Meorot: a Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse
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M e o r o t A Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse Tishrei 5772 CONTENTS Introduction to the Tishrei 5772 Edition: The Covenant in Jewish Life Eugene Korn ARTICLES Fate & Faith: The Ongoing Covenants Benjamin D. Levy The Covenant and its Theology Eugene Korn Covenant, Women, and Circumcision: Formulating a Covenantal Simhat Bat Ceremony Sharon R. Siegel Selling Land in Israel to Gentiles Shlomo Riskin Does Maimonides Require Acceptance of Commandments for Conversion? Joshua E. Broyde & Michael J. Broyde THE DALED AMOT OF HALAKHAH On Women Joining in a Zimmun Yonatan Gershon Responses by Ya’akov Medan and Mikhal Tikochinsky REVIEWS The Three Blessings: Boundaries, Censorship, and Identity in Jewish Liturgy by Yoel Kahn Reviewed by Tamar Jacobowitz The Greening of American Orthodox Judaism: Yavneh in the 1960’s by Benny Kraut Reviewed by Jeffrey S. Gurock A Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse Orthodox Modern of Forum A M e o r o t 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, 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) Discourse Orthodox Modern of Meorot publishes one online edition per year, and will be available periodically in hard-copy 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. Directions for Submissions A Forum Forum A Meorot invites submissions of original scholarly and popular essays, as well as new English M e o r o t 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 10463. Submissions should include a one paragraph abstract and a two line biography of the author. Paper submissions should be accompanied by a diskette Meorot 9 with the essay in RTF, TXT or MSWORD format. Notes should appear as endnotes. Tishrei 5772 Communications should be directed to the above email address. A Publication of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School Reader responses should be sent to the editor at [email protected] for possible © 2010 electronic publication at the journal’s website. Graphic Design: Erica Weisberg Meorot 9 Tishrei 5772 Introduction 2 Introduction to the Tishrei 5772 Edition: The Covenant in Jewish Life Eugene Korn Welcome to the Tishrei 5772 edition of ―female‖ elements, for gender in the Meorot. Moslems gave us the title ―the covenant, and for analyzing which people of the book‖, but religious Jews covenantal components can be cast off and understand ourselves more accurately as which are immutable. ―the people of the covenant.‖ It is the covenant between God and the Jewish My exploration of the theological dimensions People that shapes how we interpret Sinai of the Berit argues that if we see the halakhah and Torah, that endows us with a purpose as the contractual terms of our covenantal in human history, and that defines the relationship with God, we also require an parameters of Jewish membership so underlying theology of the Berit to endow essential to our national, spiritual and moral Jewish religious life with transcendent identity. In a word, we are a covenantal people. purpose. Such a covenantal theology is implicit in the Torah’s account of God’s This edition of Meorot is dedicated to covenant with Abraham and God’s covenant probing the halakhic, national, theological and gender implications of the covenant. with us at Sinai, as well as in the visions of the prophets. Benjamin D. Levy explores the essential God calls upon the Jewish People to be the characteristics and borders of Jewish central actors in redemption history identity through a conceptual analysis of the throughout all these foundational Jewish covenant. Who is in and who is out—and experiences and the Torah texts that record by what standard? Is there indeed one them. As an agent of blessing to ―all the coherent set of standards for all elements of families of the earth,‖ as ―a kingdom of Jewish identity? Levy utilizes Rav Joseph priests,‖ and as ―a light unto the nations,‖ we Soloveitchik’s celebrated dialectic of the are divinely challenged to bring the nations A Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse Orthodox Modern of Forum A covenant of fate and the covenant of of world to the Creator of Heaven and Earth destiny to raise questions about Jewish and to the fundamental laws of divine identity as a historical and national fact, as M e o r o t morality. Notwithstanding centuries of well as a theological designation with all its Jewish persecution and our struggle for religious and halakhic implications. Are survival that have has relegated this theology these categories disjunctive or must we to a marginal position in rabbinic thought somehow struggle to find a coherent and religious life, it remains necessary for a dialectical understanding of the national spiritually coherent account of Jewish and religious dimensions of the berit? This existence that aspires to goals beyond question is at the heart of today’s raging survival and self-interest. debate in Israel regarding conversion standards for nearly 300,000 gentiles who Sharon R. Siegel analyses the status and have chosen to link their destiny to Israeli implications of the new Simhat Bat ceremony, society and the Jewish People. which formally inaugurates female infants into Jewish covenantal life. The ceremony Levy also employs the halakhic category of has become increasingly popular within Meorot 9 apostasy to explore the borders of Orthodoxy as well as throughout the entire Tishrei 5772 covenantal and Jewish identity. He uses Jewish community since the 1970s. She A Publication of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah these categories to trace the implications of examines the meaning of the popular Rabbinical School © 2011 his covenantal thesis for its ―male‖ and misconception that identifies berit milah (male Meorot 9 Tishrei 5772 Introduction 3 circumcision) with covenantal identity with its rabbinic communities have generated much resultant lack of recognizing women as full discussion on this issue and the multiple passages members of the covenant. Siegel carefully that Rambam devotes to conversion. At issue is elucidates the distinction between the whether Maimonides considered the acceptance transcendent covenant and the more limited of mitsvot to be a sine qua non for valid conversion commandment to circumcise males. (both ante and post facto), and once again this very issue lies at the heart of the vigorous debate in Covenantal identity also plays a role in this Israel today regarding converting the 300,000 discussion. Rashi excluded women from a zimmun gentiles Israelis from the former Soviet Union. because in his opinion women should not recite The authors argue contra the scholarship of Avi the phrase ―for the covenant You have sealed in Sagi and Zvi Zohar (reviewed by Marc Shapiro in our flesh,‖ in the second blessing of grace after Meorot 8) that a full analysis of Mishnah torah meals; Rema ruled that ―women and slaves should demonstrates that Rambam indeed required not refer to covenant [of circumcision] and Torah acceptance of mitsvot for entry into the Jewish [in the second blessing of grace] because women covenant, and that his omission of that are not within the covenant.‖ Is the issue merely requirement in some Mishnah torah passages raises one of ritual or liturgy, or does it call into question a literary rather than a legal question. the full membership of women in God’s covenant with Am Yisrael? If we are to recognize women as In our Daled Amot of Halakhah feature, the Israelis full covenantal partners, argues Siegel, then such Yonatan Gershon, Ya’akov Medan, and Mikhal membership calls for public communal Tikochinsky reconsider the halakhic issue of commemoration through a ritual act. whether women and men in the same nuclear family may join each other to comprise a zimmun, Shlomo Riskin analyzes the December 2010 letter to bless God together as one unified entity after a signed by fifty Israeli rabbis prohibiting the sale meal. and rental of land in Israel to gentiles. After subjecting it to close halakhic scrutiny, he finds Gershon presents a scholarly halakhic argument their arguments inconsistent with teachings of the that this practice is allowed today because the Torah, Tractate Gerim, Maimonides and his historical conditions that prevented women from commentators, as well as the opinions of the comprising zimmun with men in the past are no majority of modern poseqim. He discusses the longer present. Moreover, in light of our rulings of halakhic decisors regarding the status of contemporary eating practices and women’s Moslems and Christians today. Most disturbing, education in Torah, it is not only permitted but Riskin finds elements of xenophobia and racism halakhically preferable for women to join a in the letter.