goals and accomplishments of Mishneh Torah - did Rambam really intend to replace earlier literature of Torah She-Be'al Peh? Carlos Fraenkel submits a basic summary of his dissertation, nuancing Samuel Ibn Tibbon's relationship to Maimonides and his philosophy. Bernard Septimus and Haym Soloveitchik contribute important analyses of literary elements of Mishneh Torah, with Septimus focusing on Sefer Ha-Madda and Soloveitchik examining Hilchot Shabbat.

This is a very important collection which scholars will continue to consult for new ideas and trends in Maimonidean scholarship.

- Shlomo Brody

Flipping Out? in Canada

2008-03-23T21:11:00.001-05:00

Research yeshivas before sending your kids, author says
The Canadian Jewish News
March 20, 2008 pages B10-B11
(available online here - PDF)

By FRANCES KRAFT
Staff Reporter

Rabbi Shalom Berger, co-author of Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the “Year in Israel,” was not partial to the proposed title of the book when his publisher, Rabbi Gil Student, first suggested it. “I wasn’t so excited about it,” Rabbi Berger told The CJN in a phone interview from his home in Alon Shvut, near Jerusalem. “I thought it would imply something I didn’t think was fully accurate.” The question mark was inserted at his request, and the subtitle was one of several considered.

Indeed, the title and cover photo are somewhat provocative, alluding to fears among some parents of children becoming so religiously radicalized that they lose touch with the values they were raised with.

The 218-page volume, published in December by Yashar Books, has a handsomely photographed cover featuring a black fedora and suit jacket neatly placed on a suitcase in front of the Western Wall, considered Judaism’s holiest site. The garments are symbolic of stricter Jewish ritual observance and are not typical attire for modern Orthodox students entering Israeli yeshivot.

The book’s title, taken from Jewish rock band Blue Fringe’s song “Flippin’ Out,” is a flip take (pun notwithstanding) on the yeshiva year in Israel.

Its lyrics address some of the same changes referred to in the book – restrictions on relationships with the opposite sex, more visibly Orthodox attire, stricter observance of religious ritual, and avoidance of secular culture including movies – and the tension such changes can cause between parents and children.

The book’s approach, with three academics as respective writers of its three sections, is considerably more serious, but makes for an interesting read both for its lack of pedantry and its subject matter. There is little if any other current material exclusively devoted to the yeshiva year in Israel.

Rabbi Berger, an educator, and Rabbi Daniel Jacobson, a psychologist, base their sections on their respective doctoral studies, the former looking at changes in students’ attitudes and practices, and the latter examining the underlying psychology. Sociologist Chaim Waxman, who studied at an Israeli yeshiva himself in the late 1950s, wraps things up by examining American Orthodoxy, Zionism and Israel. All three authors are Americans who have made aliyah.

For his doctorate in education, Rabbi Berger, who works for the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education in the Diaspora at Bar-Ilan University, interviewed some 400 students at the beginning and end of their year in Israel. He sought them out a year later as well and was able to locate most of them, he said.

His subjects, virtually all of whom are graduates of American Jewish day schools, were drawn from four yeshivot hesder that combine study with army service for Israeli students and three American programs.

The term “flipping out” isn’t used in the book, and the authors do not put an explicit value judgment on the phenomenon. “It’s something that’s out there that parents express,” said Waxman. “Some modern Orthodox parents do see it as negative.”

In a comment that could be construed as reassuring – or not, if one wonders why the issue is raised in the first place – Rabbi Berger writes in the book that yeshiva students “do not appear to be swept up by a cult-like phenomenon.”

However, noted co-author Waxman in a phone interview, there is a process of “socialization” at yeshivot. Also, he noted, the yeshiva is a “total” environment.

“Its aim is to mould a certain type of person, and in some cases if the students internalize things to an extreme, it might have effects similar to those of people who join cults. I don’t think it’s the intention, or what the yeshiva does, but it’s how the student absorbs it.”

Rabbi Berger said that it’s not just the yeshiva experience that causes changes, but the age and developmental stage of the students, most of whom are just out of high school. They’re beginning to distinguish themselves from their parents. They’re developing their own identity and rebelling at some level.

“The question is: What setting are they going to be in when they have these experiences? We all think about the ’60s when kids went off to college and came back different from their parents – an experience in which students are exposed to ideas that they find compelling and very often they [are inculcated]. This is what you expect from 18- and 19-year-olds.

“In most cases that I’m familiar with, assuming the kids grew up in settings that are healthy and supportive, and where there is open communication, at some point they... come to appreciate their parents’ values and move back on some level in that direction.”

Rabbi Berger expected to find changes not only in religious attitudes and practice but also in attitudes toward Israel, and “for the most part” he did.

One finding that surprised him, however, was that students did not change in the area of ethical behaviour over the course of the year. Although his first reaction was to think that “this is something of an indictment of a program that put such an emphasis on ritual matters that interpersonal matters fell by the wayside,” he soon changed his mind.

“It turned out there really wasn’t a lot of room for change... The students scored themselves so high at the beginning of the year on interpersonal things that there was no room to change.”

He believes the finding is explained by the consistent support in the general community for ethical behaviour and a concomitant minimum of support for religious practice. The “overwhelming majority” of yeshiva students do not flip out, said Waxman. “Most come back and go to university, but they are affected – from my point of view very positively,” he said.

Some do stay for a second year instead of returning home, he noted. Of those, he added, some have their parents’ blessings, and others stay on against their parents’ wishes.

The book cited a Jewish studies principal at one student’s high school who disapproved of his former student’s decision not to attend the Ivy League university at which he had deferred acceptance.

The principal was concerned that future students would not be allowed to defer acceptance if others did not “uphold their commitments.”

But Paul Shaviv, director of education at the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, which currently has about 20 alumni in Israeli yeshivot, disagrees with that premise. “A school’s principal’s duty is to do what is best for the student, not [worry] about their school image,” he told The CJN.

Rabbi Berger noted that, among his research subjects who stayed for a second year, “not that many” originally planned to do so. “Clearly they were influenced, or they themselves said, ‘This is what I want to be doing.’ ”

For parents considering Israeli yeshiva education for their children, Waxman recommends putting “at least as much time into researching the institution as you would into finding out about a new car.”

He said parents need to know the perspective of the yeshiva – haredi, “transplanted American” or religious Zionist, for example.

Also, he added, they need to know their own child. “There are certain youngsters who should not be sent away from home, who need their parents there. Parents have children who are struggling and they think that sending them to Israel will resolve their struggles, but frequently it exacerbates them.”

Reflecting on the findings in the book, Waxman said he thinks “it just scratches the surface.

“It’s such a rich area that needs to be mined. There are so many things we don’t know.”

Flipping Out? in Canada

2008-03-18T14:36:00.003-05:00

Flipping Out? on OU Radio

2008-03-03T17:11:00.003-05:00

Steve Savitsky, President of the OU, interviews the authors of Flipping Out? for OU Radio:

R. Shalom Berger: link

R. Dan Jacobson and Dr. Chaim Waxman: link

Flipping Out? in the Wall Street Journal

2008-02-29T06:43:00.001-05:00

In today's Wall Street Journal (link):

Jewish Year Abroad
By BEN HARRIS
February 29, 2008; Page W11

By the middle of my post-high-school year of yeshiva study in Israel, it was obvious which of my classmates would return home much as they had left and which would return transformed. In the latter group were the boys who had begun to trade evenings at the bars on Jerusalem's Ben Yehuda Street for the study hall, where they spent hours imbibing rabbinic wisdom. Their hair grew shorter and their sidelocks longer. Baseball caps declaring allegiance to the Yankees and Mets were replaced with velvet yarmulkes. Now they declared allegiance to a higher authority.

Religious transformations like these have become such a phenomenon in the Orthodox Jewish world that they have birthed their own derisive catchphrase. "Flipping Out," a term first popularized by an Orthodox rock band, is now the title of a book published by Yashar Books in cooperation with New York's Yeshiva University, the flagship institution of Modern Orthodoxy. Jews who identify themselves as Modern Orthodox keep kosher, observe the sabbath and practice other rituals but are otherwise well integrated into society, living and working among people of other faiths.

A year of yeshiva study in Israel is now a rite of passage, with some Modern Orthodox high schools sending 90% of their graduating seniors to programs designed to fortify them with religious values before they go off to a secular American college. But some of these teenagers, once in Israel, choose to remain in yeshivas for a second or third year to continue their study of Torah and Talmud (biblical commentary). Others turn down admission to the Ivy League in favor of Yeshiva University, which offers a dual curriculum of liberal arts and religious instruction. In one case described in the book, a student's parents were so horrified at their son's intention to forgo admission to Harvard that they forged his signature on a commitment letter to the university. In the most extreme cases, returnees no longer respect the authority of rabbis they have known their entire lives, or refuse to eat in the home of their parents, whose adherence to Jewish dietary laws is deemed insufficiently rigorous.

"I suspect on some level moves the community to a more separatist position," said Rabbi Yosef Blau, the director of religious guidance at Yeshiva University, who supports Israel study but considers it a double-edged sword. "In Israel, the line between the Orthodox and the non-Orthodox is quite sharp, and that gets reflected back."

Exact figures are hard to come by, but YU estimates that some 2,000 Modern Orthodox high-school graduates depart for single-sex Israeli yeshivas each year. Most attend programs for foreigners, where instruction is typically in English, room and board are included, and 12-hour days of study -- generally a mixture of Bible, Talmud and Jewish law and philosophy, though the diet is more Talmud-centered for men -- are supplemented by trips to sites of religious significance.

"They're basically given the message that they are doing what they were created to do, which is to study Torah, that they are princes and princesses of Judaism, that that is all that they have to do," says Samuel Heilman, a sociologist of American Jewry and the author of "Sliding to the Right." He fingers the Israel year as a chief reason for Modern Orthodoxy's supposed shift toward traditionalism. Critics of the shift point to everything from the style of yarmulke worn by Modern Orthodox men to the reluctance of some returning yeshiva graduates to kiss their female relatives. In 2006, 10 alumni of a right-wing yeshiva in Israel left YU after a year, citing ideological differences.

Survey data in "Flipping Out," the first effort to quantify the effects of the year in Israel, will provide ammunition to the critics. Rabbi Shalom Berger, one of the book's three authors, found that prior to landing in Israel, less than 20% of students rank high on a scale of ritual practice. After the year of study, the number surges to nearly 70%. Rabbi Berger also found that students are more committed to lifelong Torah study and show stronger ties to Israel after they return. But only a tiny minority, he says, eschew higher education entirely and dedicate their lives to studying Torah. Most will eventually attend college and go on to productive careers.

For many Orthodox educators, particularly at Yeshiva University, which recruits heavily from the programs in Israel, these findings are cause for celebration, not concern. With its motto of "Torah Umadda," literally "Torah and secular knowledge," YU has long been the standard-bearer of the ideal of marrying Orthodox practice to secular education. "I believe our tradition is such that we should be confident that we can contribute to the world based on our values," said YU President Richard Joel, five of whose children have studied in Israeli yeshivas. "We're not supposed to view the modern world as the enemy."

What remains unclear is the extent to which the educators in Israel, a country without a tradition of liberal-arts education, share Mr. Joel's commitment to the Modern Orthodox ethos. I have earned two academic degrees from top universities since I left the yeshiva in Israel, all while continuing to observe many of the rituals urged upon me a decade ago by my rabbis there, though I take certain liberties with the law that they would almost certainly frown upon.

Still, I consider that year to have been one of the most enriching of my life. The headmaster, I'm sure, wouldn't agree. Some weeks before my departure, he called me to his office to tell me that I had wasted my time. "Maybe," he said, "if you had learned a little more Torah."

Mr. Harris writes about religion for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Flipping Out in Yiddish: דאָס יאָר אין ישׂראל

2008-01-21T22:43:00.000-05:00

An article about the "Year in Israel" and the book Flipping Out? in the Yiddish Forward: link

Haaretz on Flipping Out?

2008-01-11T07:35:00.000-05:00

A review of Flipping Out? and interview with Dr. Chaim Waxman in Haaretz: link

I am posting the text here because Haaretz URLs tend to change quickly:

When knitted kippot turn black and short sleeves get long

By Daphna Berman

The practice of sending Orthodox high-school graduates for a year of study in Israel has drastically changed the face of the American Jewish community, increasing stringency and knowledge, but with it, also fueling insularity, says a leading sociologist who examined the phenomenon.

Prof. Chaim Waxman, co-author of "Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the 'Year in Israel,'" also says that the trend has remarkably increased immigration rates among American Orthodox Jewry, as well as contributed to the community's shift rightward in terms of its support of both American and Israeli politics.

"Flipping Out," which was published last month in the U.S. and expected to be in Israeli bookstores later this month, offers a comprehensive analysis of the trend. The book, which examines the phenomenon from educational, psychological and sociological perspectives, was also written by Shalom Berger, a rabbi and educator who has taught in the post-secondary programs, as well as Daniel Jacobson, a rabbi and clinical psychologist. Both Berger and Jacobson studied the phenomenon for their doctoral dissertations.

The 'original birthright'

The "year in Israel" is now de rigueur among American Orthodox high-school students and as much as 90 percent of graduates from the New York area, for example, come to Israel for a year of study before college.

But as the name of the book suggests, the trend - and with it, the change that many teenagers undergo during their year of study here - has also prompted some degree of worry among parents. Short sleeves may turn into long sleeves, a knitted kippah is perhaps replaced with a black hat, and plans to go to college are sometimes delayed or scrapped altogether in favor of staying in a yeshiva to study further.

"The year in Israel is significantly changing the Orthodox community in the U.S., but this is only the first study," Waxman said in a recent interview. "It just goes to show how much more this needs to be examined."

The "year in Israel" was first conceived in 1957 by Rabbi Zevi Tabory, the director of the Torah Education Department of the Jewish Agency in New York. Waxman, in fact, was one of the program's first participants, when he studied at the Israeli yeshiva Kerem BeYavne (KBY), between 1958 and 1959. He calls the experience the "original birthright" and the "pioneer program" of bringing young Jews to Israel.

"It really changed my life," he said this week. "I was smitten. There were just a handful of Americans, it was mostly Israelis. We slept on a thin hay mattress, the building was a shell, but I had such a hevre (group of friends). I didn't want to go back home, but my parents told me I needed to finish college."

His children, he says, have all passed through the program and his son even leads one: Rabbi Ari Waxman heads the overseas program at Yeshivat Sha'alvim.

In his section of the book, which examines the sociological implications of the trend, Waxman traces the so-called "shift to the right" in the American Orthodox community in part to the year of post-high school study in Israel.

"In terms of ritual behavior, people have become more meticulous," he said. "There is a cadre of modern-Orthodox people with a degree of knowledge and dedication that is, to a great extent, the product of this program."

Gone are the days, therefore, when Orthodox institutions sponsor mixed-gendered dances or when it was still commonplace for people to eat in restaurants without kosher supervision. Instead, adult learning within the community has surged.

"People at Yeshiva University in the 1950s and 1960s say that the beit midrash in the evening had relatively few people in it," he said. "Now, if you visit there, it is packed and people are attributing it to (the year spent in) Israel."

Taking Israel with you

Waxman, a professor emeritus of sociology and Jewish studies at Rutgers University and a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem, also found that the programs have increased immigration rates, as well as forged greater connections between Diaspora Jews and Israel.

A significant percentage of American immigrants have attended programs, where they receive "experiential and religio-cultural legitimization for immigration."

"If you go to any of these Orthodox neighborhoods, Israel is with you," he said of those who do not immigrate. "You live in the U.S., but you eat falafel, keep up on Israeli news, buy Israeli products and maintain that connection." The year in Israel, he notes, has even affected the liturgy in Orthodox synagogues in the U.S., as some adopt traditionally Israeli customs.

Waxman also believes that the year in Israel has fostered ties between the American Orthodox community and the Israeli national-religious community - which is mostly right-wing, emphasizes national aspects and interprets them religiously.

"This has created an alliance with the political right in Israel, which has reinforced ties with the political right in America," he said. But with the surge in Torah study and increased ties to Israel has also come a degree of insularity, he noted.

As a result, he says, despite the fact that the Orthodox show greater concern, on average, for the notion of Jewish "peoplehood" than other Jews, the community has become more isolationist and interacts less with the larger Jewish community.

"There were organizational boards that were comprised of representatives from Orthodox, Conservative and Reform communities, but you see less of that today. The representatives of the various denominations or movements don't work together as much on a communal level, though they do, of course, on an individual level."

Meanwhile, Waxman says the phenomenon still needs greater study.

"The truth of the matter is, these kids are not flipping out," he said. "Are they different from when they left? Yes. But in many cases, it's the exception that makes the perception."

Rabbi Shalom Berger on JM in the AM

2007-12-31T22:14:00.001-05:00

R. Shalom Berger was on JM in the AM this morning. You can listen to it on streaming audio here: link (RAM) beginning at 1 hour 47 minutes.

Reminder that both Rabbi Berger and I will be at Lincoln Square Synagogue tomorrow morning at 10am.

Flipping Out: Rabbi Shalom Berger in the NY Area

2007-12-29T22:04:00.001-05:00

Rabbi Shalom Z. Berger, one of the authors of Flipping Out?, will be speaking over the next few days at the following locations:

Teaneck - Sunday, Dec. 30th at 8pm at Cong. Beth Aaron

JM in the AM - Monday, Dec. 31st on Nachum Segal's JM in the AM radio show. You can send questions in advance at the JM in the AM message center.

Manhattan - Tuesday, Jan. 1st at 10am Lincoln Square Synagogue.

I will be at the Teaneck and Manhattan events, and will also be speaking in Manhattan.

When Tigers Attack

2007-12-29T22:03:00.001-05:00

As 3150 news sources (at the last count) are reporting, a tiger escaped at the San Fransico Zoo this week in as yet unexplained circumstances. It killed one person and severely injured two others before being shot dead by police. Since the police found it in the act of attacking someone, they clearly had to shoot it; but what if that would not have been the case? If it would have been possible to safely recapture the tiger without killing it, should that be done?

If you join Rabbi Slifkin's mailing list, you can receive an essay this week about the Torah perspective on dealing with animals that have killed people or committed other capital crimes. It is extracted from the book Man And Beast, available at http://www.yasharbooks.com/Manbeast.html. To join the list, send an email to essays-subscribe@zootorah.com.

Attention YU Students

2007-12-19T14:43:00.001-05:00

Attention YU students:

Great news!

Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the "Year in Israel" by Shalom Z. Berger, Daniel Jacobson and Chaim I. Waxman--and with an introduction by President Richard M. Joel--is now available for purchase at Lake Como Pizza. Ask for it behind the counter.

Yashar Chapters 1:4 - Flipping Out In Israel

2007-12-04T06:24:00.000-05:00

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the fourth issue of Yashar Chapters, a newsletter from Yashar Books in which we send you complete chapters from a recent book of interest. This issue's book is Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the “Year in Israel”, by Shalom Z. Berger, Daniel Jacobson and Chaim I. Waxman. The book presents studies and analyses of the impacts of studying in yeshiva in Israel for a post-high school year—the impact on the student and the community in general. Each of the co-authors is an expert in his own field—Rabbi Shalom Z. Berger, Ed.D., is well known for his work at Bar Ilan's Lookstein Center for Jewish Education; Rabbi Daniel Jacobson, Psy.D., wrote the popular guide of yeshivot in Israel for the Orthodox Caucus and currently guides students in Israel along with running a private psychology practice; and Dr. Chaim I. Waxman is one of the leading sociologists of the Jewish community. The book also includes an introduction by Richard M. Joel, President of Yeshiva University and former President of the Hillel college campus organization.

The chapter enclosed is the final chapter in Shalom Z. Berger's section “Engaging the Ultimate: The Impact of Post-High School Study in Israel”. This chapter summarizes Rabbi Berger's findings and offers his conclusions and final thoughts on the subject.

More information about the book can be found at the Yashar website. It can be purchased at your local Judaica store, on Yashar's website and on Amazon.com.

The goal of this newsletter is to spread Torah and to introduce you to books that you might find interesting, without the risk of you having to pay first. In that end, please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested or to quote it entirely or in part in your blog, newspaper or magazine. Just please be sure to note the author's name and the book's title: Shalom Z. Berger, Daniel Jacobson and Chaim I. Waxman, Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the “Year in Israel” (ISBN 978-1-933143-23-1, 235 pages, hardcover, $24.95).

Thank you,

Gil Student
www.YasharBooks.com

Click here to read the chapter: http://www.YasharBooks.com/Chapters0104.htm

[Note: I was asked about the wisdom of providing the conclusions to a section. The chapter obviously does not include all of the detail and insights in the preceding chapters. It is also the conclusion to only one of three sections. The thinking is that if people like what they read then they will want to see all that led to these conclusions as well as the other two sections of the book.]

New Book: Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the "Year in Israel"

2007-11-22T11:56:00.001-05:00

“Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the ‘Year in Israel’” by Shalom Z. Berger, Daniel Jacobson and Chaim I. Waxman takes a hard look at a phenomenon that has become a major source of both inspiration and consternation in the Jewish community.

Just a generation ago, taking off a year after high school to learn Torah in Israel was uncommon if not rare. Somehow, while parents were focused on their children’s university and careers, a new “tradition” took root in Modern Orthodox high schools that would change their children’s future: a year of Torah study in Israel. The tradition has had a deep effect on the students and their families. With growing alarm, many parents see the Israel/Torah experience as threatening to their aspirations and their lifestyles.

“Flipping Out?” dares to ask some tough questions... and unflinchingly deals with the sometimes shocking answers. Is the year of learning merely an institutionalized lark or is it a real life change? Does it inspire spiritual growth... or a dangerous religious radicalization? The answers, both encouraging and eye-opening, are vital to students and their families and educators.

Noted educator Rabbi Shalom Berger, psychologist Rabbi Daniel Jacobson and sociologist Dr. Chaim Waxman combine their unique perspectives to provide a three-dimensional look at a movement that--depending on whom you believe--promises a golden age.... or threatens to tear apart the Jewish community.

The book was published in conjunction with Yeshiva University’s S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program and includes an introduction by Richard M. Joel, President of Yeshiva University.

Learn more about the book: here
Ask for it in your local Jewish bookstore

Yashar Books in the News

2007-10-26T09:12:00.001-05:00

In this week's New Jersey Jewish Standard (link):

One of the most interesting from a sectarian perspective is Yashar Books, located in Brooklyn and the brainchild of Gil Student, who grew up locally and who graduated from the Solomon Schechter Day School and the Frisch high school. Yashar publishes what it calls "Orthodox Jewish books for the contemporary reader," but the books have a far greater appeal than that.

Yashar tends to be daring in its offerings. Take, for example, "Between the Lines of the Bible," by Yitzchak Etshalom. It is a commentary on the Book of Genesis, but it dares to go where other "Orthodox" commentaries fear to tread — into the world of modern biblical scholarship. It is, in fact, an outgrowth of a small, but growing trend within Orthodox erudition to bring history, archeology, linguistics, and literary criticism to bear on the Torah text.

Yashar also publishes a number of books by Rabbi Natan (Nosson) Slifkin, a brilliant scholar whose works were banned by several prominent haredi rabbis in 2005. That is because Slifkin dares to suggest that modern science provides a more accurate picture of the universe and all that is in it than the Sages of blessed memory.

Not every author Yashar publishes is Orthodox. One on its list is Rabbi David Feldman, rabbi emeritus of the Jewish Center of Teaneck. His book "Where There’s Life" offers readers "a comprehensive exploration of abortion, euthanasia and the right to die, martyrdom, the mandate to heal, the mind-body connection, embryonic stem cell research, organ transplants — including the controversial questions of heart transplantation," according to Yashar.

The First Jewish Publisher in America

2007-10-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

Dr. Jonathan Sarna, American Judaism, p. 82:

The same year that The Law of God (1845), [Isaac] Leeser's five-volume, exquisitely produced Hebrew-English edition of the Pentateuch appeared, Leeser also founded America's first Jewish Publication Society, designed "to support the noble fabric of our faith." "The press is at our service," he announced in an address to the "Israelites of America." He hoped that the new society would solve the problem caused by the fact that "our people live dispersed over so wide a space of country that we are precluded from waiting upon all individually." The American Tract Society and the American Bible Society, he knew, had long since used the press to spread Protestantism's religious message. Now, showing that he too had assimilated the lessons of the market revolution, he sought to emulate "the plan adopted by our opponents" and to "profit by them." He proposed to "prepare and publish works to be placed in the hand of all Israelites" and listed two major religious objectives for his new society: first, to provide American Jews with a "knowledge of their faith," and second, to arm them with the "proper weapons to defend... against the assaults of proselyte-makers on the one side and of infidels on the other." The publication society produced fourteen small English-language volumes, each an approximately 125-page tract, but in 1851 a fire consumed its entire stock of undistributed books, and it went out of business.

Yet even as the society's literary effort went up in smoke, Leeser's Bible, prayer books, monthly magazine, and textbooks remained in print, in some cases well into the twentieth century. His strategy for revitalizing American Jewish life--his use of print media, his willingness to borrow successful techniques from non-Jews, his focus on education and aesthetics, and his commitment to communal defense--proved equally long lasting.

Rabbi Chaim Jachter on JM in the AM

2007-10-10T06:30:00.001-05:00

R. Chaim Jachter's interview on Nachum Segal's JM in the AM radio show: audio

He discusses topics such as agunos and batei din.

Gray Matter vol. 1
Gray Matter vol. 2

Rabbi Slifkin Takes On His Critics

2007-09-25T21:29:00.001-05:00

R. Natan Slifkin's letter in this week's issue of The Jewish Press, regarding his book Sacred Monsters (link to letter):

Mice are born of parent mice rather than growing from dirt. So says Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, noting that the Mishna that says otherwise is relying on a mistaken understanding of the natural world.

Lice are born from eggs rather than being generated from sweat. So says Rav Yitzchok Lampronti, mentor of Ramchal, pointing out that although Chazal said differently, they would surely admit to their error were they aware of modern science.

Salamanders are born of parent salamanders rather than growing from fire. So says Rav Binyomin Musafia, author of Mussaf Ha-Aruch, here attributing a scientific error to the Gemara.

Birds always hatch from eggs, never growing from stalks on trees. So says Rav Yissocher Illowy, disciple of the Chasam Sofer, notwithstanding the account in the Shulchan Aruch to the contrary.

In a recent Jewish Press front-page essay (“Harry Potter’s Fabulous Jewish Monsters,” Aug. 5) synopsizing my new book Sacred Monsters (available at Jewish bookstores and online at www.yasharbooks.com), I briefly referred to the aforementioned views. Several indignant letters to the editor resulted from people who apparently believe the aforementioned authorities were grievously flawed in their approach to Torah.

I would like to take this opportunity to defend them. It is perplexing that people are horrified when classical Torah authorities are said to have made an innocent error in science, but are quite ready to attribute a grievous error in hashkafa to them.

In his letter, Dr. Yaakov Stern says he can “predict with certainty that within twenty years most of what the scientific community presently believes will be relegated to the dustbin of history.”

Taken literally, this sentence is so ludicrous (most of what the scientific community has discovered in the last hundred years is still standing) that I must assume he is speaking with considerable hyperbole, and that his point is to question whether we can have absolute confidence in modern science. I certainly agree that there are many speculative theories in science that may well be overturned, and many beliefs that will turn out to be wrong. However, not all areas of science are equal.

We can be confident we will not discover the earth to be flat, notwithstanding the insistence of Rav Yaakov Reischer, one of the greatest halachic authorities of the seventeenth century, that the Gemara teaches otherwise. We can be confident we will not discover that matter is not composed of molecules but instead of earth, air, fire and water. Zoology is a particularly well-established science, which is why Rabbis Lampronti, Musafia, Hirsch, and Illowy were correct in rejecting the notion of spontaneous generation.

But even if Dr. Stern continues to believe that such creatures indeed exist, what does it matter if other people think differently? Dr. Stern writes that it is “the height of foolishness to abandon the truths given by Hashem to Moshe Rabbeinu.” I couldn’t agree more. However, the aforementioned authorities (and many others) point out that the scientific statements of Chazal were not truths given by Hashem to Moshe Rabbeinu, but rather were the assessments of people living in that time. Accordingly, these authorities saw no theological problem in pointing out that our knowledge of the natural world has since improved.

Everyone in this discussion believes that halacha is binding and that the 13 ikkarim are true. We wholeheartedly accept that Chazal were spiritual giants who bore a mesorah from Sinai that included the Torah Shebiksav and the Torah Shebe’al Peh. But that does not include all the scientific statements in the Talmud.

The Gemara itself, in Pesachim 94b, records that Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi admitted that Chazal were mistaken in their belief that the sun passes behind the sky at night rather than traveling around the far side of the planet. While Maharal interprets this allegorically, and Rabbeinu Tam insists that Chazal were correct and that the sun does indeed travel behind the sky at night, the vast majority of Rishonim and Acharonim interpret this at face value as attesting to a scientific error. Rabbeinu Avraham ben HaRambam sees reason to praise Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi for possessing the intellectual honesty to admit to this error and to accept the view of the non-Jewish scientists.

If I properly understand Rabbi Dovid Kornreich’s letter, he apparently believes that mud-mice, sweat-lice, fire-salamanders and tree-geese existed in some sort of supernatural way. Contrary to his accusation, neither I nor the aforementioned authorities – nor my mentors nor my readers – deny the existence of a supernatural plane of existence. We merely follow the rationalist approach of Rambam, who stated, “We shall endeavor to integrate the Torah with rational thought, leading events according to the natural order wherever possible; only with something that is clarified to be a miracle and cannot be otherwise explained at all will we say that it is a miracle.”

Dr. Stern and Rabbi Kornreich are entitled to follow a different school of thought; as Dr. Stern notes, the notion that the Talmud contains scientific errors has been deemed heretical by many contemporary leading haredi rabbonim, notwithstanding the dozens of Rishonim and Acharonim who adopted such a belief. And they are certainly correct in warning that the rationalist approach carries with it profound difficulties and dangers.

But for the many thousands of sincere and educated Jews who, with good reason, accept the fundamentals of modern science, there is no better option. Teaching them what Rabbis Lampronti, Musafia, Hirsch, and Illowy had to say is correct, hashkafically legitimate, and beneficial.

Finally, in reference to my approach to creation, Rabbi Yisroel Hirsch in his letter notes that I am not a trained scientist. I fully agree that only trained scientists are qualified to discuss the physical development of the universe, which is why I adopt their conclusions. Does Rabbi Hirsch believe that a trained scientist would say the world is indeed only 5,768 years old? I can assure him that the global consensus of scientists trained in the relevant fields would endorse my views.

Rabbi Hirsch then adds that I am not a Talmudic scholar either, and that I therefore have no standing in offering biblical verse interpretation, creation theology, and the like. Again I agree; and I must add that he did not go far enough. To offer biblical verse interpretation and creation theology, being a Talmudic scholar alone surely does not suffice. One must also be expert in Jewish theology, aware of the various radically different approaches of the Rishonim, and sensitive to the difficulties raised by modern science.

In my book The Challenge Of Creation, I presented the views of people who were thus qualified – people such as Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, Rav Gedalyah Nadel, and Rav Aryeh Carmell. The letter-writers find me an easy target, but the approaches they condemn are those of people far greater than myself.

Rabbi Natan Slifkin
Jerusalem

Summer Book Clearance Sale

2007-08-08T20:00:00.000-05:00

(This will remain the top post until the sale ends)

New and Classic Jewish Books from Yashar, Urim and Other Publishers
Discounted 40% – 50%
Direct from the Wholesaler!

Only August 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, 2007
(11:00 am – 8:00 pm)
Sale at Lambda Publishers warehouse outlet
3709 13th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Tel: 718-972-5449 (Bet. 37 & 38 Streets)
sale@ejudaica.com Fax: 718-972-6307

Catalog available here: Word Doc

(click on the image below to enlarge)

Harry Potter's Fabulous Jewish Monsters

2007-08-01T09:48:00.000-05:00

From the front page of this week's The Jewish Press (link):

Harry Potter's Fabulous Jewish Monsters

By: Rabbi Natan Slifkin

The fabulous world of Harry Potter, so prominent in the news right now, may seem very far removed from Judaism. After all, magic, the central feature of the series, is prohibited by the Torah. But some of the most striking inhabitants of Harry’s world are very much part of Torah. Many of the strange beasts that Harry encounters, including mermaids, giants, centaurs and dragons, were described in the Talmud and Midrash long before J.K. Rowling ever took up her pen.

Harry’s headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, owns a magical phoenix, an immortal bird that is continually reborn in fire. The phoenix is also described in several instances in the Talmud and Midrash, having received its gift of immortality as a result of not eating from the Etz Ha-Da’at (Tree of Knowledge) in the Garden of Eden. Hogwarts, the school where Harry is a pupil, houses a lake inhabited by mermen and mermaids. Mermaids are also mentioned in the Midrash, and Rashi likewise discusses people who are half man, half fish.

The Hogwarts grounds are home to a forest inhabited by centaurs, men with the legs of horses. According to the Midrash, the descendants of Enosh turned into centaurs.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry’s teacher Hagrid makes a bonfire in his "Care of Magical Creatures" class. Out of the bonfire emerge salamanders, which continue to survive in the fire and whose blood has extraordinary powers. The Gemara likewise attests that salamanders are generated from fire, and Rabbi Akiva expresses amazement at their ability to survive only in that environment. Hagrid himself is a half-giant, standing ten feet in height, while the giant Grawp measures twenty. The Gemara puts Moshe Rabbeinu and the Levites in between, at ten cubits (fifteen feet) in height, and describes Og of Bashan as being many hundreds of feet tall.

A few years ago, I published a book titled Mysterious Creatures, which explored conflicts between the Talmud and science in the context of strange animals described in Jewish tradition. While the book was of great interest to those struggling with conflicts between Torah and science, and aroused considerable controversy in some quarters, it turned out that those most passionate about the book were of a different group: Harry Potter readers. These teenagers were thrilled to discover that denizens of J.K. Rowling’s universe were a part of their own heritage.

This month, the sequel to Mysterious Creatures, titled Sacred Monsters, is being published. It includes an expanded discussion of all the beasts in Mysterious Creatures, as well as a host of new monsters from Jewish tradition: werewolves, centaurs, gigantic giants, diminutive dwarfs, the kraken, two-headed monsters, and the enigmatic shamir. Aside from the latter, all of these are classical monsters that are also found in the Harry Potter books.

While the publication of this book was not deliberately timed to coincide with the release of the latest and final Harry Potter book, the timing is indeed fortuitous. (Editor’s Note: Sacred Monsters can be purchased at Jewish bookstores and online at www.yasharbooks.com.)

The question many readers ask is quite understandable: Given the vast accumulated knowledge about zoology and the physiology of animals that declares the existence of such animals to be impossible, how are we to react to the claims in Jewish tradition that they do exist? In Sacred Monsters, I explore various techniques used by traditional commentaries in understanding these passages.

Dragons

In examining the statements of the Talmud and Midrash that describe the fabulous monsters of Harry Potter, there are several potential approaches to be used. One is to assess whether the description of the creature has perhaps been misunderstood. The Mishnah, when discussing which types of images are idolatrous and must be destroyed, includes the image of a creature called the drakon. The etymological similarity of the name drakon to "dragon" may suggest that it is the animal being referred to. The Talmud Yerushalmi and various commentaries, however, explain the drakon to mean a snake, perhaps a cobra.

There are pesukim that have sometimes been interpreted as referring to fire-breathing, flying dragons. For example, Yeshayahu (30:6) addresses the Jewish kings who sought to form a military alliance with Egypt against Assyria:

They load animals to [travel to] the south; to the land of trouble and anguish, from where the young and the old lion come, the viper and the fiery flying serpent (saraf), they will carry their riches upon the backs of young asses, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people who shall not profit them.

What is this saraf or fiery flying serpent? There are some species of snakes known as "flying snakes," but they leap out of trees and glide rather than fly. No snake actually flies, nor do any snakes breathe fire.

A possibility is that the verses describing fire-breathing, flying snakes have simply been mistranslated. The appellation "fiery snake," saraf, does not necessarily refer to a fire-breathing snake; it could refer to a poisonous snake, whose venom "burns" people. The description of these snakes "flying" likewise may not refer to that which is usually understood by the term but rather jumping, as Rashi explains: "They are a type of snake, and it is not that they possess wings with which to fly, but rather that they jump and leap very far."

Fire-proof Salamanders

Another approach to resolving these types of issues is that the seemingly inaccurate descriptions of the Talmud may actually be true, contrary to the views of most scientists. For example, there are ancient accounts of salamanders being born in fires and possessing the ability to live in fire. Aristotle wrote that "the Salamander shows that it is possible for some animal substances to exist in fire, for they say that fire is extinguished when this animal walks over it."

This understanding is also evident in Torah sources. Rashi, in his commentary to Sanhedrin 63b, explains the Gemara’s term salamandra as "a small creature that emerges from an oven that has had a fire burning in it for seven years. If a person smears himself with its blood, fire has no power over him...."

These accounts are usually dismissed as myth, yet studies of these amphibians actually confirm this remarkable ability. It seems that while the salamander does not thrive in fire, it does possess an ability to survive in fire for a limited time due to the secretion of an extraordinary fire-resistant foam. Nevertheless, this creature’s remarkable ability is casually dismissed by so many zoological works – a striking example of how one should not rush to dismiss the existence of a phenomenon.

Phoenix from the Flames

Still another approach, and the one that I use most prevalently in my books, is that when Chazal spoke of these creatures, they were speaking allegorically rather than describing actual existing beings.

The phoenix is a bird of ancient legend fabled for its extraordinary lifespan and method of regenerating itself by being consumed in fire, then growing anew from the ashes. It is this supposed power that makes a phoenix so useful as a pet to Dumbledore, the wizard headmaster in the Harry Potter books.

Descriptions of the phoenix can be found as far back as the writings of the ancient Egyptian historian Herodotus, in the fifth century BCE. The phoenix is also mentioned in our holy Jewish texts of the Talmud, Midrash, and arguably even in Tanach itself. The Midrash Bereishit Rabbah (19:5) says that in the Garden of Eden there was a bird that "[l]ives for a thousand years, and at the end of these thousand years, a fire emerges from its nest and incinerates it. A volume equivalent to an egg is left, which grows limbs and lives."

The phoenix is known as the chol or the avrashna, and grounds for its immortality are given in the Gemara (Sanhedrin 108b):
Noach found the avrashna hiding in the hold of the Ark. He said to it, "Do you not want food?" It replied, "I saw that you were busy, and I didn’t want to trouble you." He said to it, "May it be His will that you never die, as it says, ‘I shall expire with my nest, and as the chol, I shall increase my days.’ "
Rashi explains: "Avrashna – a type of bird, called chol in the language of Scripture, and it never dies." This certainly is reminiscent of the phoenix.

Do these Torah sources confirm the existence of such a naturally impossible creature as a phoenix that lives forever and regenerates itself in its old age? It seems that some of the commentaries understood it to be a real bird, as do some people today. But there were those who argued that it is intended to be a metaphor, as the Yefeh Toar explains:
If the matters are not as their simple meaning, one can say that the chol bird alludes to the flight (te’ufas) of the intellect, which is never consumed, and it is called chol because of the proliferation of its insights, like the sand of the sea. And even though the animal aspect inside man, and the animalistic energy, are consumed, such that he dies, his intellect nevertheless still flies and attains new insights after his death for all eternity…
This general approach of explaining passages allegorically was one that was adopted and brought to great heights by the Maharal and Ramchal.

The Mud-Mouse

The final approach to these types of issues takes a different line. There are authorities who state that although the sages of the Talmud were towering in their Torah scholarship, their knowledge of the natural world was not something received at Har Sinai. When it came to science, they accepted the reports of the experts of their era, which included information that we now know to be false.

For example, the Gemara describes a mouse that, instead of being born from parent mice, grows from dirt. This was a prevalent belief in the ancient world, but modern science firmly rejects the notion that a mouse could grow from dirt. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that since the naturalists of Talmudic times reported of such creatures, the sages of the Talmud had no reason not to rely on these experts. Acknowledging that no such mouse exists is no reason to view the Talmudic sages with any less respect.

It is this approach that was recently branded as heresy by numerous distinguished rabbinic authorities in the haredi world. Their position is that every single statement in the Talmud must be understood as either received from Sinai or otherwise divinely inspired, even statements about the natural world. Accordingly, they would state that if the Talmud describes a mouse that grows from dirt, such a creature must indeed exist.

Be that as it may, I am writing for those communities whose rabbinic leaders follow the position of Rambam, Rav Hirsch and scores of other Rishonim and Acharonim over the ages who took the rationalist approach that Chazal were not infallible on scientific matters.

The Talmud records a dispute between Chazal and non-Jewish scholars as to where the sun goes at night, with the Jewish sages taking the position that the sun goes behind the sky at night rather than on the other side of the planet. The Gemara itself cites Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi acknowledging that the non-Jewish sages appeared to be correct. While there were some authorities who reinterpreted this passage differently, the vast majority of authorities over the ages accepted its straightforward meaning – that the Jewish sages were not infallible on matters pertaining to science.

There are those who acknowledge that this rationalist approach has legitimate roots from a historical perspective but nevertheless oppose it on the grounds that it could be dangerous. They fear that if we teach our students that Chazal could err in some matters, they might start questioning Chazal on everything.

I do not discount these concerns, but it is clear to me that, for the communities to which my book is targeted, the dangers in the other direction are even greater. People who grow up in a world where there is exposure to modern science and popular culture might enjoy reading Rowling or Tolkien, but they know these monsters are fictitious. When they encounter statements in the Talmud or Midrash that run counter to their knowledge of the natural world, they are challenged in their faith. If their rabbinic leaders dismiss their questions or, worse, chastise them for asking, their difficulties become a crisis.

For such people, learning that the great Torah authorities of history did not see any need to accept Talmudic statements of science as being infallible is a great reassurance, and can be a lifeline for someone whose emunah is drowning. Precisely that approach which causes a crisis in rabbinic authority for some, rescues rabbinic authority for others.

Sacred Monsters is not a book for everyone. But for the person challenged by statements in the Gemara about Moshe Rabbeinu being fifteen feet tall; for the reader curious about the role of centaurs and werewolves in Jewish tradition; or for the teenager interested only in Harry Potter and who finds Torah boring, the book will prove most valuable.

In my utterly unbiased opinion, I can even assure the reader that Sacred Monsters is more worthy of purchase than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Although, judging by the print run of both books, apparently there are 11,998,000 people who disagree with that assessment.

Rabbi Natan Slifkin ( www.zootorah.com) writes and lectures on Judaism and the animal kingdom. His books include "Man and Beast: Our Relationship with Animals in Jewish Law and Thought" and "The Challenge of Creation: Judaism’s Encounter with Science, Cosmology & Evolution."

Rabbi Dolittle

2007-07-26T13:36:00.001-05:00

The Washington Jewish Week on R. Natan Slifkin: link

Is Darwin Kosher?

2007-06-29T08:51:00.000-05:00

From today's Wall Street Journal (p. W11): link. Note that you can buy The Challenge of Creation and place an advance order for Sacred Monsters at the Yashar website:

A Tradition's Evolution: Is Darwin Kosher?
By EVAN R. GOLDSTEIN

The Wall Street Journal
June 29, 2007

Last month, 600 people turned out for a Yeshiva University fund-raiser at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The museum, which stands as a monument to science, houses one of the world's most extensive collections of dinosaur fossils. The dinner itself was held in the dramatic Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, which features a massive blue whale that hangs suspended in midair; intricate dioramas modeled on the flora and fauna of the planet's oceans line the walls. Everything about the affair suggested that Yeshiva, the intellectual epicenter of Modern Orthodox Jewish life in America, is very much at ease in the world of secular science.

This impression is confirmed by Carl Feit, who is an ordained rabbi and Talmudic scholar as well as chairman of the science division at Yeshiva College. Prof. Feit says that in nearly a quarter-century of teaching introductory biology, he has always taught evolution -- supported by traditional Jewish source material -- and that "there has never been a blip on the radar here." His assessment echoes the official line of the Modern Orthodox rabbinical association, which states that evolution is entirely consistent with Judaism.

The seeming ease with which this branch of Judaism has embraced science can in large part be credited to the towering intellectual legacy of Moses Maimonides. In his 12th-century masterpiece, "Guide to the Perplexed," Maimonides opened the door to a Judaism unfettered by a literal reading of religious texts. For many Jews the persuasive case for evolution does indeed amount to a crisis of faith, but the Maimonidean precedent of figurative interpretation provides a framework within which conflicts arising between Torah and science can be argued away. To be sure, some arguments are more compelling than others (and a great many are not compelling at all). But in contrast to many observant Christians, there is a greater willingness of these believers to live with such inconsistencies.

This practice has long been on display even in the more rigid Orthodox precincts of the Jewish world, where many prominent rabbis were quick to reconcile the Torah with the truths of science. "It is the power of the Torah that all theories can be included," wrote one Montreal-based Orthodox rabbi in the summer of 1925, at the time of the Scopes trial. A few years earlier, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, chief rabbi of pre-state Palestine, assured his followers that evolution, "more so than all other philosophical theories, conforms to the kabbalistic secrets of the world."

Yet there are important exceptions to this tradition of moderation, and in certain parts of the ultra-Orthodox world, Darwinism has always been denounced as subversive and dangerous. Take the case of Rabbi Natan Slifkin. A boyish-looking ultra-Orthodox Israeli scholar and science writer, Mr. Slifkin, who publishes his books in English, is popularly known as the "Zoo Rabbi" because of his consuming fascination with the animal kingdom and his Steve Irwin-esque pedagogical style. In recent years he has emerged as a central figure in the ultra-Orthodox struggle to define the proper place of science within Judaism.

Rabbi Slifkin's work has been publicly denounced by 23 prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis who attacked his beliefs as "nonsense" and ordered that Rabbi Slifkin himself "burn all his writings." The basis for the rabbinical protest differs from that of most Christian fundamentalists who oppose Darwin. Whereas Christian creationism is based on a literal reading of the Bible, most Orthodox Jews who reject evolution tend to do so because they find it incompatible not only with the Torah, but with other Jewish texts and centuries of rabbinic commentary.

Rabbi Slifkin does not consider Darwin a threat to his faith. Relying heavily on Maimonides he argues not only that there is no incompatibility between traditional Jewish faith and the laws of nature, but that a full understanding of one depends on a full understanding of the other. "Appreciating the role and rule of natural law is an essential prerequisite to appreciating the role and rule of the spiritual law of Torah," Rabbi Slifkin writes in "The Science of Torah." "To be sure, we have scientific explanations for phenomena. But this does not paint G-d out of the picture. On the contrary -- it presents a new picture, that of the body of scientific
law, for Him to have painted."

To Rabbi Slifkin, God set the scientific process in motion. Yet he sharply dismisses the claims of intelligent-design advocates like Michael Behe as "wrong and dangerous." He thinks it "strange" that such people feel compelled to "find gaps in biology in order to give God something to do." After all, "Man's physical ancestry in the animal kingdom has no bearing on his unique spiritual nature. Whether our physical bodies originate from mud or monkey, our fundamental identity does not relate to either."

According to Marc Swetlitz, co-editor of "Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism," "the Slifkin affair has forced both Jews and non-Jews to remember that there are Jews who oppose evolution and they are not afraid to say so. I think there is more Jewish anti-evolution writing out there now than ever before."

Rabbi Slifkin has not given an inch to his critics despite the animus directed toward him by some neighbors and colleagues. He has taken to the Internet to mount an exhaustive defense of his writings, meticulously countering each and every argument made against him. And though he was dropped by his religious publisher and distributor as a result of the controversy, he has since signed with a new outfit that is planning to release a vastly expanded version of one of his banned books, "Sacred Monsters," in July.

The animating idea that runs through all of Rabbi Slifkin's work is his insistence that "science and monotheism go hand-in-hand." At a moment when our national debate tends to cast religion and science in adversarial roles, he reminds us that belief in the former needn't imply hostility to the latter.

Mr. Goldstein is a contributing editor at Moment Magazine.