Reviews in Brief – Winter 2024
Medinah, Halachah VeKavanot HaTorah
By Rabbi Yitzchak Shilat
Shilat-Ma’aleh Adumim Press
Jerusalem, 2023
456 pages
Halachah, Jewish law, does not always offer a direct answer to contemporary questions. When faced with a new reality, we first try to find a comparable analogy in rabbinical literature. An additional avenue is following the general direction of halachah even when there is no specific requirement. Rabbi Yitzchak Shilat, the great scholar and translator of Rambam and co-rosh yeshivah at Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Ma’aleh Adumim, adopts the phrase “kavanot haTorah,” the Torah’s intentions, to refer to this direction. He takes that phrase from Ibn Tibbon’s translation of Rambam’s Moreh Nevuchim. In America, we might call it “halachic values.” It offers us insight into what the Torah implies, what the Divine will desires, even when it does not command it directly.
Rabbi Shilat has published three breathtaking volumes on contemporary halachah and kavanot haTorah: one on medical ethics (2014), another on marriage and sexuality (2018) and a third on government (2023). This third volume was published during heated public debate over separation of powers in the Israeli government. In these books, Rabbi Shilat takes a broad range of topics and offers a sweeping overview of the entire rabbinic literature on the subjects—from Biblical verses through every major era to contemporary authorities, concluding with practical decisions. The result is a veritable textbook on the subjects that offers background material and addresses difficult contemporary questions with practical conclusions, all in an enjoyable read.
The latest volume discusses the ideal form of Jewish government based on halachic texts and how these ideas should be put into practice today. It also discusses what halachah has to say on national defense (military), internal security (police), justice (court system), conversion to Judaism and the binding nature of secular law. Based on responsa literature, Rabbi Shilat develops the idea that Israel’s executive branch (prime minister and cabinet) serves the function of a king, which is responsible for internal and external security; the legislative branch (Knesset) appoints the executive branch and retains for itself responsibility for passing laws, as representatives of the monarchy and of society; the judicial branch takes on the role of a monarchy to punish criminals. Rabbi Shilat distinguishes between the current system of government in Israel and the ideal system as it emerges from halachic sources. After surveying textual sources throughout the ages, Rabbi Shilat maps out a realistic and specific plan for a Torah-based government in modern society. He discusses the separation of powers, the requirement of holiness in the military, the mandate for a police force that operates seven days a week, the status of religious minorities in a halachic state, and much more.
In the introduction, Rabbi Shilat notes that his previous volumes have been criticized for spending too much time discussing halachah rather than the kavanot haTorah. He replies that we only resort to indirect guidance when we lack direct guidance. In this book, like in his previous books in this series, Rabbi Shilat guides readers through the halachic sources as they were applied in different eras and asks important questions about how the Torah can be faithfully implemented today in our complex society, which is so different from the ancient world. The stunning result is a fundamental lesson in how to think about societal issues from the perspective of both the letter and the spirit of Jewish law. A reader emerges from this book with a vision of how a halachic state can operate in the modern world.
Living in the Land: Firsthand accounts from Bnei Torah and their families
Edited by Yoel Berman
Mosaica Press
Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, 2023
295 pages
Israel is no longer the third-world country it once was. Making aliyah is easier today than ever in history. Yet so many Jews still remain in the Diaspora for a variety of reasons. Many stay in the area where they grew up out of inertia, assuming that change is difficult.
In an effort to help Jews make and fulfill the important decision to move to Israel, Rabbi Yoel Berman published a collection of essays from fifty people discussing their aliyah stories. Living in the Land is written by and directed at English-speaking Jews who fit into the Yeshivish socio-religious group. The writers primarily come from the main Yeshivish communities in America (Brooklyn, Monsey, Lakewood, Baltimore and Cleveland, among others). Readers may be surprised that the contributors ended up in many different places in Israel. Some moved to popular areas such as Jerusalem or Ramat Beit Shemesh, but many settled in a variety of locations across Israel. Just looking at the table of contents and seeing the list of authors and where they live teaches a lesson—there are many places where an American oleh can feel comfortable in Israel.
As each writer tells his or her story in two or three pages, we find no single reason why people make aliyah and no single way how they do it. There are a variety of motivations for aliyah, rarely is it based on pure ideology. Some people wanted to join the Jewish future that lies in Israel; others came to study for a few years and fell in love with the country; many had family connections to Israel. Nearly everyone feels the supernatural draw of the Holy Land.
The book is very much pro-aliyah, but the writers tell some hard truths about the process. One writer compares aliyah to the mitzvah of orlah on a tree, whose fruit is forbidden for the first three years. Likewise, the first three years of aliyah are difficult. The transitions are hard; the lifestyle is different; the bureaucracy is frustrating. Some of the contributors made aliyah multiple times, meaning that they had tried to stay in Israel but could not make it work and had to leave, and then tried again years later. This is where the book is most helpful.
Living in the Land is full of realism and optimism, the hard lessons of personal experience combined with the happiness and satisfaction of living in a Jewish society in the Holy Land. The book is also full of helpful tips for anyone considering aliyah. For example, those individuals who did the most research ended up finding the right communities for their families, often outside the main population centers where real estate is cheaper. Others rented first and experimented with different communities. A simple tip is to hire a Hebrew tutor for your children before moving to Israel, which will help them adjust more quickly. The varieties of aliyah experience demonstrate just how many people can successfully move to Israel. The book will hopefully open the eyes of many who think aliyah is not possible for them and will allow them to follow the spiritual draw of Israel.
Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Religious Universalism and the German-Jewish Quest for Emancipation
By Dr. Moshe Y. Miller
University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 2024
300 pages
One of the challenges of modern Jewish thought is finding the right balance between particularism and universalism. If we maintain a special connection with fellow Jews, how do we relate to our non-Jewish friends and colleagues? If we are the “Chosen People,” what room does our religion have for the non-chosen? This issue has been largely resolved within mainstream Orthodox Jewish thought today, but the discussion was only beginning when modernity began to affect the lives of Jews in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The direction taken by important German rabbis and thinkers will surprise many people.
In this engrossing study, Dr. Moshe Y. Miller, assistant professor of Jewish history at Touro College, shows that even a figure such as Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, who is revered in right-wing Orthodox Jewish circles, adopted unconventional positions. However, Dr. Miller does much more than study Rabbi Hirsch’s views. In fact, only two of the ten chapters in this book address Rabbi Hirsch directly. Rather, Dr. Miller places Rabbi Hirsch into context by delving into the views of similar scholars who preceded Rabbi Hirsch, were contemporary with him or came after him. What emerges is a surprising universalism among great German scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dr. Miller surveys the views of Rabbi Hirsch’s rabbinic contemporaries in Central Europe and his German predecessors, highlighting some modern elements of universalism. He focuses on what he calls “the mission theory,” namely the idea that the Jewish people serve as a model for other nations. While G-d gave the Torah to the Jews, He intended it to influence, on some level, all of humanity. In other words, G-d cares about all people. Additionally, while the concept is disputed among modern halachic scholars, some key German rabbinic authorities stated that Christianity does not constitute polytheism and therefore gentiles can become Christians without violating the Seven Noahide Laws.
Proceeding to Rabbi Hirsch, Dr. Miller sensitively analyzes passages from his Bible commentary and other works where he expresses attitudes that place high value on the lives of all people. Rabbi Hirsch writes that Christianity is considered monotheism, although it is a somewhat diluted monotheism compared to Judaism. He considers the Biblical stranger (ger), of whom we must take special care, to be any stranger, regardless of nationality or religion. Perhaps most surprisingly, Rabbi Hirsch believes that the commandment to “love your fellow as yourself” (Vayikra 19:18) applies to all of humanity, not just Jews. Many of Rabbi Hirsch’s conclusions do not appear to flow naturally from the sources and reflect a spirit of universalism that emerged in nineteenth-century German Orthodox Judaism.
Dr. Miller continues his analysis of Hirschian universalism into the twentieth century, showing Rabbi Hirsch’s lasting impact. Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg’s writings show clear signs of Hirschian influence. Sarah Schenirer, though not a traditional scholar, exerted significant influence on the Jewish community. She wrote to her students: “It is incumbent upon you to love every single human being, both those who are near and those who are far, for you were strangers in Egypt.” While Dr. Miller does not continue through to the twenty-first century, he could likewise have shown Hirschian universalism in the teachings of the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
Dr. Miller’s work is an exciting tour of nineteenth-century Orthodox intellectuals, demonstrating that leading scholars were open, in varying degrees, to a Torah ethic based on Jewish sources that accepts particular Jewish concerns while valuing broader human value, culture and achievements.
Rabbi Gil Student is a member of Jewish Action’s Editorial Committee.