Proud To Be A Hirschian , Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein

"I don't care what group you identify with, as long as you are ashamed of it." There is much wisdom in the throwaway line with which Dennis Prager frequently challenges audiences to admit to the flaws of the groups with which they identify.

Of the many labels that doggedly pursue me, there is only one that I am not ashamed of at all. I am a Hirschian, and proud of it without reservation. I believe this vision for living a Torah life is at least as viable today as when it was first described, if not more so.

It took me decades to realize this, and years more to openly embrace it in a community sometimes hostile to its implications. Today, I can think of no more honorable distinction than to be considered a follower of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (RSRH), zt"l.

The bicentennial of the birth of RSRH brought many tributes, though with much hedging. Some accolades focused on the past, on the people and personalities across the length and breadth of the Torah landscape who were influenced by his writings many decades ago, and how that influence ramified into the present. Others spoke of the delight they take in his commentary to Torah. Some conceded that the program of Torah Im Derech Eretz was still relevant to some people, but implied that they were a dwindling bunch. Few were willing to shout from the rooftops that RSRH's description of the aims and goals of the Torah personality is as vital and fresh today as ever.

I do not understand the hesitation. "Still relevant" is a wussy understatement. To many of us, RSRH has no peer in giving voice to the way we understand our role as Torah Jews, and how Torah works in helping us better ourselves and the world.

Lost its relevance? All those I know who have studied RSRH seriously are struck by how much more relevant his thought is today than when he committed it to paper a century and a half ago. He anticipated issues and problems that were of some concern in his day, but became even more important in the generations that followed. If his thought hasn't kindled the hearts of some in our community who eagerly seek direction and purpose in their avodah, it is only because they have not been exposed to it.

I reject the notion that his hashkafa cannot be implemented without someone of his stature here to guide us. Every hashkafa, bar none, can be (and has been) misapplied. Every hashkafa requires guidance by accomplished Torah personalities. There are no easy or safe ways to avoid perverting the intent of a valid hashkafa. Hashem gives us the guidance we need in every generation. Among contemporary luminaries are those who may not call themselves Hirschian but are not hostile to the yearnings and aspirations of the Hirschian personality.

I am a Hirschian (at least in my own non-authoritative and perhaps highly personal way of understanding the term) for all of the following reasons.

In three decades of trying to explain Torah Judaism to brighter frum students, to non-frum skeptics, and to non-Jews, the works of no other thinker have been as valuable as those of RSRH in explaining the overall telos of Torah life. Without Ramchal and Maharal, I could not explain the Torah universe; without RSRH, I cannot convey the individual.

Only in the works of RSRH are major themes of modernity - free will vs. scientific materialism; nationalism; universalism; sensuality; the esthetic; totalitarianism - not only discussed, but shown to be focal points of the Torah's instruction.

I have observed colleagues in the world of kiruv and in the frum classroom put a damper on the asking of difficult questions. I have seen the catastrophic consequences of such suppression. It is sourced in a mixture of discomfort and impotence in not having answers to give, and basic insecurity. Neither need exist in the Hirschian, who has been energized by the boundless enthusiasm of RSRH for Torah's ability to stand up to any challenge at all.

I have seen the vision of RSRH ignite the souls of master teachers, starting with my great mentor, Rav Nachman Bulman, zt"l. Inspired by them, I have always encouraged my students to ask questions, and tried to do my best to address them. I believe they are the stronger for it.

Major sections of Torah literature simply have no consistent, systematized approach outside the writings of RSRH. I have hundreds and hundreds of beautiful vertlach and longer insights on Chumash Vayikra, but no one besides RSRH takes all the details of the mishkan, all details of every korban, and combines them in a unified whole.

For people like myself who are frequently challenged by others, sometimes smirky and sometimes sincere, to make sense out of individual sections of the Torah, no one comes close to RSRH. Whether to believer or agnostic, RSRH's approach to symbolism in particular almost never fails to elicit interest and spark thought and begrudging admiration in all but the most cynical critics.

Most important, many of us somehow sense within our souls that the world as a whole is a beautiful place. We believe that many people we meet outside our community live lives of value and integrity, and desperately attempt to connect with God. They have a role to play, and Hashem has a message for them. We believe that the trajectory of human civilization has been, on the whole , in a forward direction, rather than the reverse, despite many setbacks and disappointments.

We believe that there are truths to be discovered (the yesh chochmah bagoyim of the Gemara) by exposure to general culture. We reject the notion that beyond the perimeters of our community is a vast cesspool. There is much depravity, to be sure, but there is also much good. We are grateful to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for having given us a Torah that provides us with the tools to make the proper selection. We have discerned in our own lives that the Torah has much to offer the rest of humanity, not just with the advent of Mashiach, but even today.

We also fully believe that Torah can and must illuminate every (permissible) nook and cranny of the planet, that there is a way to be a Torah attorney, a Torah carpenter, a Torah journalist, a Torah politician. These are not bedieveds, but for the right people, lechatchilas, each according to his or her God-given talents. We find no one who writes as much and as convincingly about the mandate for Torah Jews to take Torah everywhere as does RSRH.

Lastly, we find ourselves in a Torah world that increasingly opts for limitation, which sees restriction and a narrowing of creativity, individuality and worldview as the best way to avoid problems. For many of us, this does not and cannot work. We are buoyed by the great vision of RSRH and reminded that Rav Shimon Schwab, zt"l, said that Torah Im Derech Eretz "means the Torah's conquest of life and not the Torah's flight from life. It means the Torah's casting a light into the darkness rather than hiding from the darkness. It means applying Torah to the earth and not divorcing it from the earth."

There are thousands upon thousands for whom all of these are apparent truths. Whether they recognize it or not, their lives and values are consistent with what RSRH had in mind for us.

Now as never before, I am proud to be a Hirschian.

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein teaches Jewish Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and is the author of "Be'er Hagolah: The Maharal's Classic Defense of Rabbinic Judaism" (ArtScroll). A version of this article first appeared on Cross-Currents (www.cross-currents.com).

Read Comments (4)

Excellent Article
Date 01:07, 07-10, 08

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein has written an excellent article. I share the rabbi's enthusiasm for the Hirschian theology. It is unfortunate that some clergymen misunderstand the ideas and policies advocated by the late and great Rabbi Hirsch. (It is misleading to assert that Torah Im Derekh Eretz is meant only as an ex post facto theological approach.) As Rabbi Adlerstein explains, Rabbi Hirsch intended his approach to be implemented proactively within the framework of Torah and Mitzvahs. These ideas have been elaborated by the proponents of Torah Umaddah
and for all intents and purposes the Hirschian hashkafa has become the current prevalent policy in the orthodox community, despite the stubborn resistance to it on the part of radical ideologues who are not cognizant of contemporary social issues.
The ultra-pietistic modus operandi advocated by the Haredi clergy is generally inappropriate for the Jewish community in the USA. (Of course our haredi brethren who are sincere deserve respect for their beliefs; however, their outlook should not be viewed as
a model for everyone else.) A salutary involvement in Torah and Mitzvahs together with secular knowledge is proper. (Individuals who are capable and willing should also be encouraged to
devote their lives to Leemud HaTorah; however, the rest of the population should either learn a trade or study to prepare for a profession while loyally observing HASHEM's Torah. Furthermore, everyone should be encouraged to appreciate secular knowledge---science, literature, language---each person according to his needs and abilities.) It's high time that we start
reasserting the advantages of enlightened orthodoxy.
Chaim Silver

Neo-Hirschian
Date 10:07, 07-13, 08

As usual, Rav Adlerstein has written an excellent and cogent article. However, although not arguing on his thesis, which I wholly agree with, I would like to qualify it. I, and I assume Rabbi Adlerstein, are actually neo-Hirschians. I would also characterize the position as Rational Charedi. We were imbued with traditional Litvish yeshiva learning, but after decades of introspection, critical analysis, traveling "outside the box" and having witnessed the simplistic Hashkafa (outlook), untoward behavior and the Sinas Yisroel (unbridled hatred) hurled by some in the fundamentalist yeshiva camp at other Jews who are Yirei Shomayim, but at variance in Hashkafa, our own Hashkafa has "evolved" into neo-Hirschian. I must also reiterate Rabbi Adlerstein's love and respect for Rav Bulman, which I also shared many decades ago.

This Hashkafa is not true Hirschian, because Hirschian Hashkafa developed and became fixed for the late 19th Century milieu of Frankfort, which was not a milieu of Shas and Achronim. At best, its Torah studies were on a level below most contemporary days schools. Nowadays in America, there are numerous doctors, lawyers, CPAs, scientists. academicians and businessmen who are conversant in most Sugios of Shas and yeshiva Lamdus. In Germany of that period, men of those vocations were many, but those among them coupled with high level torah learning were all but non-existent. Once Rav Hirsch succeeded in building up the optimal educational system that he could hope for, it became what it became and didn't really change until his community was transplanted to Washington Heights in the 1930s.

Neo-Hirschian, or as I prefer to characterize it as, Rational Charedi, learn Torah just as our counterparts in the fundamentalist yeshiva camp, however, we seek rational answers (which we admit might not all be correct) to questions that seem to pit scientific and historical knowledge against traditional approaches. The traditional approaches I refer to continue to maintain the answers of yesteryear before the referenced (modern) knowledge was known or widely accepted. I am calling the Rational Chaerdi Haskafa, neo-Hircshian, but in actuality Hirshian Hashafa is "neo-Maimonidian." Indeed, the Rambam must be recognized as the founder of the Rational Charedi school. Hirsch merely realized that his milieu called for the reintroduction of the Rambam's Hashkafa modified for his time and place. So also in our times and circumstances, the fundamentalist yeshiva approach may work (I am not too sure of its shelf life) for those cloistered in the purity of Torah (without Derech Eretz) but it doesn't work for the majority of Jews of our rational charedi camp or those who are yet to see the beauty of Yiddishkite.

I, and I would assume Rabbi Adlerstein, although hoping that the fundamentalist yeshiva camp would quell the acrimony, are not trying to convert it to our thinking. I consider their opposition a healthy barrier to keep our Hashkafa in line. As a relatively new movement, of the past 30 years or so, we are still in flux, and as we become more and more established and pick up adherents it is important that we maintain proper boudaries of Hashkafa, and not allow the fringes attracted to our camp from going overboard.

How to read more
Date 12:07, 07-21, 08

I am very interested in what's been presented here. Could someone recommend a selection of books which discuss Rabbi Hirsch's philosophy as it applies to daily life (not specifically career-wise).
Thanks,
Michael Rudnick

Re: Neo-Hirschian
Date 04:07, 07-31, 09

I agree with most of Neo-Hirschian's remarks, but I wish to point a few things out:

(1) In RSRH's time, Eastern Europe also "was not a milieu of Shas and Achronim." See what Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin, the Hofetz Haim, and all the Agudist had to say on this era: they evince a real fear that the yeshivas would soon be empty. Bialik speaks similarly. See Professor Menachem Friedman's "The 'Family-Community' Model in Haredi Society", h_ttp://w_ww.biu.ac.il/SOC/so/mfriedman.h_tml

You are trying to compare 19th century Germany with 21st century America; this comparison is invalid. Rabbi Hirsch's own congregants, though often very ignorant in Jewish learning, were not so far below the Eastern European laity.

Moreover, however, RSRH was a gadol of the same stature as anyone in Eastern Europe of his time. Even if RSRH's congregants were deficient in learning, this was due to the vagaries of the times, such as Talmud being outlawed in Germany some 70 years before RSRH came onto the scene. As Rabbi Shimon Schwab points out, 70 years of destruction surely demands at least 70 years of reconstruction. RSRH is not to be blamed for his congregants' ignorance; let us judge RSRH's wisdom in and of itself.

(2) I wouldn't call RSRH Neo-Maimonidean; I'd rather call him Neo-Sephardi. Compare everything RSRH says about limudei hol, to what Rabbi Benzion Uziel (a great exemplar of the Judeo-Spanish Sephardi tradition) says.

Indeed, at h_ttp://w_ww.urimpublications.c_om/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=UP&Product_Code=Search, Rabbi Angel is asked by the Jewish Press, "Switching to the book you wrote on Rabbi Benzion Uziel, the first Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel [d. 1953], Rabbi Uziel once wrote that the holiness of the Jewish people is 'not the holiness of asceticism and separation from life and the work of life. On the contrary, [it is] the holiness that is in life itself - to sanctify ourselves in thought and deed, to sanctify our landour individual and national beings, and the entire world.' This sounds a lot like Torah im Derech Eretz or Torah Umadda." Rabbi Angel replied, "Look, Rabbi Uziel never went to university. Nonetheless, he had this open view on life; he read all kinds of things. He was very attuned to the needs of society at large, Jewish and non-Jewish. The Torah was not given to be kept in a closet; it was given to bring light to the whole world. And I think that spirit imbued him."

Rabbi Angel has said to me personally that it is quite obvious that when RSRH needed a model for an enlightened German Orthodox Jew, he looked to the Jews of pre-Expulsion Spain. And since the Judeo-Spanish Jews of Turkey and Greece continued to uphold the Spanish weltanschauung, we should look to Balkan Jewry for guidance on implementing RSRH's ideals.

Rabbi Uziel had occasion to say,
"Our holiness will not be complete if we separate ourselves from human life, from human phenomena, pleasures and charms, but (only if we are) nourished by all the new developments in the world, by all the wondrous discoveries, by all the philosophical and scientific ideas which flourish and multiply in our world. We are enriched and nourished by sharing in the knowledge of the world; at the same time, though, this knowledge does not change our essence, which is composed of holiness and appreciation of God's exaltedness."

Further, Rabbi Uziel says,
"Each country and each nation which respects itself does not and cannot be satisfied with its narrow boundaries and limited domains; rather, they desire to bring in all that is good and beautiful, that is helpful and glorious, to their national [cultural] treasure. And they wish to give the maximum flow of their own blessings to the [cultural] treasury of humanity as a whole, and to establish a link of love and friendship among all nations, for the enrichment of the human storehouse of intellectual and ethical ideas and for the uncovering of the secrets of nature. Happy is the country and happy is the nation that can give itself an accounting of what it has taken in from others; and more importantly, of what it has given of its own to the repository of all humanity. Woe unto that country and that nation that encloses itself in its own four cubits and limits itself to its own narrow boundaries, lacking anything of its own to contribute [to humanity] and lacking the tools to receive [cultural contributions] from others."

Or as Rabbi Marc Angel says, following Rabbi Uziel,
"Jews throughout history have not allowed themselves to be cut off from the intellectual currents of the world. Rather, they have been at the forefront in all areas of human knowledge and scientific advancement. In spite of the attempts by anti -Semites to confine Jews to ghettos and to limit their educational opportunities, Jews have made remarkable contributions to human knowledge. As active and knowledgeable participants in world civilization, our goal is to lead humanity in the paths of proper ethics and social harmony. [Mikhmanei Uziel, p. 120.]"

Or further, Rabbi Angel says,
"In Rabbi Uziel's view, the Torah is not simply a book of laws and commandments; it encompasses all knowledge. It is impossible to understand it - certainly to plumb its depths - without a profound and broad knowledge of all worldly wisdoms and sciences which are hidden in the depths of creation. [Mikhmanei Uziel, p. 405.] Rabbi Uziel did not see Torah and mada as conflicting. He believed, rather, that in order to be a Torah personality with full Torah knowledge, one must study worldly wisdom. But when one studies such subjects as philosophy, science, psychology, history and literature, one does not do so for the sake of academic knowledge, but rather as a means through which one gains a deeper understanding of God's ways. "Talmud Torah" is a general term referring to the attainment of wisdom; it includes Torah study as well as all the studies and sciences which deepen our understanding.[Mikhmanei Uziel, pp. 552-553.] It is Talmud Torah in this broad sense which raises a person from ignorance to wisdom. Secular knowledge by itself provides knowledge, but only within the context of Talmud Torah does secular knowledge have ultimate meaning, leading the student closer to God. "It is true that scientific knowledge (mada) raises a person, gives him wings to soar to great heights, enlightens his eyes to discover the secrets of nature and to utilize its powers, to make life more pleasant and to increase longevity; general knowledge also endows a person with spiritual powers. But all the acquisitions of general knowledge are vessels which help one to live-and are not life itself. . . . The goal (of life) is . . . to know the God of the universe, to walk in His ways and to cling to Him.[Mikhmanei Uziel, p. 345.]"

And Rabbi Angel further says,
"He [viz Rabbi Uziel] felt strongly that Jews must be aware of their own national charter. Through this self knowledge, they would be able to conduct their lives according to the ideals set forth in the Torah tradition. This would lead to their own happiness, as well as to a positive influence on the world in general. Rabbi Uziel criticized those false ideologies which distracted the Jewish people from their authentic national charter. He rejected the assimilationists, since their strategy would ultimately undermine the true message of Judaism. He also chastised those who would restrict Judaism to the narrow confines of their homes, synagogues and study halls. This strategy would bury Judaism in a small inner world, cutting off its impact on society as a whole. It was necessary to steer a middle course between assimilationist tendencies on the left and isolationist tendencies on the right. Rabbi Uziel cited the verse in Mishlei (4:25) as a guide: 'Let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you. Make plain the path of your foot and let all your ways be established. Turn not to the right nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.' Only by focusing on the specific charter of the Jewish people-to create a righteous nation based on the laws of Torah tradition-could the Jewish people fulfill its mission. Through our creating a model Torah society, we would be seen by the entire world to be the representatives of God. Our Torah teaches us to live life in its fullness. It teaches us how to apply the highest moral and ethical standards to all human situations. Judaism is not a cult, but a world religion with a world message. 'Our holiness will not be complete if we separate ourselves from human life, from human phenomena, pleasures and charms, but (only if we are) nourished by all the new developments in the world, by all the wondrous discoveries, by all the philosophical and scientific ideas which flourish and multiply in our world. We are enriched and nourished by sharing in the knowledge of the world; at the same time, though, this knowledge does not change our essence, which is composed of holiness and appreciation of God's exaltedness.' The national charter of the Jewish people is 'to live, to work, to build and to be built, to improve our world and our life, to raise ourselves and to raise others to the highest summit of human perfection and accomplishment. (This is accomplished by following) the path of peace and love, and being sanctified with the holiness of God in thought and deed.'"

So if we wish to learn more about implementing TIDE and RSRH's teachings, let us also study such things as:
--- Marc Angel, "The Grand Religious View of Rabbi Benzion Uziel", Tradition 30:1, Fall 1995.
--- Marc Angel, Loving Truth and Peace: The Grand Religious Worldview of Rabbi Benzion Uziel (Jason Aronson).
--- Marc Angel, Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality: The Inner Life of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire (Jewish Lights Publishing).
--- Marc Angel, Rabbi Haim David Halevi: Gentle Scholar and Courageous Thinker (Urim Publications).
--- Daniel Elazar, "Can Sephardic Judaism be Reconstructed?" and "The Special Character of Sephardi Tolerance", h_ttp://w_ww.jcpa.o_rg/dje/articles3/sephardic.h_tm and h_ttp://w_ww.jcpa.o_rg/dje/articles2/sephtol.h_tm

Michael Makovi