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Meorot: a Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse M e o r o t A Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse Tevet 5773 CONTENTS Introduction to the Tevet 5773 Edition Eugene Korn ARTICLES A Reflection of Truth: The Rabbinate and the Academy in the Writings of A. S. Rosenthal on Violating the Sabbath to Save Gentile Life Benjamin Lau Naturalism and the Rav: A Reply to Yoram Hazony Alex Sztuden Hertz, Reason and Religious Education Nick Zangwill REVIEW ESSAY New Books and Points of Discussion in the Halakhic Definition of Death: Respiratory-Brain Death, by Avraham Steinberg, and Defining the Moment— Understanding Brain Death in Halakhah, by David Shabtai Noam Stadlan BOOK REVIEWS Strictly Kosher Reading: Popular Literature and the Condition of Contemporary Orthodoxy, by Yoel Finkelman Reviewed by Rose Waldman Sorrow and Distress in the Talmud, by Shulamit Valler Reviewed by Chaya Halberstam STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Meorot: A Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse Statement of Purpose Meorot is a forum for discussion of Orthodox Judaism’s engagement with modernity, published by Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School. It is the conviction of Meorot that this discourse is vital to nurturing the spiritual and religious experiences of Modern Orthodox Jews. Committed to the norms of halakhah and Torah, Meorot is dedicated to free inquiry and will be ever mindful that “Truth is the seal of the Holy One, Blessed be He.” Editors Eugene Korn, Editor Nathaniel Helfgot, Associate Editor Joel Linsider, zt”l, Text Editor Editorial Board Dov Linzer (YCT Rabbinical School), Chair Saul Berman Naftali Harcsztark Norma Baumel Joseph Simcha Krauss Barry Levy Adam Mintz Tamar Ross (Israel) Meorot publishes one online edition per year, and will be available periodically in hard-copy rum of Modern Orthodox Discourse Orthodox Modern of rum editions. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors only and do not necessarily represent the views of YCT or the editorial board. YCT retains copyrights to all material published in the journal. A Fo A M e o r o t Directions for Submissions Meorot invites submissions of original scholarly and popular essays, as well as new English translations of Hebrew works. Popular essays should be between 800-2000 words. The journal particularly welcomes halakhic, philosophic, and literary studies relating to qedushah in modern experience, the religious significance of the State of Israel, Jewish ethics, emerging Torah conceptions of and opportunities for women, Talmud Torah as an intellectual and spiritual discipline, pluralism, and Judaism’s relation to gentiles and contemporary culture. Submissions to Meorot should be sent online to [email protected] or mailed in duplicate to Editor, Meorot, c/o YCT Rabbinical School, 3700 Henry Hudson Parkway, Riverdale, New York 1043. Submissions should include a one paragraph abstract and a two line biography of the author. Paper submissions should be accompanied by a diskette with Meorot 10 Tevet 5773 the essay in RTF, TXT or MSWORD format. Notes should appear as endnotes. Communications should be directed to the above email address. A Publication of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School © 2012 Reader responses should be sent to the editor at [email protected] for possible electronic publication at the journal’s website. Graphic Design: Erica Weisberg Meorot 10 Tevet 5773 Introduction Introduction to the Tevet 5773 Edition Eugene Korn Welcome to the Tevet 5773 edition of Meorot. We Rosenthal regarding the proper way to note with great sadness the passing of our text understand the permissibility of violating the editor and translator, Joel Linsider, zt’l. Joel died Sabbath to save the life of a gentile. Rosenthal tragically at too young an age this June in Jerusalem, argued that religious and halakhic thinking must where he and his wife Rosemary had made aliyah incorporate the modern value of human rights that just a few years ago. A lawyer by profession, Joel had become axiomatic in world culture. This value was also an accomplished philologist, scholar and bestows an intrinsic value on gentile life, and thus expert in Semitic languages who had a deft feel for saving a gentile life is a primary halakhic value that the nuances of Hebrew vocabulary and style. He justifies violating the Sabbath ab initio and as an was an essential part of The Edah Journal and Meorot ideal. This contrasts with the traditional justification from their beginnings. From his first remarkable of “avoiding hatred”(“eivah”) or promoting “ways of translation of Moshe Halbertal’s “Ones Possessed of peace” (“darkhei shalom”), which in the end are Religion: Religious Tolerance in the Teachings of The Meiri” concessions rooted in Jewish self-interest. that appeared in the first edition of The Edah Journal Rosenthal’s argument was vehemently rejected by to his subsequent translations in our journal of more traditional rabbis. leading Israeli thinkers like Aviezer Ravitsky and Nahum Rabinovitch and Benjamin Lau, Joel In his analysis Rosenthal raises the larger issue of established himself as the one of the foremost the place of ethical considerations in valid halakhic English translators of Hebrew works. argument, and laments the fact that in most halakhic It was through The Edah Journal and Meorot that Joel deliberations moral values do not play the critical became known to the highest levels of Israeli role that they should. Rosenthal also pleads for academia, whose professors sought him out to halakhically committed Jews to press rabbinic translate their works. Not long before he died, authorities to find solutions to the “severe” Littman Library of Jewish Civilization published problems that modernity poses for traditional Jews. Joel’s English translation of Avraham Grossman’s seminal study, Rashi. While this controversy took place almost 40 years ago, its central questions are still being discussed in Joel’s keen eye was invaluable in giving The Edah Modern Orthodox circles, namely whether and to Journal and Meorot the professional style and what extent modern and universal values have a bibliographical completeness for which it is known. legitimate place in our contemporary halakhic We dedicate this edition of Meorot to him. It is most decision making. The key to accepting tolerance, fitting that Joel translated this edition’s lead article, pluralism and gender equality as critical values A Reflection of Truth: The Rabbinate and the Academy in within a modern halakhic framework seems to hang the Writings of A. S. Rosenthal on Violating the Sabbath on this larger issue. to Save Gentile Life by Benjamin Lau. All of us in the Modern Orthodox community and at Meorot will In our second essay, Alex Sztuden responds miss Joel’s wisdom and humanity. May his memory vigorously to Yoram Hazony’s article in the April be a blessing for us all. 2012 issue of Commentary. Hazony argued that R. Soloveitchik dropped a “bombshell” in The In “A Reflection of Truth: The Rabbinate and the Academy Emergence of Ethical Man” by accepting a in the Writings of A. S. Rosenthal on Violating the thoroughgoing naturalistic understanding of the Sabbath to Save Gentile Life,” R. Benjamin Lau relates world, which in the end undermines supernatural the 1976 controversy surrounding the progressive revelation, prophecy and the traditional conception thinking of Rabbi Professor Eliezer Samson of immortality. Sztuden advances an alternative Meorot 10 Tevet 5773 Introduction reading of Emergence that includes the book’s Avraham Steinberg’s Respiratory-Brain Death presents pronounced naturalistic strands and its non- a strong and unambiguous case for respiratory brain naturalistic elements. death (RBD)—the irreversible cessation of respiration in the context of irreversible cessation of Sztuden rejects Hazony’s claim that R. Soloveitchik brainstem function and consciousness—as the was a naturalist and demonstrates through a traditional and valid definition of death within balanced and careful reading of Emergence—as well halakhah. By contrast, Defining the Moment— as R. Soloveitchik’s other writings—that R. Understanding Brain Death in Halakhah by David Soloveitchik was a systematically dialectical thinker Shabtai claims not to advocate for either cardiac who cannot be understood by citing a small sample death or respiratory death and takes an encyclopedic of his statements isolated from their contexts. A approach that presents a wide spectrum of opinions correct understanding of R. Soloveitchik’s nuanced and insights. Stadlan finds, however, that Shabtai positions on critical subjects like revelation, fails to critique seriously the definition of death as prophecy, redemption and immortality can only be “the cessation of ‘vital motion,” and that his achieved by employing a larger lens on his entire presentation is sometimes misleading and oeuvre. inconsistent with biomedical knowledge. Stadlan In Hertz, Reason and Religious Education, Nick contends that Shabtai’s book, analyses and Zangwill argues for the need to proffer reasons conclusions should be best understood as a partisan when presenting the case for tradition. Taking into argument for cardiac death and if readers want a account the sophistication of modern Jews balanced analysis of the medical and halakhic issues embedded in our contemporary marketing culture relating to the definition of death, they will need to where all of us can choose—or ‘buy’—the best augment Shabtai’s the book with other works on product from the vast array of religions and the topic. varieties of Judaism now available, Zangwill’s article
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