Rabbinic and Lay Communal Authority edited by Suzanne Last Stone Robert S. Hirt, Series Editor THE MICHAEL SCHARF PUBLICATION TRUST of the YESHIVA UNIVERSITY PRESs New York forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.iiii iii 31/12/2006 11:47:12 THE ORTHODOX FORUM The Orthodox Forum, initially convened by Dr. Norman Lamm, Chancellor of Yeshiva University, meets each year to consider major issues of concern to the Jewish community. Forum participants from throughout the world, including academicians in both Jewish and secular fields, rabbis,rashei yeshivah, Jewish educators, and Jewish communal professionals, gather in conference as a think tank to discuss and critique each other’s original papers, examining different aspects of a central theme. The purpose of the Forum is to create and disseminate a new and vibrant Torah literature addressing the critical issues facing Jewry today. The Orthodox Forum gratefully acknowledges the support of the Joseph J. and Bertha K. Green Memorial Fund at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary established by Morris L. Green, of blessed memory. The Orthodox Forum Series is a project of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.iii ii 31/12/2006 11:47:12 Copyright © 2006 Yeshiva University Press Typeset by Jerusalem Typesetting, www.jerusalemtype.com * * * Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Orthodox Forum (15th : 2003 : New York, N.Y.) Rabbinic and lay communal authority / edited by Suzanne Last Stone. p. cm. – (Orthodox forum series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-88125-953-7 1. Rabbis – Office – Congresses. 2. Authority – Religious aspects – Judaism – Congresses. 3. Jewish leadership – Congresses. 4. Leadership – Religious aspects – Judaism – Congresses. 5. Jewish law – Decision making – Congresses. 6. Tradition (Judaism) – Congresses. 7. Orthodox Judaism – Congresses. I. Stone, Suzanne Last. II. Title. BM652.O77 2003 296.6 – dc22 2006102351 forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.iiv iv 31/12/2006 11:47:13 Contents Contributors viii Series Editor’s Preface xi Robert S. Hirt Introduction xii Suzanne Last Stone 1 On Lay Legislation in Halakhah: The King as Instance 1 Gerald J. Blidstein 2 Communal Governance, Lay and Rabbinic: An Overview 19 Aharon Lichtenstein 3 Charismatic Leader, Charismatic Book: Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s Tanya and His Leadership 53 Nehemia Polen 4 Rav, Rosh Yeshivah, and Kahal 65 Shaul Stampfer 5 New Conditions and New Models of Authority: The Yoatzot Halakhah 85 Chana Henkin 6 The Role and Authority of the Rabbi in American Society 93 Chaim I. Waxman 7 New Conditions and Models of Authority: v forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.iv v 31/12/2006 11:47:13 Changing Patterns within Contemporary Orthodoxy 113 Steven Bayme 8 On Constructively Harnessing Tensions Between Laity and Clergy 129 Marc D. Stern The Orthodox Forum Fifteenth Conference List of Participants 161 References 165 Index 173 forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.ivi vi 31/12/2006 11:47:13 Other Volumes in the Orthodox Forum Series Rabbinic Authority and Personal Autonomy edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Tradition and the Non-Traditional Jew edited by Jacob J. Schacter Israel as a Religious Reality edited by Chaim I. Waxman Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah: Contributions and Limitations edited by Shalom Carmy Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law edited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman, and Nathan J. Diament Engaging Modernity: Rabbinic Leaders and the Challenge of the Twentieth Century edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Perspectives on the Experience of Suffering edited by Shalom Carmy Jewish Business Ethics: The Firm and Its Stakeholders edited by Aaron Levine and Moses Pava Tolerance, Dissent, and Democracy: Philosophical, Historical, and Halakhic Perspectives edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Spirituality and Divine Law edited by Adam Mintz and Lawrence Schiffman Formulating Responses in an Egalitarian Age edited by Marc D. Stern Judaism, Science, and Moral Responsibility edited by Yitzhak Berger and David Shatz Lomdus: The Conceptual Approach to Jewish Learning edited by Yosef Blau forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.ivii vii 31/12/2006 11:47:13 Contributors Professor Suzanne Last Stone (volume editor) is a professor of law and director of the Program in Jewish Law and Interdisciplinary Studies at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. Dr. Steven Bayme is Director of the American Jewish Committee’s Contemporary Jewish Life Department and the Koppelman Institute on American Jewish-Israeli Relations. He has authored Understand- ing Jewish History: Texts and Commentary, a widely-utilized Jewish history text, and a volume of essays on contemporary Jewish life, Jewish Arguments and Counterarguments, as well as numerous articles on mixed marriages, the Jewish family, American Judaism, and Israel-Diaspora relations. He has taught at Yeshiva University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Hebrew Union College. Professor Gerald J. Blidstein holds the Miriam Martha Hubert Chair in Jewish Law at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he has also served as dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sci- ences. Among his many publications are the Hebrew books Prayer in Maimonidean Halakhah and Political Concepts in Maimonidean Halakhah, the latter of which was awarded a Jerusalem Prize in 1985. In May of 2006, Professor Blidstein was awarded th Israel Prize in Jewish Thought. Rabbanit Chana Henkin is a founder of nishmat, an organization pioneering efforts to open the highest reaches of Jewish learning to women. She was the initiator of Yoatzot Halakhah, an organi- zation that addresses women’s halakhic issues, has done much to increase the contribution of women to religious life, and lectures frequently. Rabbi Robert S. Hirt (series editor) is the senior adviser to the president of Yeshiva University and vice president emeritus of its viii forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.iviii viii 31/12/2006 11:47:13 Rabbinic and Lay Communal Authority ix affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. In 1991, he was named inaugural occupant of the Rabbi Sidney Shoham Chair of Community Leadership at riets. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein is rosh yeshivah of Har Etzion and of the Gruss Institute at riets. He is a frequent contributor to books and journals of contemporary Jewish thought. Dr. Nehemia Polen is professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew Col- lege in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. His annotated translation of Malkah Shapiro’s memoir of Hassidic life, The Rebbe’s Daughter (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002), was the recipient of a National Jewish Book Award. Dr. Shaul Stampfer is the Rabbi Sandrow Professor of Soviet and East European Jewish History at the Hebrew University and director of the Russian Program at the Melton Center of Jewish Education in the Diaspora, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Mr. Marc D. Stern is the co-director of the Commission on Law and Social Action of the American Jewish Congress. Earlier in his career he was a law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals. He writes widely on religion and public policy. Professor Chaim I. Waxman is a professor emeritus of sociology and Jewish studies at Rutgers University. He is currently a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem. forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.iix ix 31/12/2006 11:47:13 forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.ix x 31/12/2006 11:47:13 Series Editor’s Preface The current generation, perhaps more than any other in the West- ern world, has experienced dramatic changes affecting its identity, stability, and continuity. Demographic shifts, egalitarianism, and instant access to information have resulted in new challenges to the authority of spiritual leaders and to the matter of decision-making in general. An ever increasing knowledgeable Orthodox laity, yeshivah educated and university trained, has become more self-reliant re- garding the religious choices they are called upon to make. In the open society, top-down leadership has been increasingly replaced by networking lay-professional partnerships and collaboration models. Consensus-driven processes focusing on what works and what doesn’t, what satisfies and what doesn’t, have substituted for the approaches that governmental and spiritual leaders utilized for centuries. At the same time, the rejection of authoritarianism is xi forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.ixi xi 31/12/2006 11:47:13 xii Series Editor’s Introduction accompanied by an increasing yearning for the emergence of au- thoritative, enlightened, and courageous communal leadership. The Modern Orthodox community is seeking to find paths that reflect fealty to Jewish law and tradition but at the same time maxi- mize opportunities for individual expression and a sense of personal ownership in the realm of religious, cultural, and intellectual life. In this volume, Rabbinic and Lay Communal Authority, capably edited by Professor Suzanne Last Stone, the reader will be guided through a range of historical, political, sociological, and Jewish legal (halakhic) perspectives that provide insights and perspectives that can help guide our community as it moves forward. We trust that this fourteenth volume in The Orthodox Forum Series will meaningfully enrich the discussion of the pressing issues of the day. Robert S. Hirt August 2006 forum 15 r08 draft 7b balanced.ixii xii 31/12/2006 11:47:13 Introduction Suzanne Last Stone Who, ideally, governs the Jewish community? The Jewish polity, as described in the Bible in Deuteronomy, consists of priests, judges, kings, prophets, and elders, each wielding distinct, although some- times overlapping powers. Today, we speak instead of rabbis and “lay leaders.” Although lay leadership is nowhere mentioned in the Torah, and only marginally in the Talmud, lay leaders, ordinary members of the community, have historically exercised authority over communal affairs in conjunction with rabbinic authority. Broadly speaking, lay leaders attended to social and economic matters, the classic category of mamona, while the rabbis exercised authority over religious mat- ters, the category of issura.