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Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Torah Leadership for Our Times

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Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Torah Leadership for Our Times BackupFall08B.qxd:Layout 1 8/22/08 11:49 AM Page 18 Profile By Yehudah (Leo) Levi Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Torah Leadership for Our Times This year—2008—marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. In this tribute, Professor Levi explores Rabbi Hirsch’s unique leadership during an especially challenging period in Jewish history. Artist’s rendering of Rabbi Hirsch’s synagogue in Frankfurt, 1853. Reproduced from Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch by Rabbi Eliyahu Klugman, with the permission of the copyright holders, ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications, Ltd. Sketch courtesy of Rabbi Shimon Hirsch of Monsey, New York 18 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5769/2008 BackupFall08B.qxd:Layout 1 8/22/08 11:49 AM Page 19 The reader may be amazed to find the term “our times” applied to a personality born two centuries ago. However, today’s Torah leadership is indeed facing almost exactly the same challenges that confronted Western European Jewry 200 years ago. Until then, Jews had essentially lived in ghettos; hence they were ill prepared to face the real world. The crum- bling of the ghetto walls confronted the Torah leadership with two options—to attempt to create a “virtual” wall or to beef up the stunted “immune system.” Many adopted the first approach. On the other hand, there were those who saw the re- moval of the ghetto as a God-given opportunity to restore Jewish life to its original vigor. Among these, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch was probably the most creative and successful. He reminded the Jewish public of their real purpose in life. Unfortunately, the intense efforts made by some in the Torah world to insulate themselves caused many to forget the centrality of this-worldliness in the Torah. In the opening section of the Midrash Rabbah, our Sages tell us that the Torah served as the blueprint for the world—that the Torah and this world are components of one system. Adam was, after all, put into the Garden of Eden “to work it and guard it” (Genesis 2:15). When he worked the land, “thereby the purpose of creation was attained” (Ha’amek Davar, Genesis 2:4). Finally, “Not study, but rather action is the main object of [Torah]” (Pirkei Avot 1:17). orah im Derech scholarly and scientific endeavors of they seen as being in a state of syn- Eretz” (Torah Com- the rest of mankind …You will then see thesis, where each complements the bined with Worldly that your simple-minded calculations other? Or in symbiosis, where each is Endeavor) is the were just as criminal as they were per- distinct but beneficial to the other’s "T motto usually asso- verse. Criminal, because they enlisted existence? Or in mere coexistence, ciated with Rabbi Hirsch, but it is, in the help of untruth supposedly in order with neither having any special rela- reality, a fundamental Torah concept. to protect the truth, and because you tionship to the other? Once we have Rabbi Hirsch only reawakened the have thus departed from the path upon grasped the fundamental meaning of Jewish public to its importance. which your own Sages have preceded Torah im Derech Eretz, the answer is While Rabbi Hirsch was univer- you and beckoned you to follow them. self-evident. If Torah and this world sally admired throughout the Torah Perverse, because by so doing you have are components of a single system, world, there were those who claimed achieved precisely the opposite of what their correct synthesis is the very that his approach was meant to be fol- you wanted to accomplish…Your child essence of Torah life. Both must be lowed only in the era in which he lived will consequently begin to doubt all of studied before we are able to translate due to the unique circumstances of his Judaism which (so, at least, it must the Torah’s instructions into reality. time. But Rabbi Hirsch’s own writings seem to him from your behavior) can Rabbi Hirsch makes it clear that on the subject make such claims un- exist only in the night and darkness of this is his position. Whenever he dis- tenable. (See, for example, his “stan- ignorance and which must close its eyes cusses secular studies, in Horeb as dard” biography1 and Rabbi Yechiel and the minds of its adherents to the well as in his commentary to the Weinberg’s responsa Seridei Eish light of all knowledge if it is not to per- Torah, 3 he stresses that such studies [4:368-9].) Here is one representative ish (Collected Writings 7: 415-6). must be undertaken from the view- quote from Rabbi Hirsch’s writings: By calling the contempt for all point of Torah. They must serve It would be most perverse and science “criminal,” Rabbi Hirsch Torah goals and must be tested by criminal of us to seek to instill in our clearly shows how important science comparison with Torah principles. In children a contempt, based on igno- is to Torah. Even Rabbi Shimon the words of Rabbi Hirsch’s great- rance and untruth, for everything that is Schwab, who as a young student in grandson: “Torah im Derech Eretz is not specifically Jewish, for all other Lithuanian yeshivot was convinced not to be compared to a physical mix- human arts and sciences, in the belief that Rabbi Hirsch considered the ture of two separate components, but that by inculcating our children with Torah im Derech Eretz principle a com- rather to a chemical compound.”4 such a negative attitude we could safe- promise, eventually came to realize Rabbi Hirsch never tired of point- guard them from contacts with the that the approach was, in fact, an ing out that the study of science and ideal.2 He once told me that, as a history is necessary for a deeper un- Professor Levi is past rector and professor young man, he thought the Sages derstanding of the ways of God and of electro-optics at the Jerusalem Coll ege frowned upon secular knowledge, but the Torah’s message.5 His Commentary of Technology, where he also gave courses later realized that they endorsed it. on the Torah is interspersed with ref- in Torah thought. In addition to 150-odd erences to scientific and historical articles published in scientific, technical Coexistence, Symbiosis facts to aid in the interpretation of and Judaica journals, Professor Levi has or Synthesis? Scripture. Here he adhered to the published a number of books in optics, ha- Just how does Torah im Derech Eretz principle of accepting the truth from lachah and Jewish ideology. view Torah and worldly science? Are whomever presents it. (This in con- Fall 5769/2008 JEWISH ACTION I 19 BackupFall08B.qxd:Layout 1 8/22/08 11:49 AM Page 20 trast to the humanities, where there In his steadfast adherence to this humanism is the belief that man is are no human-based means to test for principle, Rabbi Hirsch never turns to self-sufficient, that on his own he will truth.) In one annual report of the outside sources for ideological inspi- inexorably ascend the ladder to per- high school he founded (perhaps the ration. He encourages the study, from fection. This should be contrasted first yeshivah high school in history), Gentile sources, of nature, psychol- with, for example, Rabbi Hirsch’s he demonstrates in considerable de- ogy, anthropology and history, but not comment that even scientific knowl- tail—including tens of examples— the study of humanities, which deals edge is dependent on belief in God’s how the study of natural science and with the meaning of the world and creation for its validation14—that even world history contributes to the stu- man in it, and with his aspirations, modern scientific progress was not dent’s understanding of the Torah and values, goals and ideas.10 Even when, possible until the Jewish people its message.6 In the previous year’s re- on one occasion, dictates of good spread the knowledge of God’s unity port, he discussed the impact that manners compelled him to eulogize a among the nations.15 Torah study has on our understanding Gentile poet, he praised that poet for Rabbi Hirsch lived in a time of of general secular concepts: “These having absorbed many lofty Jewish great upheaval, when Jews were being two elements [general and special teachings, and for having enriched the granted progressively greater rights. Jewish education] are in truth nothing Gentile world by clothing those It was easy to become intoxicated but the two complementary and teachings in an inspiring form. with the feeling of freedom, and such closely related parts of a complete Nowhere, however, in an address of indeed was the spirit of the time. and homogeneous education.”7 fourteen pages, did he imply that we, Reading Rabbi Hirsch’s works, one is as Jews, should—or need to—absorb impressed by the low-key terms in Unadulterated Judaism ideas from the Gentile.11 which he refers to the emancipation. Jewish thinkers throughout our his- Did Rabbi Hirsch himself absorb Far from being swept up in the fervor, tory have attempted to synthesize the such ideas? In view of the above, that Rabbi Hirsch repeatedly warns his ideas of Gentile philosophers with would seem surprising. I, for one, fellow Jews not to be deceived by the have not found a single foreign idea in unprecedented liberality they were Rabbi Hirsch’s writings. Granted, experiencing. Renewed anti-Semitism Gentile thinkers often independently could well be lurking around the cor- rediscover certain of the Torah’s ner.
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