tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46492967396353277652024-03-05T16:58:51.872-08:00Chabad-RevisitedASPECTS OF THE CHABAD IDEAL, THROUGH THE LENS OF HISTORY.Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-9077015650397938912015-11-30T18:42:00.000-08:002015-11-30T18:43:14.686-08:00THE FUTURE IS NOW<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Assorted reflections on the oral
teachings of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi</span></i></div>
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<iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx0b8-PGPRPaQ256N0xwWER1TFE/preview" width="640"></iframe>Eli Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05469056445820934803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-10305420394387462002014-11-25T19:12:00.000-08:002014-11-25T19:12:20.724-08:00The Idealistic Realism of Jewish Messianism<h3 style="background-color: white; color: #0f4f7f; margin: 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The real deal on Chabad’s apocalyptic calculations, and why Jews have always predicted elusive ends.</span></i></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The suspicion with which Jewish messianism is often regarded may well stem from the apparent contradiction it embodies. To await the <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="12555" style="background: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif) 50% 100% repeat-x; cursor: pointer;">Messiah</span> is to live a life marked by optimistic anticipation for an unimaginably brighter future. But to live as a Jew requires full immersion in the demands of the present moment. The false-messiahs that litter the history of Jewish exile are nothing other than the failure of real events to live up to idealistic hopes. And yet a Judaism stripped of messianic inspiration is inconceivable. It is precisely such inspiration that has continued to sustain us despite all the trying upheavals of the ages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For messianism to be authentically Jewish, and for it to inspire an authentically Jewish future, it must somehow bridge the gap between idealism and realism. As the writer, philosopher and critic Leon Wieseltier has put it, “Messianism is commonly interpreted as a variety of idealism. But if idealism is only a part of Judaism’s attitude towards the world, messianism must stand in a relationship also to realism.”</span></div>
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<a href="http://chabad.org/2766417" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To continue reading please click here >>>>>></span></a></div>
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Eli Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05469056445820934803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-8760650582729953012014-09-11T08:34:00.000-07:002014-09-11T08:34:28.453-07:00The Berlins of Oxford and their Opposing Origins in Tsarist Russia<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/media/photo/2009/07/07/berlin_2-071609_jpg_630x412_crop_q85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.nybooks.com/media/photo/2009/07/07/berlin_2-071609_jpg_630x412_crop_q85.jpg" height="261" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Georgia, serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; line-height: 14.630000114440918px;">Isaiah Berlin and his wife Aline, Oxford, 1969; photograph by Dominique Nabokov</span></td></tr>
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Last month Aline de Gunzbourg, the wife of Isaiah Berlin, passed away at the age of 99 (see obituaries <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/184319/grande-dame-of-london-literary-world-dies-at-99" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11056990/Lady-Berlin-obituary.html" target="_blank">here</a>). Both Aline and Isaiah were scions of the Jewish philanthropic aristocracy of 19th century Russia. Aline's grandfather, Baron Horace de Gunzbourg (aka Ginzberg or Günzburg), was the most prominent backer of the<i> Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment Among the Jews of Russia. </i>In other words, a leading proponent of acculturation and secularization. Originally Isaiah's family name was Zuckerman, but his father Mendel took the surname of his great uncle and patron, the prominent Chabad industrialist and philanthropist Yeshayeh (Isaiah) Berlin, whose first name Mendel later gave to his son.<br />
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Yeshayeh Berlin was not only a follower of Chabad chassidism and a leading backer of the fifth rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneersohn (Rashab), in his battle to combat acculturation and preserve traditional Jewish life. Yeshayeh Berlin was also married to the Rebbe's first cousin, Chayetta. Both were grandchildren of the third rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (the Tzemach Tzedek). Chayetta's sister Frumma was Isaiah Berlin's great grandmother.<br />
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In short, the Berlins of Oxford were descendants of two opposing ideological factions within the uppermost the philanthropic Jewish aristocracy of Tsarist Russia. Despite the ideological opposition the Schneersohns and Berlins maintained cordial relationships with the de Gunzbourg family, and worked together with them on economic and humanitarian projects of mutual interest. One example, which I wrote about <a href="http://chabad.org/2174130" target="_blank">here</a>, was the Chinese matzah campaign of 1905. Although Baron Horace de Gunzbourg initially declined Rabbi Shalom DovBer's plea for help in this endeavor, the latter latter suggested that the former's son, Baron David de Gunzbourg be invited to chair the campaign committee. <br />
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Isaiah Berlin was well aware of his illustrious chassidic lineage, but not at all acquainted with the intellectual and cultural riches of his chassidic heritage. His father, Mendel, fled to London following the communist takeover of Russia, but remained well connected with the Chabad leadership until his parents and inlaws were murdered following the Nazi conquest of Riga, circa 1941.<br />
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Berlin himself appears to have met the sixth Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, while in Marienbad in the Summer of 1933 (see Isaiah Berlin,Letters Vol 1. [1928-1946], page 56, and Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, Igrot Kodesh Vol. 3, page 43). In the aftermath of World War Two and the holocaust the family connection was eroded, and Isaiah's impressions of chassidism were too distant and superficial for him to pursue any remaining ties. But Mendel still looked back to the heyday of the Berlin family with nostalgia. In an eighty-six page manuscript dating from 1946 (held today by the Bodleian Library at Oxford, MS. Berlin 819 and MS. Berlin 820) he transcribed his own history, and the history of his chassidic forebearers. He also called upon his son to renew his connection with his roots, apparently to little avail.<br />
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For more on the history of the Berlin family see the first chapters of <i>Isaiah Berlin: A Life</i> by Michael Ignatieff.<br />
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The following is an abstract of my related article, reflecting a dialogue between Berlin's essay <i>The Hedgehog and the Fox</i> and Chabad thought, as recently published in <a href="http://www.hakirah.org/Volume%2017.htm" target="_blank">Hakirah</a>:<br />
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<i>Identity and meaning hang upon the balance that must be struck between the two poles of unity and multiplicity. According to Isaiah Berlin this existential dilemma lies at the heart of Tolstoy’s great epic, </i>War and Peace<i>. All people that are not superficial believe in some kind of cohesive vision. But when the threads of life start to unravel even the wisest of men may be rendered mute. In </i>The Gate of Unity and Faith<i> Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi expands the quintessence of faith into the circle of reason, and fits the square of dissonance into the circle of life.</i></blockquote>
See also this related article by Rabbi Eli Brackman of Chabad at Oxford University: <a href="http://www.oxfordchabad.org/templates/blog/post_cdo/AID/708481/PostID/27121" target="_blank"><i>The convergence of the philosophy on liberty of Sir Isaiah Berlin and the Lubavitcher Rebbe</i></a>.<br />
Eli Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05469056445820934803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-10153729852298644292014-02-01T18:56:00.000-08:002014-02-02T08:00:40.747-08:00The Writing Experience - Finding the Right Words<div class="tr_bq">
As much as he was a chassidic rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (known as the Rebbe Rayatz or Friediker Rebbe) also epitomized what it means to be a chassidic man of letters. The following is an extract from a discourse in which he describes the experience of turning lofty ideas into readable prose. As a writer it struck a personal chord with me, and I don't think it is overly presumptive to detect an autobiographical note on Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's own part. This is a free translation of Sefer Hamaarim 5711, page 29-30, the discourse in question was first delivered in 1933.</div>
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When revealing an intellectual matter or deep wisdom in writing, the hand writes what rises in the depth of his intellect with all the logical details of that intellectual idea. At that moment he has great pleasure from his grasp of that intellectual concept, and a great desire to explain it in in clearly written prose, each matter in its place, in systematic order. This is achieved specifically through his analysis and introspective contemplation while writing, attempting to find the phraseology and the precise language through which the deep concept will be revealed with clarity, without any mistake falling into any one of the logical elements. Through the power of his thoughts and his contemplation he finds such words that fit that deep concept, encompassing all the details of his logical idea in all their sharpness and precision. </blockquote>
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All the loftiest and most integral abilities and talents of his soul take a part in this. Mind and heart unite and act as one. Their unity is such that that each is effected by the other, though they are opposites by their essential nature. Mind and heart are respectively water and fire by their essential nature... the intellect is cold and collected, and emotion is hot and excitable. But in this unity the cold intellect is effected by the essence of emotion, becoming hot and burning with inspiration of the soul and the desire to reveal this deep concept. Likewise, the excitable heart is influenced by the essence of intellect to organize its experience in introspective thought and contemplation, in order to find the expressions and expressive language that are most fitting to reveal with deep clarity the logic of this deep concept. </blockquote>
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The capacities of the inner mind and heart join together in this activity. Although each of them is an entity of its own, they nevertheless reside in one place. Intellect, pleasure, will, thought, inspiration, and desire combine with one another and complement one another, and all as one join in this activity. </blockquote>
Eli Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05469056445820934803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-26408173196662416932013-02-19T11:41:00.000-08:002013-02-19T11:41:33.600-08:00Chassidic Dance<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mychabad.org/media/images/339/tvqs3399149.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://www.mychabad.org/media/images/339/tvqs3399149.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; text-align: start;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> "no longer a dance, but a kind of silent prayer, offered by a body of flickering flame..."</span></span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The following is translated from the </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Prologue to Fishel Schneersohn's novel, <i>Chaim Gravitzer</i>:</span></span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.8613372361287475" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As soon as the Rebbe had passed through the door, uncontainable joy lifted the great hall into the air. Like a long withheld tempest, Chaim Gravitzer’s melody burst forth from thousands of breasts. The happy tune ignited every corner, and the great hall was as though aflame. </span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The undulations of this melody do not cease to uplift; they flow forth, lifting up and turning over everything and everyone in a whirlwind of immense, radiant joy</span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The heart does not want to give up, but expands magnificently and burns with rejoicing. Ancient ecstasies seem to tear themselves free as though from chains; ecstasies that have no beginning and no end. </span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Men, as though they have been forever drunk, take each other by the hand, dancing and twirling around the tables. Others intertwine their hands and let themselves go on whatever the world stands. </span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Momentarily some tear themselves free of the circles, carrying themselves like a whirlwind up onto the tables, and with heads thrown back, eyes closed, and hands upheld, they all but dance out their souls. This is no longer a dance, but a kind of silent prayer, offered by a body of flickering flame; a silent prayer where the soul expires and then is born anew... </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><i>Chaim Gravitzer</i> is available in the original Yiddish, <a href="http://archive.org/details/nybc211245" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span>Eli Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05469056445820934803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-25933957058396389252012-12-07T11:29:00.001-08:002012-12-07T11:29:57.092-08:00On the Chanukah Miracle and the Nature of Divine Infinitude If the deity is infinite and omnipotent, can the deity simultaneously combine two mutually-exclusive events?<br />
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The true nature of the divine self is difficult to conceptualize or explain. I do not wish to embroil myself or the reader in an abstract and convoluted philosophical discussion. Instead, I will focus on two illustrative text samples, drawn from the vast corpus of Chabad Chasidic thought.<br />
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The first statement is from <i>Hemshech Samach Vov </i>(<i><a href="http://www.lahak.org/pdf2/mehurashab/5666-19-23.pdf" target="_blank">Vayolech Hashem Et Ha-yom</a></i>, P.223), by Rabbi Shalom DovBer of Lubavitch.<br />
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"The concept of infinitude (<i>ain sof</i>), literally without limitation, is that no property can be ascribed to the deity, and the deity cannot be defined with any description at all... Even the most wonderful and lofty description cannot be applied - even the description "without limit." Conversely, one cannot preclude anything from the deity, for the deity carries all things (potentially but not actually...) and the deity is precluded from everything. This is the concept of infinitude (<i>ain sof</i>): the preclusion of any description; the preclusion of limitation; the preclusion of any affirmation and the preclusion of any negation; the inclusion of all by default. All this is only possible for the very essentially of the divine self (<i>bechinat ho-atzmut mamash</i>), whose being is of its own self, and who is the true being whose being transcends actual being (<i>aino be'bechinat metzi'ut nimazah</i>)."</blockquote>
The second selection is from <i><a href="http://www.otzar.org/wotzar/Book.aspx?27575&" target="_blank">Kuntras Mai Chanukah</a></i> (P. 24), a compilation by Rabbi Yoel Kahn from the talks of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The context here is<a href="http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%98%D7%95%D7%A8_%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%97_%D7%97%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%AA%D7%A8%D7%A2#.D7.91.D7.99.D7.AA_.D7.99.D7.95.D7.A1.D7.A3" target="_blank"> the famous question of the <i>Beit Yosef</i></a> as to why eight days of Chanukah are celebrated; if there was actually enough oil for one day apparently no miracle occurred on the first day? The following answer is offered:<br />
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"Since the miracle was made in order that the lighting of the menorah could be done in the finest possible way (for according to the law they were entitled to light using impure oil, [and a miracle was unnecessary, accept to allow them to avoid any legal lope-holes]), it makes sense to say that the miracle occurred in a form that allowed the oil to remain completely natural oil [as prescribed by law], without any quantitative or qualitative addition. </blockquote>
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In other words: When the Beit Yosef writes "that they found the lamps filled," the intention is not that the oil was first burned up, and afterwards new oil was created ("miracle oil"), but that the miracle was that the oil had never been burnt up at all, just like the burning bush about which the verse says, "behold the bush burnt in fire, and the bush was not consumed." Accordingly, they fulfilled the commandment to light the menorah with completely natural oil, which remained utterly unchanged (not quantitatively or qualitatively). </blockquote>
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According to this explanation, the combination of the natural and the miraculous is further highlighted. It transpires that the very fact that they had natural oil specifically was achieved via a wondrous miracle that completely transcends the limitations even of a regular miracle. The light of the lamps must come from the oil, and the oil must be turned [by combustion] into fire and light. If the oil is not consumed it follows, however, that the light did not come from the oil. If so, we must say that the miracle was such that although the oil was turned into fire and light, it nevertheless remained untouched. This is a most transcendent miracle, simultaneously embodying two mutually-exclusive events. It transpires that through a completely transcendent miracle specifically they were able to light the oil with completely natural oil." </blockquote>
For a fun, humorous, entertaining, deeply illustrative and thoughtful re-imagining of how this miracle occurred see <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2678/jewish/The-Menorah-Files.htm" target="_blank">The Menorah Files</a> by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman.<br />
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Eli Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05469056445820934803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-64611361145168390682012-12-03T15:37:00.003-08:002012-12-04T10:39:29.531-08:00Tohu, Tikun and Divine (Im)perfection <b id="internal-source-marker_0.9783571688458323" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/an-imperfect-god/" target="_blank">a recent post on the New York Times Opinionater Blog “The Stone,”</a> Yoram Hazony discussed the question, “Is G-d perfect?” While I didn’t find the article as a whole particularly compelling, I did find his discussion of the problems of perfection illuminating. The following passage gives us a very accessible way to visualize the failure of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What would we say if some philosopher told us that... a perfect horse would bear an infinitely heavy rider, while at the same time being able to run with perfectly great speed? I should think we’d say he’s made a fundamental mistake here: You can’t perfect something by maximizing all its constituent principles simultaneously. All this will get you is contradictions and absurdities. This is not less true of God than it is of anything else.”</span></b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indeed, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is the simultaneous maximization of all the constituent principles of existence. The result of such perfection is the contradictory absurdity of the terrestrial realm. The following discussion of <i>tohu</i> and<i> tikun</i> is based on a discourse by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (</span></b><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Torah Ohr, 8c-10b</span><b style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). </span></b><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tohu</span></b><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9783571688458323" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tikun</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> may best be described as two alternative blueprints for the inner workings of reality. While these two systems are very different, they both are composed of the the ten modalities (</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sefirot</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) via which G-d chooses to be manifest. Moreover </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tikun</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> actually function in tandem; the physical world that we inhabit exhibits much of the divisive chaos that results from </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and yet can be subjected to a regime of order and cohesion that stems from </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tikun</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></b><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paradoxically, the divisive chaos of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> actually represents a more intense manifestation of divinity. Here, each of the ten </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sefirot</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is manifest with such intensity that no other form of divine manifestation can be tolerated. As Rabbi Shneur Zalman explains in the present discourse, “The illumination and vivification is manifest with great intensity... Therefore the different modalities [of the ten </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sefirot</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">] did not harmonize with one another... the one could not be balanced in accord with its opposite, and each was isolated onto itself...” </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Due to its intense illumination, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> fails to communicate the full panorama of divine manifestation. Consequently, each individual modality acquires an autonomous identity and loses its transparency to the divine source. The physical world as we know it is filled with a multiplicity of apparently discordant beings, each of which asserts its individual presence, autonomy, power and importance, and tries to grab our full attention. All of this immense diversity stems from the failure of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and yet holds within it all the vast potential that </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> embodies. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is intense illumination and unity masquerading as intense darkness and discord. </span><br /><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* * *</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tikun</span></b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tikun</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is the antidote to </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As Rabbi Shneur Zalman explains, “In order for creation to survive there must be </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tikun</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - limited streams of illumination, different forms harmonized and tempered with one another... The illumination and vivification is not manifest with intensity... therefore... it is manifest with tolerance and, contrary to</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, two complete opposites can coexist.” In the normal order of things, divinity can only be manifest in a limited form. Each of the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sefirot</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> must recognize and validate the role of the other forms of divine manifestation, though in doing so its own intensity is minimized. In the normal order of things, divinity is not manifest in a manner that fully reflects the infinite, absolute and eternal potency of G-d’s most essential being. </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ultimately, however, the purpose of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tikun</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is to repair </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and allow the true intensity of the divine self to be fully manifest. The soul of man is an agent of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tikun</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. When the soul is forced to struggle with the burden of making a living, and other worldly endeavors, it is brought into direct contact with a more intense expression of divinity than it could ever have experienced in the celestial realms. This intensity is often perverted, giving rise to the banalities and profanities of earthly existence, but </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tikun</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> empowers the soul to turn the failure of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tohu</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> around. Through prayer, acts of charity and the performance of the ritual commandments, the soul unleashes the vast reservoir of divine potential that lies dormant or misused in the mundane realm, and gives full expression to the absolute intensity of divine essentiality.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a post on Yud Tes Kislev, see <a href="http://chabadrevisited.blogspot.com/2011/12/light-and-life-celebrating-yud-tes.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></b></span>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-52088837488359601162012-06-14T15:48:00.001-07:002012-06-14T15:55:21.039-07:00Education, Postmodernism and the Challenge of Tradition<h3>
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Reflections on the Enduring Relevance of Rabbi
Menachem M. Schneerson’s Religious Thought</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">First posted at <a href="http://chabad.org/1723575">hasidology</a> on <a href="http://chabad.org/">chabad.org</a></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><i>[I haven't posted on this blog for several months, but have published several articles on </i></span><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://chabad.org/1723575">hasidology</a>. I</i><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">n future I will repost all articles published there on Chabad-Revisited too. Hopefully I will continue to publish shorter posts here too, as in times bygone.]</i><br />
<i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">A
couple of months ago (March 28-29, 2012), a small group of academic and
rabbinic scholars, along with educators and activists, held a deliberative
conference</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> at
the University of Pennsylvania to discuss the educational philosophy of Rabbi
Menachem M. Schneerson.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> In
his opening remarks, Rabbi Menachem Schimdt, director of the Chabad on Campus
International Foundation, and one of the conference hosts, made the following
observation: “Many many people, most people, as a matter of fact, know what the
Lubavitcher Rebbe looked like. A lot of people know that Lubavitch has a built
a lot of buildings, runs a lot of programs and does a lot of outreach. But in
terms of the amazing intellectual riches of Chabad philosophy there remains a
lot of work to be done...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">That
statement is true across the board. Over the course of two centuries, seven
successive Chabad Rebbes were prolific exponents of complex mystical and
philosophical paradigms, tackling such issues as the purpose and nature of
existence, the relationship between G-d and Man, the nature of divinity, moral
authority, the problem of evil, and a host of other theological conundrums.
While several hundred volumes of original Chabad chasidic texts have been
published, and continue to be studied within the Chabad community, the enduring
relevance of Chabad’s vast intellectual contribution is only beginning to be noticed
and is little known in the wider world.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">This
statement is especially true in regard to the last Rebbe, who ascended to the
leadership following the passing of the his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak
Shneersohn in 1950, and led the movement from his New York headquarters for
over forty years. During this era, many leaders of Jewish orthodoxy recognised
scientific, technological, social and philosophical progress as a threat to
traditional beliefs and the traditional way of life. Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson,
however, saw the potential challenges as opportunities for the advancement of
religion. He harnessed new technologies for the dissemination of religious
teachings, and as a religious thinker displayed a deep sensitivity to the
contemporary zeitgeist and to the changing paradigms of modern thought. For
Rabbi Schneerson, the new frontiers being broken did not place religion on the
defensive, but on the contrary, provided a unique opportunity for religious
development.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[4]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
Indeed, he may have been unique in utilizing deconstructionist strategies as a
medium for the affirmation, dissemination and assimilation of theological
axioms.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Traditionally,
intellectual history has been marked by the pursuit of objective truth, and the
development of various conceptual paradigms whose general purpose is to
objectively measure the relative “truth” or correctness of a statement or a
hypothesis. Postmodernist thought challenges both the notion that anything can
ever be determined objectively at all, and also the notion that objectivity is
superior to subjectivity. It is generally felt that such subversive radicalism
places the religious claim of objective truth at a great disadvantage. Rabbi
Schneerson, however, implicitly embraced the new conceptual avenues as a means
to uphold a religious paradigm that enshrines subjectivity and personal choice
as the ultimate measure of superiority.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">One
of the key themes in Rabbi Schneerson’s thought is his radical rethinking of
the traditional Jewish concept of “free-choice” (<i>bechirah chafshit</i>).
Traditionally, the discussion revolves around the need to make a truly
objective choice, rather than one influenced by our subjective situation. In
Rabbi Schneerson’s discussions of the concept the paradigm is reversed;
ultimate free choice is truly subjective and free of objective influence. If
there is an objective reason to choose, he argues, then it is not a choice made
freely by the self.</span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title="">[5]</a></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">The
educational challenge of today can be summed up as follows: Emancipation,
scientific progress, cultural pluralism and the freedom of knowledge, all
contribute to an environment where the options are wide open. Opportunities are
no longer governed by purely objective circumstantial factors such as
geography, community, social standing and economics, and one is increasingly
free to truly choose one’s own path. How can one preserve traditional Jewish
life in such a climate?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Rabbi
Schneerson did not see this so much as a challenge as an opportunity: The
choice to live a Jewish life, must now be a true choice, and is therefore far
more valuable and potent than ever before.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[6]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> By
the same token, the risk of choosing otherwise is also higher than ever, and
the immensity of these new challenges requires a response of corresponding
potency. Jewish education, therefore, means imbuing children with Jewish
knowledge and faith that permeates them subjectively. We must provide children
and adults alike with the opportunity to fully experience and internalize
Judaism,</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[7]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
rather than imposing it upon them objectively.</span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title="">[8]</a></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Over
two days of intense sessions at the University of Pennsylvania, various aspects
of Rabbi Schneerson’s educational theory were illuminated as facets of a
broader ontological perspective that relates not only to the purpose and
function of education but to the purpose and function of all existence. Indeed,
during one deliberative session Dr. Naftali Loewenthal went so far as to
comment that, “the Lubavitcher Rebbe turned education into the theme of human
existence.” Consistent with the master/pupil metaphor so often employed in
Chabad literature to describe the creator/creation relationship,</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[9]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> the
relationship between G-d and man is to be viewed as an educational one, Torah
law and lore being the medium for educational communication.</span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title="">[10]</a></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Rabbi
Schneerson used a similarly deconstructionist strategy to elevate Torah law and
lore beyond objective criticism. Previously any religious debate turned on
arguments for or against the objective validity or value of religious precepts.
Such arguments took certain conceptual paradigms and moral values to be
axiomatic, and religion was to be measured by the objective standard of reason.
Here too, Rabbi Schneerson quite literally enshrined the subjective choice made
by the divine self, as the ultimate source of all things. The objective
standard of reason is itself beholden to that suprarational choice - the true
standard of divine will and inexplicable mandate - for its very existence. The
former (reason) must be measured by the latter (religious mandate) rather than
the other way round. Far from undermining religious tradition,
deconstructionist critical theory is employed to imbue Torah law and lore with a potency that transcends objective
criticism.</span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title="">[11]</a></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">While
Rabbi Schneerson re-articulated traditional theological positions in radical
new ways, he certainly did not abandon
the more classical paradigms of critical objectivity. Indeed, to declare all
things equally subjective, would be to lose any coherent measure of validity.
As Professor William Pinar remarked during one deliberative session, the
postmodernist critique of absolute objectivity risks being taken too far, “It
becomes an absolute point in itself; that anything is possible, that nothing
can be determined... there can be no master narrative, there is only uncertainty,
of <i>that</i> we can be certain.” Clearly, all things can be strung upon a
scale ranging from more subjective to more objective, and the one can only be
determined in respect to the other. Indeed, many axioms of chabad chasidic
thought hinge upon a cosmological paradigm which has its roots in the
cosmological argument for the existence of G-d articulated by the school of
philosophers established by Rabbi Saadia Gaon. <i>Knowledge</i> of G-d’s
existence and the validity of the Torah a medium for the communication of
divine will is therefore predicated upon objective reasoning. <i>Justification</i>
for religious law, however, is ultimately predicated upon divine choice and
will. Likewise, objective argument may provide a platform from which the
individual may take a subjective leap of faith, whose potency transcends
rational justification.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Returning
to the theme of education specifically, at the conference held at the
University of Pennsylvania many aspects of Chabad educational theory were
explored, including methodology, educational responsibility, the nature of the
teacher / student relationship, the purpose of education and so on. Rabbi
Shmuel Lew and Professor Barry Chazan collaborated to present a very insightful
comparative overview of an educational tract by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak
Schneersohn (the sixth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch)</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[12]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> in
relation to the work of other, better known, educational theoreticians. Dr.
Naftali Loewenthel discussed the ten sephirot as a paradigm of educational
theory, and demonstrated aspects of its application within contemporary Chabad
educational institutions. Dr. Aryeh Solomon argued that Rabbi Menachem M.
Schneerson’s thought incorporates a complete philosophy of education, gave a
sweeping overview of its key themes, and led a group study and discussion of
illustrative passages culled from the his talks and writings. Professors Philip
Wexler and William Pinar discussed the need to rethink educational purpose and
methodology on a more global level, and the possibility of lifting innovative educational
paradigms from their chasidic context in order to apply them on a broader
scale. Additional papers were delivered by Professor Randall Collins, Professor
Jonathan Garb and Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, and a deliberative session was led by
Rabbi Menachem Schmidt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">The
ideas expressed in the present article are my reflections on themes that
resurfaced time and again throughout the deliberations. As a group,
participants were struck by the radically progressive methodologies advocated
by Rabbi Schneerson in the cause of traditional Judaism, and intrigued by their
marked relevance to new theoretical paradigms, which the modern world is only
just beginning to confront. In the words of Professor Piner, a leader in the
field of Curriculum Studies, “It seems clear that he [Rabbi Schneerson]
transcended all the categories previously used to define the different aspects
of educational theory.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> A general overview of the proceedings is
provided towards the end of this article.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson (1902-1994, often referred to simply as
“the Rebbe”) was the New York based chasidic leader who inspired the
transformation and growth of the Chabad-Lubavitch chasidic movement into an
international icon of Jewish tradition, pride and dynamism. Rabbi Schneerson
was also a scholar who possessed truly remarkable knowledge of both traditional
Rabbinic texts and Chabad chasidic texts. He was also an innovative religious
thinker, who created intellectual paradigms that would successfully perpetuate
tradition hand-in-hand with the progression of modernity. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> In recent years several academics have devoted time to serious
studies of Chabad Chasidism, including Professor Rachel Elior (The Paradoxical
Ascent to God: The Kabbalistic Theosophy of Habad Hasidism, SUNY Press, 1993)
and Dr. Naftali Loewenthal (Communicating the Infinite: The Emergence of the
Habad School, Chicago University Press, 1990), and more recently Professors
Elliot Wolfson (Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision
of Menaḥem Mendel Schneerson, Columbia University Press, 2009) and Immanuel
Etkes (Ba’al Hatanya: Rabbi Shneur Zalman Meliady Vereshita Shel Hasidut Chabad
(Ba’al Hatanya: Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi and the Origins of Chabad
Hasidism) The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2011).</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[4]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> See my article here<chabad.org 1816231="">
for a related overview of how Rabbi Schneerson reconsidered the challenge of
political emancipation.</chabad.org></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[5]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> See <i>Torat Menachem - Sefer Maamarim
Melukot</i> Vol. 3 (Vaad Hanachot BeLaHaK , 2002) p. 71<</span><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrary</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">org</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">books</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">default</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">furl</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">admur</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">mlukat</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/11/71"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/3/11/71</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>, and sources cited below.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course, this assumes
that there exists a quintessential “subjective” self that is greater than the
sum of “objectively” imposed circumstances (geography, community, social
standing and economics, etc.), a “divine self” that belongs to the eternal
realm of the spirit. This point is underscored by the notion that true freedom
of choice is only exercised for the good (See <i>Sefer Ha’sichot - Torat Shalom</i>
(Kehot Publication Societ, 1983), p. 220), while bad choices are ultimately
attributed to circumstance or “evil inclination” (<i>yetzer ha’ra</i>), which
leads the individual astray from their true selves (see the discussion in Torat
Menachem - Sefer Maamarim Melukot Vol. 2 (Vaad Hanachot BeLaHaK , 2002) p.
74<</span><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrary</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">org</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">books</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">default</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">furl</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">admur</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">mlukat</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/2/9/74"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/2/9/74</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>, based on Maimonides, Hilchot geirushin 2:20<</span><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrarybooks</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">com</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">rambam</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">rid</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/rambam.aspx?rid=3435"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=3435</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>
). A secularist may well take issue with such an assumption, but must then also
confront the question, can the human ever be free to choose, or are all choices
dictated by circumstance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In private
correspondence with this writer, Professor Pinar shared the following insight,
“freedom is best understood not as license but as opportunity to align oneself
toward the "right," for me a notion of ethics and justice that is
always situational (although never conflated or identical to the situation) and
thus variable if always linked to the eternal verities (such as compassion).”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">This brings to mind the
interplay between the notions of specified divine providence (hashgachah
pratit) and free choice (bechirah chafshit). G-d orchestrates circumstance,
bringing you to an objectively ordained situation where you are given the
freedom to make a subjective choice. Somewhat paradoxically, it is the
objective situation that is variable, while it is the subjective choice that
touches eternity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[6]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> See <i>Torat Menachem - Sefer Maamarim
Melukot</i> Vol. 3 (Vaad Hanachot BeLaHaK , 2002) p. 41<</span><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrary</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">org</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">books</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">default</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">furl</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">admur</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">mlukat</span></a><a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/7/41"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/3/7/41</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[7]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> See Lekkutei Sichot Vol. 1 (Kehot Publication
Society, 1962), p. 245<</span><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrarybooks</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">com</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pdfpager</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">req</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=14924&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">st</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pgnum</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=259"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=259</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>-246<</span><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrarybooks</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">com</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pdfpager</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">req</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=14924&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">st</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pgnum</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=14924&st=&pgnum=260"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=260</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[8]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> In private correspondence with this writer,
Professor Pinar pointed out that while a line is drawn here between subjective
internalization and objective imposition, one might also conceive of internalization
as an instrument of objective imposition. He pointed out that secularists might
see this as an insidious attempt to disguise religious coercion under a false
aura of subjective choice. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">This touches on the
question of how to distinguish between indoctrination and education, and also
on the question of the interplay that exists between objectivity and
subjectivity. I would suggest that the answer to the first question relates to
the degree to which the teacher cultivates the pupil’s subjective inclinations
and helps the pupil achieve Independence and completion as an individual.
Indoctrination entails that the subject submit and their character be stifled
for the sake of the objective cause. Education entails the cultivation and
expansion of the pupil’s individual character, in order that they may
themselves arrive at the objective ideal. The latter issue of the interplay
between objectivity and subjectivity is one that will be dealt with in more
detail below. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[9]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> See Tanya, Iggeret Ha-kodesh (Part IV),
Epistle 15<</span><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabad</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">org</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">library</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">tanya</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">tanya</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">_</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">cdo</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aid</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/369893/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">jewish</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">page</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/369893/jewish/page.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">htm</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>,
viewable in English here<</span><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabad</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">org</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">library</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">tanya</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">tanya</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">_</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">cdo</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aid</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/7960/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">jewish</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Epistle</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">-15.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7960/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">htm</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>,
and with commentary here<</span><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabad</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">org</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">library</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">tanya</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">tanya</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">_</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">cdo</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aid</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/1029319/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">jewish</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Epistle</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">-15.</span></a><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1029319/jewish/Epistle-15.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">htm</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="ftn10">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[10]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> To cite all the occasions when Rabbi
Schneerson’s repeated the formulation “Torah [is called so, because it] derives
from the word hora’ah - teaching,” would provide some illustration of the
extant to which this theme permeated his weltanschauung. However, the immensity
of such a project renders it almost impossible. The following samples, selected
randomly from the first decade of Rabbi Schneerson’s public talks, will have to
suffice: </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">“Torah [is called so,
because it] derives from the word hora’ah - teaching. This means that
everything communicated in the Torah is a lesson applicable in every time and
in every place, in day to day life.” Sichot Kodesh 5013, p. 322<</span><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrarybooks</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">com</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">pdfpager</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">req</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">=4582&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">st</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">=&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">pgnum</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">=350&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">hilite</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4582&st=&pgnum=350&hilite="><span style="color: #1155cc;">=</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">“Torah [is called so,
because it] derives from the word hora’ah - teaching. Torah itself teaches the
individual and draws forth that the individual will conduct themselves so [i.e.
in accord with Torah law and lore], irrespective of personal inclination.”
Sichot Kodesh 5015, p. 248<</span><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrarybooks</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">com</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pdfpager</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">req</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=4584&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">st</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pgnum</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4584&st=&pgnum=271"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=271</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">“We have already
discussed many times that every aspect of Torah is eternally relevant for all
generations... even the stories, which are apparently connected to the time in
which the event took place... since Torah [is called so, because it] derives
from the word hora’ah - teaching, they are a lesson in every place and every
time until the end of all generations.” Sichot Kodesh 5018, p. 134<</span><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrarybooks</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">com</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pdfpager</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">req</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=4586&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">st</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=&</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pgnum</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrarybooks.com/pdfpager.aspx?req=4586&st=&pgnum=159"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=159</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn11">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[11]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> See the discussion in <i>Torat Menachem -
Sefer Maamarim Melukot</i> Vol. 3 (Vaad Hanachot BeLaHaK , 2002) p. 138-146<</span><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">://</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">chabadlibrary</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">org</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">books</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">default</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">.</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">aspx</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">?</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">furl</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">=/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">admur</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">mlukat</span></a><a href="http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/mlukat/3/21"><span style="color: #1155cc;">/3/21</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">>
and the sources cited there.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/erubin/Downloads/EducationPostmodernismandtheChallengeofTradition%20(1).doc#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[12]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> The Principles of Education and Guidance,
English Translation by Kehot Publication Society viewable
here<chabad.org 115225="">.</chabad.org></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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</div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-75429285441401094062012-01-09T21:02:00.000-08:002012-01-09T21:15:11.711-08:00Rethinking the Significance of "Rebbe Stories"I just watched <a href="http://www.chabad.org/1600174">this video account</a> by Jerry Levine of his "encounter with the Rebbe". <br />
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In general I'm not one for miracle tales, nor for "Rebbe stories" in general. Not because I don't believe in miracles, but because I do not believe that miracles display the true greatness of a Rebbe. To me the greatness of a Rebbe, and especially the greatness of <i>my</i> Rebbe, lies in the mystic transcendence transmitted in his teachings.<br />
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Jerry's story is not a classic miracle story, in the sense that no unexplained change in the natural order of things occurs, but it certainly does point to some kind of transcendent insight on the Rebbe's part.<br />
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But what really grabbed my attention though was the insight pointed to by Jerry himself:<br />
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Rather than think of this story in terms of the mystical statement it makes, we need think of it in terms of what it reveals abt the Rebbe's concerns and agendas.<br />
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He entirely transcended the mundane concerns anyone coming from a practical / rational perspective, would expect him to address. Instead, he addressed himself to an apparently irrelevant - or solely mystical concern. Only once that issue had been satisfactorily been dealt with did he address the more practical issue with understated simplicity.Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-69628443784214609532011-12-29T16:20:00.000-08:002011-12-29T17:05:30.986-08:00Hasidology: Studies in Chasidic Thought & HistoryI'm very pleased to announce that my new blog <a href="http://www.chabad.org/academia">Hasidology: Studies in Chasidic Thought and History</a> has now been launched at <a href="http://www.chabad.org/academia">chabad.org/academia </a><br />
You can follow Hasidology using this rss feed (paste it into your reader):<br />
<a href="http://www.chabad.org/tools/rss/blog_rss.xml?aid=1723575">http://www.chabad.org/tools/rss/blog_rss.xml?aid=1723575</a><br />
I may post occasional on this blog, but <a href="http://chabad.org/academia">Hasidology</a> will now become my main platform. Readers can expect to see fuller, more thoughtful and better researched efforts. Be sure to take a look at my first posting entitled <a href="http://www.chabad.org/blogs/blog_cdo/aid/1723583/jewish/On-the-Eternal-Unfolding-of-the-Transcendent-Torah.htm">On the Eternal Unfolding of the Transcendent Torah</a>, all comments welcome!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-aH7amUqj02MeOucwN6vFVc1p1oCGyrMu1G7pHPD6Ty7ND6Go3I412K2ie2A93V-zZdZd9BnB_EX7VnbY3S09xLT3rdRXSsVU3UauLX4ROCGJhqvnUvxQIlNTgbCtEpUIk-WrKtUqy64/s1600/Hasidology+ScrnShot.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-aH7amUqj02MeOucwN6vFVc1p1oCGyrMu1G7pHPD6Ty7ND6Go3I412K2ie2A93V-zZdZd9BnB_EX7VnbY3S09xLT3rdRXSsVU3UauLX4ROCGJhqvnUvxQIlNTgbCtEpUIk-WrKtUqy64/s640/Hasidology+ScrnShot.bmp" width="568" /></a></div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-65954140175718340322011-12-14T14:39:00.000-08:002011-12-14T14:50:04.077-08:00"Light and Life" - Celebrating Yud Tes Kislev<div style="text-align: justify;">
Last night I sat with a few friends in a small <i>shul</i> in an anonymous corner of Crown Heights. We had gathered there on the evening before Yud Tes Kislev<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">[1]</span> to Farbreng, and we didn't leave till the wee hours of the morning. </div>
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It is very difficult to describe or capture the intimate atmosphere, the other-worldly spirit of truth and open honesty, the strangely unremarkable mix of self criticism and celebration that makes a Farbrengen. But I can highlight some of the themes that I came away with last night.</div>
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This year is the 110th year since Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn, the Rebbe Rashab, termed Yud Tes Kislev the Chasidic "Rosh Hashanah". In a <a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=31622&st=&pgnum=311">letter </a>penned from Moscow to his son, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (later known as the Rebbe Rayatz) in Lubavitch on the 16th of Kislev 5662, he described it as "the day upon which the light and life of our souls [<i>ohr v'chayut nafshenu</i>] was given to us, and one might say that it is the Rosh Hashanah for the Word of the Living G-d [i.e. the teachings of Chasidism] bequeathed to us by our holy forebearers..."<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">[2]</span></div>
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Light. Transcendent windows onto the super-rational, which may yet be assimilated intellectually via the thousands of Chasidic discourses recited by the Rebbeim and studied by their Chasidim for centuries. </div>
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Life. The immanent actualization of those lofty ideals, in the mind, heart and actions of the individual - in the all encompassing service of G-d.</div>
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In the words of the Rebbe Rashab, we must "draw the depth and innerness of G-d's Torah and G-d's Commandments from the innerness and essence of the Infinite blessed-be-He, that it should shine in the innerness of our souls, that our entire essence (that is, the entirety of our being - both the essence and also its manifestation) should be dedicated to Him alone... all our activity and purpose (whether in matters of service... or in worldly matters...) shall be with true intent for the sake of heaven, that this is G-d's desire."</div>
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Chabad Chasidism requires that the most abstract of Divine realities be made manifest within the most concrete of human endeavors. In Lekuttai Sichot Vol. V (172-9), the Rebbe explained that herein lies the boundless celebration and joy that is made manifest on Yud Tes Kislev, for it is only with the power of the Truly Infinite that the transcendent secrets of the innermost part of the Torah - embodied in the teachings of Chasidism - can be rendered immanently accessible and applicable in the concrete realm. Can an elephant fit through the eye of a needle?! The continued manifestation of the inexpressible essence warrants a truly boundless celebration.</div>
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In a similar vein I have often thought that in the famous <a href="http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/admur/inyono/1">Kuntras Inyanah Shel Toras Hachasidus</a>, delivered by the Rebbe on Yud Tes Kislev 1965, in which he articulated "the essence of Chassidus", he manages to articulate that which really cannot be articulated or clearly defined - to me there isn't a single line or sentence in that masterly thesis where I can put my finger on the central point, but somehow by the time you have assimilated all the components the essential light shines through...<br />
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Here is some footage from that historic farbrengen:</div>
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Le'chaim! Le'shonah Tovah Be'limud Ha'chasidus U'be'darchai Ha'chasidus! </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">[1] </span>The day upon which Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi was released from Tsarist imprisonment in the winter of 1798-9. Here is an article on the subject by Prof David Assaf drawing attention to the documentation of these events by Chabad Scholar Yehoshua Mondshine (available<a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=23647&st=&pgnum=17"> here</a>). Click on images to enlarge. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">[2] </span>Here is a facsimile of the relevant section of that historic letter as published in <a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/15688">Kuntras U'mayon</a> (see there, pages 14-16, for a description of the circumstances under which the letter was written and received). Click on image to enlarge.</div>
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<br /></div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-53278258722689596642011-12-07T21:07:00.001-08:002011-12-13T16:19:51.595-08:00S'vent'zich vu me'redt - A Question of Context?<div style="text-align: justify;">
A couple of posts back I <a href="http://chabadrevisited.blogspot.com/2011/11/immanent-transcendence.html">wrote</a> about the complex depth of Jewish Mysticism, in general, and Chabad Chasidism in particular, as reflected in Prof. Elliot Wolfson's rather challenging style of delivery. I now feel compelled to compare his style to that of Prof. Don Seeman as exemplified in this lecture:</div>
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Indeed, Seeman himself (beginning at approx. 38:40) draws attention to an essential difference between what I will call their respective "styles of reading". According to Seeman, Wolfson readings emphasize "the coincidence of opposites and the sense of paradox", Seeman goes on to explain how he disagrees with this reading. "In my reading... there is actually very little focus on paradox, what there is - is a focus on the sense that opposites are often both true, which is then absorbed [or rationalised] in a kind of Lithuanian manner - 'two <i>dinim</i>'; this is true in this context and that's true in that context..." Thus, two contradictory statements within Chabad literature are usually to be interpreted as both being true. </div>
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What Seeman doesn't say is that in Chabad Yeshivahs this approach is so common that it is known by the catch phrase "<i>s'vent'zich vu me'redt</i>" (Yiddish: It depends on the context). What is not always emphasized enough in Chabad Yeshivahs is Seeman's qualifying statement to the effect that you cannot just "leave it like that", you have to find and explain "the particular concept, or in which particular conceptual framework this is true, and in which that's true". It is primarily in this qualification that Seeman strays from Wolfson's paradoxical approach. While I haven't yet read the particular book that Seeman is referring to I am reminded of how on reading Wolfson's article <i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a avglsprocessed="1" href="http://www.michtavim.com/Wolfson/98_Revisioning_the_Body_Apophatically-Incarnation_and_the_Acosmic_Naturalism_of_Habad_Hasidism.pdf" style="color: #1c51a8;" target="_blank">Revisioning the Body Apophatically: Incarnation and the Cosmic Naturalism of Habad Hasidism</a></i> I remarked in an email to a friend on that, </div>
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Wolfson<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> "seems to have a love for paradox simply for the sake of paradox (he seems almost inspired by the very impossibility on nonsensicality of the idea...) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">...in talking of the Apophatic Body... he seems to circle around and around the point drawing attention to it but never putting his finger on it."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span> </blockquote>
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Of course, this itself captures the tension that undeniably continues to exist even as the contradictory statements are rationally contextualised and resolved, or as Wolfson might say, <i>(un)resolved</i>.</div>
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Even Seeman cannot escape the issue. As he himself goes on to explain, in Chabad thought the whole system in which different contexts or conceptual frameworks exists is itself a matter of context. Taking into account the Chabad principle that t<i>zimtzum lav kipshuto - </i>in Seeman's words, Tzimtzum is only "an inability for most people to recognise the fact that the <i>or ha'mamaleh kol almin</i> (immanent manifestation of Divinity) and the <i>or hasovev kol almin</i> (transcendent manifestation of Divinity) is really the same all the time". Ultimately there can be no separation between discrete realities, there is only the One ultimate reality. The discrete elements of existence experienced by ourselves is merely a matter of perspective and illusion. Here, Seeman slips seamlessly into phraseology quite reminiscent of the Wolfson he so disagrees with, "Chabad writers from the very beginning... have emphasized repeatedly and insistently that <i>bittul ha'olamot</i> (abnegation of the worlds) does not mean that the world is an illusion or that it doesn't exist... of course the world is real, its just that its not."<br />
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Ultimately, Wolfson is right. Whether our rationalist minds like it or not, a serious student of Chabad must acknowledge and confront the undeniable paradoxes that Chabad thought embraces, and which are most strikingly highlighted in the works of the late Rebbe specifically. </div>
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All of this, and many of the other issues touched on in the above lecture, provides much food for thought. Seeman does not fail to draw attention to the theological issue posed by the question of the created worlds "reality"; if it is not really real, then the validity and importance of the Divine commandments as proscribed in the Torah is thrown into question. On which note see this even more thought provoking <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13373977/Letter%20by%20Rabbi%20Yoel%20Kahan.pdf">letter</a>, penned by Chabad scholar par-excellence, Rabbi Yoel Kahan - <i>achron achron choviv</i>. </div>
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</blockquote>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-39185739911072842722011-11-30T12:30:00.001-08:002011-11-30T13:28:30.640-08:00The Ultimate Chasid<div style="text-align: justify;">
I just came across this passage (from Habad: the Hasidism of R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady, by Roman A. Foxbrunner) describing the ultimate Chabad Chasid: </div>
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Scholarly yet sociable; reticent, yet a capable singer of Hasidic melodies and relater of Hasidic tales and traditions; austere and somewhat ascetic, yet possessing a refined appreciation of this world’s pleasures; earnest but not humorless or somber; deeply religious but not unctuous or pietistic; modest but self-confident; devoted to RSZ [R. Schneur Zalman], but fully capable of thinking for himself: this Hasid personified the profound and paradoxical system that came to be known as Habad Hassidism. </blockquote>
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Personally, I think this is a very insightful description. The more one studies Chabad Chasidus, and the rich oral and written literature describing the history and nature of the Chabad Chasidic ideal, the more one becomes aware of the sophisticated inner world that the Chabad Chassid must attain: A controlled balance between worldliness, intellectual and critical awareness - what might be called "class", on the one hand - and the utilisation of that sophistication for the attainment of a higher purpose; an end to which all the worldly self awareness is but a necessary means. Chabad is a path of discipline and intellectual rigour, which harnesses the best and fullest qualities of humanity in the service of G-d. Thus the Chabad Chasid must live life fully, but the fullness of his or her self expression must itself be a manifestation of Divinity. The ultimate Chabad Chassid achieves self-renunciation in the medium of self-completion.</div>
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I am reminded of a letter penned by the Rebbe Rayatz and printed in Hatamim, where he describes the novelty of the Chasidic ideal as making an "inner light and life" manifest within the medium of the complete and healthy self. Only once the individual has achieved human completion can the true ideal of Chasidus be realised. Readers are invited to read the letter themselves, its three pages can be viewed here <a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=49984&st=&pgnum=329">I</a>, <a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=49984&st=&pgnum=330&hilite=">II</a>, <a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=49984&st=&pgnum=331">III</a>. </div>
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The Foxbrunner passage is cited in an article by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, well worth reading in its own right, and available <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1600970/jewish/Chabad.htm#footnoteRef3a1600970">here</a>.</div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-67353123884006168712011-11-19T20:08:00.001-08:002011-12-07T19:35:54.273-08:00Immanent Transcendence<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I've just finished watching a great lecture (embedded below) by Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, author of <em style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Open-Secret-Postmessianic-Messianism-Schneerson/dp/0231146302/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258726047&sr=1-1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson</a> </em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">(2009)</span>. The main theme (if I am reading him right) is that central to each mystical movement is its distinct path, whose boundaries and limitations must be adhered to in order to arrive at the ultimate manifestation of the Infinite and the Unbound. In <i>oisies hachasidus</i> we would say that the only way to be<i> toifus atzmus or ain sof</i> is through the <i>hagbolo atzmis </i>of<i> mitzvos</i>. (The only way to grasp the Essence of Divine Infinitude is via the essential limitation of the Divine mandate - the fulfilment of the Commandments.) </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Unfortunately, Wolfson's vocabulary is somewhat obscure, presenting quite a barrier to the average reader/listener (in Wolfsonian terms, the veil of darkness via which one perceives the light). In an <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/blog/ideas-beliefs/from-the-academy-mysticism-and-philosophy/">interview</a> with <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/index.shtml">MyJewishLearning</a>, Wolfson claimed that "t<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">he delivery of a complex message demands a rhetoric that is commensurately complex and too often Jews outside the academy are not willing to be pushed to think harder and to expand their vocabulary." While I am not sure I agree with him on the first point, and would like to see scholars make the attempt to express themselves in more accessible terms, I do agree that this is rather a tall order.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At any rate, this lecture and the question and answer session that follows is studded with pearls of insight (and humour), and I highly recommend that the effort be made to listen to what is being said and to think about what is meant (don't jump to any hasty conclusions, the ideas are as deep as they are broad). </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One important point that he touches on in the question and answer session is the fact that when we conceive of different levels of reality, or of Divine Manifestation, we must not conceive of them as being completely separate from one another. To enlarge on this idea for a moment: The realm of limitations and boundaries in which we function is not distinct from the realm of the Infinite (indeed, it cannot be, for if it was not itself a manifestation of - and a key </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- the Infinite, then the Infinite could not truly be describe as Infinite). These are variant perspectives on the same reality. More-so, it is specifically in the finite world that we can experience the ultimate reality of the Infinite. As we said earlier, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the only way to be</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> toifus atzmus or ain sof</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> is through the </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hagbolo atzmis of mitzvos</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In Wolfson's words, the transcendent is within the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">immanent.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If the embed feature doesn't work please click on the link below. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/24132743?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/24132743">Elliot R. Wolfson: The Path Beyond the Path: Mysticism and the Spiritual Quest for Universal Singularity</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-8238987506708911992011-11-09T16:48:00.000-08:002011-11-10T04:46:41.592-08:00The Divine Source Of Atheism<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A story: The fifth Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn
was once asked, “it is known that all earthly realities stem from a Divine
archetype, what then is the Divine source of atheism?” Rabbi Sholom DovBer
replied, “The atheist does not believe that God exists as empirical realities
exist, and in this he is closer to the truth than many a believer. In truth,
the nature of the Divine reality is of a quality entirely different to that of
physical existence.”<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The issue of how to reconcile current scientific theory with the 1) belief in G-d and 2) the Torah's account of creation, has been on the table for decades, but the intensity of the debate does not seem to dissipate with the passage of time. The most recent contribution of note is </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Great-Partnership-Jonathan-Sacks/dp/0340995246/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0">The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning</a></i> by </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. While I have not yet read it I certainly intend to. I usually find Rabbi Sacks to be eloquent and fairly penetrating. A couple of weeks ago the UK's BBC Radio 4 hosted a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015yr4h">discussion</a> between Rabbi Sacks, Richard Dawkins and Lisa Randall. On this occasion I was to be disappointed; while Rabbi Sacks was as eloquent as ever, I felt that he could have done a better job of expressing the Jewish concept of G-d, and defining the role He plays in reality.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The central issue that I would like to address is this: Often, in the course of such discussions, an appeal is made to (one or more </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">variations</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> of) the Argument from Design or (more broadly) to "the wonder of nature", rather than to the Cosmological Argument. Both of these approaches can be found in Jewish sources, but there are two major distinctions between them. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1) In the language of a Talmudic debate: The Argument from Design is a <i>svarah</i> - its a good idea, it resonates, but its not conclusive; the Cosmological Argument is a <i>hochachah</i> - a conclusive argument. When I say conclusive I do not mean that it cannot be debated; of course one or anther component of the argument may be subject to criticism, but if we except the logical veracity of the Cosmological Argument we must except its conclusions (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">See <a href="http://chabadrevisited.blogspot.com/2010/07/chassidus-chakira.html">here</a> for an earlier post describing</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> version of the Cosmological Argument made in</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Choives HaLevovos</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">). On the other hand, the Argument from </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">design will always remain a matter of opinion; for some it has </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">resonance</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> for others it has none. (On a related but slightly different note, the theory of evolution has absolutely no bearing on the Cosmological Argument, while it does weaken the Argument from Design.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2) The Argument from Design says that there is an Intelligent Designer, but it doesn't say that their is a </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Creator</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, nor does it say much about the nature of the relationship of the Designer with the universe He designed. We may very well conceive of physical existence as an autonomous reality, which has been manipulated by an "external" Designer. Both G-d and physical reality may exist on equal terms, only that physicality has no "intelligence" of its own so G-d supplied some.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Cosmological Argument, on the other hand, concludes that physical matter cannot have existed for ever (indeed, time itself must have a beginning), it must have been </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">created</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (not just designed). In this light the reality of Divine existence is shown to be of a very different quality, entirely transcending the limited (time and space bound) reality of physical existence. G-d cannot be defined only in relation to the reality we know, His being is of another quality entirely, existing with or without us. In Chasidus there is an oft </span><a href="http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14958&pgnum=243" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">quoted</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> saying, "The fact that He creates worlds is not the essence of Divinity". (I can't find the original source right now.)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On a different note, physical reality is shown to be a product of Divinity, its very presence, its own reality, is a function of the Divine reality that makes it be. We can no longer conceive of G-d and the universe as being separate realities that somehow interact to some degree or another. Rather there is no reality aside from G-d, the physical reality that we experience is no more and not less than a limited manifestation of a truer reality; that of the Divine Himself. (This last point is one of the central themes of Chasidus, to which the second part of Tanya, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/6240/jewish/Shaar-Hayichud-Vehaemunah.htm">Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah</a> is dedicated.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Argument from Design may be prettier, more poetic, and if it happens to resonate for you, then it is more accessible; but while the cool-headed logic of the Cosmological Argument, may demand more intellectual effort, the rewards are greater. The rigours of reason provide clarity and a depth of perspective that is far more compelling. </span></div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-3134014288993733692011-11-07T17:00:00.000-08:002011-11-07T17:04:13.526-08:00Chabad: Returning Chasidism to its Roots<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dr. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Naftali Loewenthal talks about how the post-modern aspects of Chasidism espoused by Chabad can return Chasidism to its roots and heal the schisms in Jewish society today:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><iframe align="center" frameborder="no" height="385" name="torahcafe" scrolling="no" src="http://www.torahcafe.com/iframe.php?vid=4db74e2ac&width=480&height=385&autoplay=off" width="480"></iframe></span><br />
<a href="http://www.torahcafe.com/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img alt="For more inspirational Jewish video, check out: TorahCafe.com!" border="0" height="42" src="http://www.torahcafe.com/uploads/Embed_logo5.png" title="For more inspirational Jewish video, check out: TorahCafe.com!" width="130" /></span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As an aside, the Chasam Sofer's attitude to modernity is also discussed (and juxtaposed with his tendency to issue lenient rulings on an individual basis), which relates back to some of the conclusions drawn in an earlier <a href="http://chabadrevisited.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-mendelssohn-did-wrong-part-two.html">post</a> regarding how he influenced the way Orthodoxy came to regard Mendelssohn. </span></div>
</div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-46950426085840094922011-11-06T13:24:00.000-08:002011-11-07T17:03:07.865-08:00Adon Olam: Casting A Familiar Prayer In A New Light<br />
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<span lang="HE" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">אדון עולם אשר מלך בטרם כל יצור נברא</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Some years ago Prof. Marc B. Shapiro dealt with the
translation of the opening words of the well known Adon Olam prayer in a </span><a href="http://seforim.blogspot.com/2007/09/marc-shapiro-what-do-adon-olam-and-mean.html"><span style="line-height: 115%;">post</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;"> on </span><a href="http://seforim.blogspot.com/"><span style="line-height: 115%;">the Seforim Blog</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;">. He began with the premise that the proper translation must be “Eternal
Lord”, but goes on to explain that based upon the expert opinion of Rabbi Meir
Mazuz, he is forced to admit that Artscroll’s translation “Master of the
Universe” and other similar renderings are in fact more correct. The central
point is that the sages of the post biblical era who composed Adon Olam
understood “olam” to mean “world” or “universe”, although in the Biblical Canon
it usually means “eternal”, or “forever”. Subsequently, another blogger by the
name of Zack (Sholem) Berger, </span><a href="http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2007/09/charged-with-punishment-artscroll-marc.html"><span style="line-height: 115%;">took issue</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;"> with Shapiro’s conclusion. Here
again the premise is that the rendering of “olam” as “eternal” is “more
plausible”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While neither Shapiro, nor Berger, justify their premise, their
line of reasoning should be clear enough: The words “adon olam” are directly
qualified by the continuation of the verse “asher malach beterem </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">kol </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">yetzur nivrah” – since G-d is described here as the one “who who reigned before any
form was created”, G-d cannot be simultaneously described as Master (or Lord)
of the as yet non-existent universe.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Long before this issue was raised in the blogosphere it was
addressed in a Chasidic discourse (mamer) delivered by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak
Schneersohn, the Rayatz of Lubavitch. In that discourse (see </span><a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=31670&st=&pgnum=12"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Sefer Hamamrim 5703, pages 10-11</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;">) the Rayatz points out that even if
we were to translate “adon olam” as “Eternal Lord”, we would still be left with
an unresolved contradiction implicit in the qualifying description itself: The
concept of kingship – reign – applies to a particular form of relationship that
can only be achieved by a ruler in relation to a group of people who, save for
the dynamic of kingship would exist as entirely separate and independent selves.
The designation “who reigned” (“asher malach”) cannot be applied to the Eternal
Lord absent the creation of ostensibly independent entities (“before any form
was created”) over which He may reign.</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">This difficulty is only compounded by the fact that in the
opening words of Adon Olam are rendered as “Ribon Almin” – “Master of the
Universe” by no less an authority than Rabbi Yeshaya (Isaiah) HaLevi Hurwitz,
famed as the Shaloh (an acronym for his work Shnei Luchot Habris). In his
commentary on the Siddur, Shar Hashamyim, the Shaloh deals with the issues
raised above by invoking the passage in Tekunai Zohar, which is read in some
communities every Friday afternoon: “Pasach Eliyahu ve’amar: Ribon Almin…”, and
the interpretation of that passage by Rabbi Moses Cordevero (Ramak) in Pardas
Rimonim. In doing so, the Sheloh plunges us into a discussion that reaches far
beyond the technicalities of translation and into the fundamental questions
that lie at the core of religiously fueled philosophical inquiry. The Shaloh in
question can be viewed </span><a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=22373&st=&pgnum=68&hilite="><span style="line-height: 115%;">here</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;">.)
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Since the terminology in these sources is heavily
Kabbalistic, I will attempt to formulate the central ideas in less cryptic
language. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The foremost premise here is that empirical existence
(existence as we know it and experience it via the senses), by virtue of its
impermanent state, cannot have existed eternally and therefore can only exist
if a being of a more absolute quality caused its existence. Ramak explains that
although such a being exists essentially and entirely independent of any relationship
with created existence, It is nevertheless referred to as “Master of the
Universe” because our knowledge of the Absolute Being is gained via our
knowledge of the empirical realm, from which data we deduce that only a being of
a more absolute quality can be the “First Cause” of existence as we know it. Framed
slightly differently; although G-d essentially has no need to cause the
existence of the universe, since G-d ‘chooses’ to do so, a context exists in
which the term “Master of the Universe” carries meaning, even though it does
not at all reflect the true nature of the being it refers to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Every relationship between two separate entities creates an
implicit spectrum of multiple perspectives from which the relationship may be
seen in various forms. The Rayatz provides us with an analogy, which I will
paraphrase: A king is a king to his people, but a son to his mother, a husband
to his wife, a father to his son, and above all, an individual to himself. In
order to act the part of a king to his people, he must – to some degree – step
out of his role as an individual, and apply himself to a different mode of
living. This shift from private individual to public officer is not only
technical but also psychological; the individual himself undergoes an inner paradigm
shift in which the people independent of himself can no longer be seen as
independent of himself, and nor can he think of himself as independent of them.
Only after this relationship has been established internally can the technical
functions of kingship be executed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In applying this analogy to the relationship between G-d and
his creations we must be careful, but nevertheless, the Shaloh asserts that a
similar dynamic does exist: Beyond the technical relationship that must exist
between the Creator and creation, the relationship necessitates an earlier
paradigm shift in which the First Cause, the Absolute Reality, considers the
possibility of another form of existence, only then can the act of creation be
initiated. In this context, the Shaloh cautions us, when we use the word
“earlier” we are not referring to an earlier time, but to a “loftier” conception
of Divinity (i.e. to G-d as Essential Reality, rather than mere Creator). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The phrase “Adon olam asher malach beterem kol yetzur nivra”
(Master of the universe, who reigned before any form was created”), is now cast
in a new light. In essence this is a statement that describes the depth to
which the Absolute Reality – which we refer to as G-d – is immersed in the
relationship with created existence. Even as G-d exists essentially and
absolutely – “before any form was created” He chooses to “reign” as “Master of
the Universe”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What led the Supreme Being, absolute in every sense, to enter
into the creation and maintenance of the non-absolute ‘reality’ that we inhabit
and empirically experience – a form of existence whose transient time and space
dynamic is utterly incongruous with the absolute and infinite nature of its
First Cause? It is this question that the Rayatz seeks to address in the series
of discourses cited above. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-65013461271073403362011-10-29T19:32:00.000-07:002011-11-02T01:16:24.306-07:00Newly Published Book and Letters Cast New Light on the Rebbe's Biography and PersonaRabbi Chaim Rapoport has recently published a revised and expanded edition of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Afterlife-Scholarship-Critical-Menachem-Friedman/dp/0615538975">The Afterlife of Scholarship</a></i>, his critique of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rebbe-Afterlife-Menachem-Mendel-Schneerson/dp/0691138885/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319934230&sr=1-1">The Rebbe</a></i> by Heilman and Freeman. R. Rapoport has gathered much interesting information and analysis, expanding and reorganising his detailed arguments, and also summarising specific elements of the debate that was played out between him and the authors of <i>The Rebbe </i>on <a href="http://seforim.blogspot.com/">the Seforim Blog</a> (see <a href="http://seforim.blogspot.com/2010/06/chaim-rapoport-review.html">here</a>, <a href="http://seforim.blogspot.com/2010/06/response-and-rejoinder-to-chaim.html">here</a> and <a href="http://seforim.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-on-rebbe.html">here</a>). R. Rapoport has also included an appendix entitled <i>The Ten Lost Years (1941-1951)</i> detailing the role the Rebbe played in the Lubavitch movement following his arrival in America, and the more controversial issue of his rise to the leadership of Lubavitch following his father-in-law's passing. Large parts of the newly published work can be viewed via Amazon's "Look Inside!" feature.<br />
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Since my own opinion could hardly be objective (R. Rapoport thanks me for my contribution in <i>A Note To The Reader</i>), here is what Professor <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Elliot
R. Wolfson of New York University, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Open-Secret-Postmessianic-Messianism-Schneerson/dp/0231146302"><i>Open Secret</i></a>, has to say:</span></div>
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In <i>Afterlife of Scholarship</i>, Chaim Rapoport offers a meticulous critique of Samuel Heilman and Menachem Friedman, <i>The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson</i>, published by Princeton University Press, 2010. Rapoport challenges many of the assumptions made by Heilman and Friedman, and argues, through close textual reading, that these assumptions are based on interpretive flaws and/or lack of knowledge of Hasidism in general and of Habad in particular. Despite the overtly polemical tone, Rapoport's criticisms are never offered ad hominem. On the contrary, he painstakingly documents every point of contention, and has thereby provided ample evidence to allow other readers to assess his arguments against the portrait of the Rebbe presented by Heilman and Friedman. Whatever one might decide on the merits of his analyses, Rapoport's volume provides an invaluable treasure-trove of sources for future generations of scholarship on the seventh Rebbe of Habad-Lubavitch.</blockquote>
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While on the subject of the Rebbe's biography and persona, two recently published letters (available <a href="http://www.shturem.net/images/news/52408_news_25102011_9889.pdf">here</a> pages 18-26) are worthy of attention:<br />
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The letters were both penned by the Rebbe (henceforth Ramash) in Berlin in the summer of 1928 (the summer before his marriage to Rebbetzen Chaya Mushkah), and are addressed to his future mother-in-law, Rebbetzen Nechamah Dina. Perhaps the most striking thing about them is that the content of these letters is uncharacteristically mundane, and the tone is light and carefree. To anyone familiar with Ramash's usual style, this is an extremely rare departure from the tersely written words of greeting, the businesslike, almost impersonal tone, and the sparse lines of cryptic scholarship. His style is usually very different from the far more expressive, descriptive and colourful style of his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (Rayatz). This difference in writing style and personality is highlighted by an exchange of letters between the two early in 1930.<br />
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In response to his father-in-law's complaint to him that "your many letters of great length and many pages have, to my dismay, not yet been received, and apparently have not yet been written", Ramash wrote:<br />
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The reason I have not written is... that it is difficult for me to find in my life occurrences of interest to inform you of, with which to fill a page, [simply] writing a letter for the sake of a letter. Why should I steal your time for this...<br />
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(Igros Kodesh Rayatz Vol. 15, 74)</div>
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The Rebbe Rayatz replied:<br />
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I think it is clear that when you take note of the truth; of the deep relationship that must exist between us, you will always find something of interest that will extend over more than one page.Who is it that can limit the expression of inner feeling by the measure of pen, paper and the like?<br />
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(Ibib, 77)</div>
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In answer Ramash wrote:</div>
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There are individuals, for whom the central focus of their lives is in the realm of introspection, the world of thought (whether intelligent or empty), their main [direction of] 'movement' - for anything that lives moves - is inward, to the world that is placed in their heart, rather that the world that surrounds them and is external to them. After prefacing that even in my own eyes this is no great advantage, the fact is, that whether due to the nature of my soul, or due to external causes, it appears that I too am amongst them. My life has ever been poor in interesting <b>events </b>[as opposed to ideas], which are also of interest to me internally.<br />
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(Ibid, 78)</div>
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This exchange reveals a rare glimpse of the subtle clash of personalties and the depth and openness of the relationship that existed between the two; to no one else will you find Ramash laying bare his inner world. There is much to be said about to think about here, but we'll leave it for another time. In the light of this exchange, the letters written by Ramash to his future mother-in-law are noteworthy. The fact that Ramash so eagerly enters into discussions of the weather and descriptions of Berlin street scenes in a manner so reminiscent of the style of Rayatz, perhaps betrays a special effort on his part to accord her due respect and attention in the manner she was used to.<br />
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Another point of interest is that the second letter is dated "The day before Tisha BeAv, on which was born our righteous redeemer [Moshiach Tzidkainu], [56]88, Berlin". Clearly, the paradoxes of exile and redemption, the potential light within the darkness; the themes which would occur and reoccur in his talks and discourses decades later, were already then at the forefront of his mind.<br />
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In this letter too he keeps the tone light and carefree, finishing with a bitter-sweet Tisha BeAv joke:<br />
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The heat has dissipated somewhat. It will be an easy fast. How the Germans will manage when you can't say "gutten tag", I can't imagine...<br />
I remain your relative who wishes you all the best. May the time come when these days will be turned to joy<br />
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Menachem Schneerson </div>
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Getting back to <i>The Afterlife of Scholarship</i>, here's a selection of what some other commentators have written:<br />
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[Rapoport has crafted an] impressively knowledgeable critique… -- <i>Adam Kirsch in Tablet Magazine </i></blockquote>
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Rapoport has gotten the better of the exchange… a failure of biographical research and imagination on Heilman and Friedman's part… -- <i>Abraham Socher in the Jewish Review of Books </i></blockquote>
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[Heilman and Friedman] unfortunately play trivial pursuit… present hearsay as facts… and sometimes wade into the cynical end of the research pool with tabloid-style innuendos and suppositions. -- <i>Joe Bobker in the Jerusalem Report </i></blockquote>
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[T]here are peculiar omissions and contradictions [in Heilman and Friedman's book…] Readers of this biography may wonder if the authors have failed to grasp their subject… -- <i>David Klinghoffer in London's Jewish Chronicle</i></blockquote>
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</div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-22561644671750977542011-10-26T15:25:00.000-07:002011-10-28T08:36:09.307-07:00On The Eternal Relevance of Talmudic Cures<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Over at <a href="http://thetalmudblog.wordpress.com/">the Talmud Blog</a> there's a <a href="http://thetalmudblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/medicine-and-the-redaction-of-the-talmud-guest-post-by-michael-satlow/">discussion about the medical advice offered by the Talmud</a>.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am reminded of a discussion in Lekutai Sichot (<a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/16034">Vol. 23</a>, pages 33-41) by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson זי"ע, which sheds some light on some of the more general issues raised there. The central problem he seeks to address is that Maimonides included some (but certainly not all) of these Talmudic cures in his Mishnah Torah, codifying them as a part of Jewish Law, despite the fact that he only includes laws that are pertinent for all generations in that work (see Lechem Mishnah, Hilchot Talmud Torah 4:1, Sdei Chemed Vol. 9, Klolei Haposkim 5:11). At the same time he is clearly acknowledging that they are not eternally relevant by only including some Talmudic cures.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Rebbe's explanation is essentially mystical: All aspects of Torah (including medical cures recorded therein) are essentially spiritual; even as the Torah speaks of physical objects, we must be aware that core of the issue actually refers back to the spiritual arch-types of those objects. In the words of the Shelah - R. Isaiah Horowitz, "The Torah speaks of the supernal realms and hints to the lower realms" (SheLaH, 13b and 161a). While this principle does not contradict the better known principle that "a verse cannot be divorced from its simple meaning" (TB Shabbat 63a), there can sometimes be a divide, a miscommunication, between the spiritual arch-type and its physical manifestation. As we know only to well, not always is the physical reality in synch with the spiritual ideal.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Rebbe goes on to apply another essentially mystical idea to his reading of the Rambam: The Tumim (to the Shach's Tokfo Kohen, SK 124) writes of the authors of the Shulchan Aruch that "the spirit of Divinity radiated within them, that their words should conform to the Halacha, without the intention of the writer..." Here too, the Rebbe asserts that the Rambam was guided from on high to select those cures whose spiritual arch-types were indeed eternally relevant, if not necessarily eternally applicable in the physical realm. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In accordance with this principle, the Rebbe argues that in every aspect of Torah study we must always endeavour to achieve an awareness of the spiritual core of even the most (apparently) mundane aspect of Jewish law and practice, applying all aspect of the Torah not only in their all important practical form, but also in the inner service of the heart and mind.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you take a look at this discussion, and the format in which the Rebbe presents the problems and his arguments, you can only wonder at the way in which the Rebbe - I think very characteristically - integrates the paradoxical elements of a profoundly mystical conception of Torah study, and the cool analysis of rigorous scholarly methodology. </span>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-69507518198784611802011-10-25T08:54:00.000-07:002011-10-26T15:42:27.354-07:00What Mendelssohn Did Wrong - Part Two<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ASSORTED NOTES ON CHASIDIC AND NON-CHASIDIC ATTITUDES TO MENDELSSOHN </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The source cited in <a href="http://chabadrevisited.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-mendelssohn-did-wrong-part-one_24.html">Part One</a>, associating Mendelssohn, Wesseley and Satanow with various levels of Klipah, is an example of antagonism directed towards Mendelssohn from the Chasidic camp specifically, and it seems quite clear that the Non-Chasidic Traditionalist contemporaries of Mendelssohn did not necessarily see him in such a negative light.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amongst the Chasidic leadership, perhaps the most prominent in his attacks on Mendelssohn and his associates was Rabbi Pinchus Horowitz, Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt, author of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hafloah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (by which name he is often referred to) and a disciple of Rabbi DovBer, the Maggid of Mezritch. In an impassioned sermon delivered in 1782, he justified his opposition to Mendelssohn and the other Biurists, with a withering attack centering on the Biur’s rendering of the following verse:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך הוכח תוכיח את עמיתך ולא תשא עליו חטא (ויקרא יט, יז)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mendelssohn explains this to mean, “You may rebuke your friend if he has insulted you earlier”. Here is the offending passage (click to enlarge):</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9RaH9gZAhY-0pY-rYA-dRPEJsYrybLWjLaDNl_vaZzKg8Hq0QQTwqY-M4CvI3sVwi5DTAt29L7t_KKZe8erfAfzfQsWVZ0KLP5SHfpkcvRt4GF1rrBS_pbv644bItFORUt2mq68UtdnY/s1600/the+offending+quote+from+the+biur.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="34" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9RaH9gZAhY-0pY-rYA-dRPEJsYrybLWjLaDNl_vaZzKg8Hq0QQTwqY-M4CvI3sVwi5DTAt29L7t_KKZe8erfAfzfQsWVZ0KLP5SHfpkcvRt4GF1rrBS_pbv644bItFORUt2mq68UtdnY/s400/the+offending+quote+from+the+biur.bmp" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not only does this rendering ignore the obligatory imperative, “You shall” and substitute it with a far more polite, “You may”, it also interprets the verse to be referring to a social context, a case where affront has been caused between man and man specifically, rather than between man and G-d.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">This may appear to be a small matter, but its subtlety belies its subversive nature. Indeed, this is a very good example of how Mendelssohn sought to whitewash the Torah and transform its connotation to conform to his program of rationalist universalism. Apparently Mendelssohn considered it more important to portray Judaism in the image of western liberalism and tolerance, which he sought to propagate, than to uphold G-d’s laws and rebuke (and even punish) those who transgressed them. The implications of such a distortion undermined the principle of mutual responsibility for the religious behaviour of one’s fellow man (</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">arvus</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), and Rabbi Horowitz – the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hafloah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> – paraphrased Mendelssohn in more explicit terms:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why should it matter to him if his friend sins, let every man do as his heart pleases...</span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hafloah </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">continued: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Look and see that all their books turn on this, that they wish to establish corrections and guidelines for the conduct of Torah Scholars, how to conduct themselves in matters of the world...</span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clearly this example was seen as indicative of the broader Mendelssohnian agenda – namely, to cast the Torah and its scholars in a light that would conform to the philosophical and social norms made fashionable by the trendsetters in Berlin. Such a path, however carefully trod, was one that was implicitly heretical, for it placed a secular philosophy and agenda as being more edifying and desirable than the precepts of the Torah. As we have already noted in Part One, the principle here is that Mendelssohn and his associates got their priorities dangerously wrong.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hafloah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was not alone in his abhorrence for the insidious undertones reflected in Mendelssohn’s Biur, and indeed his suspicions were echoed by many prominent disciples of his teacher Rabbi DovBer, the Maggid of Mezritch, amongst them Rabbi Elimelech of Lizensk, his brother Rabbi Zushe of Hanipoli, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Barditchev, and others.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[1]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> According to an account transcribed by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Shneersohn of Lubavitch, the initial suspicion with which the early Chasidic leadership treated Mendelssohn was also rooted in a far-sighted warning that the Baal Shem Tov had delivered some thirty years earlier. See רבנו הזקן ותנועת ההשכלה</span><a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=40547&st=&pgnum=172&hilite="><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the other hand, it is apparent from the approbation of Rabbi Yechezkal Landau – the Chief Rabbi of Prague, famed as the author of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nodeh Beyehudah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> – to the Biblical commentary of Shlomo Dubno, that his reservations regarding Mendelssohn’s Biur had little to do with the subversive nature of the content, but rather concerned the language it was written in. Dubno authored the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Biur</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that accompanied Mendelssohn’s German translation to Genesis and much of Exodus, but abruptly left Berlin before its completion. Now that Dubno was publishing the Biur independent of the German translation, the Nodeh Beyehudah explained, he was happy to give his approbation.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The figure of Dubno, his relationship with the circle of Mendelssohn, and his subsequent relationship with the circle of Rabbi Eliyahu, the famed Vilna Gaon, has been the subject of much contention.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[2]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> While I may not be impartial on this point, it seems quite implausible that despite working closely with Mendelssohn for a number of years, Dubno remained unaware of the direction in which he was headed and did not share any of his aspirations. Nevertheless, he was welcomed by many of those closest to the Vilna Goan, and the Biur that he originally wrote to accompany and support Mendelssohn’s translation received the approbations of such figures as Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin and his brother Rabbi Shlomo Zalman (Zelmele). It would seem that, unlike their Chasidic counterparts they did not see Mendelssohn as particularly dangerous.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[3]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This brings me to the following passage, which appears on page 253 of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Making of a Gadol</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (thanks to my friend A. for bringing it to my attention), and juxtaposes the (assumed) attitude of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (the Tzemach Tzedek), with that of the son and successor of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, Rabbi Yitzchak (Reb Itzeleh): </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohygBo0gAsFvU-Sfk5rOWjX0sCPb47gu9gaqa0CjHPcJQoRX7dUAl2n_GHrGAVyVKJwPRbm9LwB5fcYfsKtF5kU2ru9P55cuLYtzJCBjUBE82s9y66xkXQr5whyVhmwLmhfIOkc3j9lQ/s1600/MOAG+on+Mendelssohn.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohygBo0gAsFvU-Sfk5rOWjX0sCPb47gu9gaqa0CjHPcJQoRX7dUAl2n_GHrGAVyVKJwPRbm9LwB5fcYfsKtF5kU2ru9P55cuLYtzJCBjUBE82s9y66xkXQr5whyVhmwLmhfIOkc3j9lQ/s400/MOAG+on+Mendelssohn.bmp" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another interesting and distinctly Chasidic example of antagonism to Mendelssohn appears in a discourse printed in the appendixes of the edition of Keter Shem Tov (a compilation of teachings attributed to the Baal Shem Tov) published by Kehot Publication Society. The authorship of the discourse is unknown, but it is clear that it was written by a student of Chabad Chasidism. Here is the relevent text (thanks to a reader, Rabbi Avrohom Bergstein, for drawing my attention to the </span><a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=16081&st=&pgnum=531"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">source</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">):</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVS-0P20-ci-9oBPTOaeWhnKEBO_DejO2x_QEJGsk7Trel8JXvm7TkSL7jtNtKwr0BNEIM8b3QfPcxM_dR_jH8zxhQSjafmrPJIsTcmj6jp2-7jr8BDL7SJjm8AzDTucMws8UL6M_QCw/s1600/%25D7%2594%25D7%2595%25D7%25A1%25D7%25A4%25D7%2594+%25D7%259C%25D7%259B%25D7%25A9%25D7%2598+%25D7%25A2%25D7%259C+%25D7%259E.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVS-0P20-ci-9oBPTOaeWhnKEBO_DejO2x_QEJGsk7Trel8JXvm7TkSL7jtNtKwr0BNEIM8b3QfPcxM_dR_jH8zxhQSjafmrPJIsTcmj6jp2-7jr8BDL7SJjm8AzDTucMws8UL6M_QCw/s400/%25D7%2594%25D7%2595%25D7%25A1%25D7%25A4%25D7%2594+%25D7%259C%25D7%259B%25D7%25A9%25D7%2598+%25D7%25A2%25D7%259C+%25D7%259E.bmp" width="352" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The reference to Mendelssohn appears in the midst of a discussion of the difference between “these times” when the spiritual station of the Jewish people is so low that some are no longer inspired by the teachings of Chasidism, and the times of the Baal Shem Tov and Rabbi Shneur Zalman (referred to as Admor Hazaken), when Divinity was manifest explicitly, and no one could bring themselves to sin. However, the present misfortune is explained to be a blessing in disguise, for now latent evil can never be hidden or ostensibly overcome by good, but must always be openly manifest and recognisable, and therefore will never cause damage to some unknowing innocent how cannot discern the evil beneath the veneer of good. Whereas if Divinity was manifest as in earlier times, even the evil would not openly sin, but “the bad would remain hidden in their hearts and they would be able to damage others” – an interesting discussion in itself, but lets not distract ourselves from the reference to Mendelssohn – “like Mendelssohn and his students </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">may there memory be erased</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who caused many souls to sin, because they considered them to be upright, but now that they have publicly gone in an evil way no one will learn from them”.</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here Mendelssohn is equated with the “souls that are rejected and lost to the three impure Klippot”; a more extreme designation than that applied to Mendelssohn by the Mitteler Rebbe and cited in <a href="http://chabadrevisited.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-mendelssohn-did-wrong-part-one_24.html">Part One</a>.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[4]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> But in the same breath we find again acknowledgement of his religiosity on a practical level and his ostensibly upright conduct. Whatever 'evil' lay in his heart, it was veiled in subtleties and difficult to discern. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, all Orthodox communities – whether Chasidic or non-Chasidic – view Mendelssohn as the arch-Maskil; a destroyer of Orthodoxy, and an usurper of Rabbinic Authority and the Jewish Tradition. How did such a state of unanimous agreement come about? How is it that in communities that disagree on any number of Halchic, Philosophical and Sociological issues, Mendelssohn is so universally infamous?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It would seem that the answer lies with the famed author of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chasam Sofer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rabbi Moshe Shreiber (Moses Sofer). His paraphrase of the Talmudic dictum “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chodosh</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is Biblically forbidden” has become famous as an expression of his opposition to any form of modernization or reform. Not as famous but perhaps no less influential, was the stringent imperative recorded in his ethical will; “do not touch the works of Mendelssohn”.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chasam Sofer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was a student of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hafloah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, whose fierce opposition to Mendelssohn has already been discussed, and it is clear that much of much of his abhorrence to Mendelssohn and his works was passed on to his student.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[5]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Despite the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chasam Sofer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s Chasidic influences, he resided in an area that was geographically removed from the centers of Chasidism in Poland and Russia, and did not conduct himself in the manner of a Chasidic Rebbe. As such, he is identified neither as Chasidic, nor as specifically non-Chasidic or opposed to Chasidism. For these reasons, he has become a unanimously accepted figure of authority for all branches of Orthodox Judaism. This is especially so in regards to the Orthodox response to the movements of modernity and Reform, which took hold first and fastest in the regions of Germany, Austria and Hungry. As the Rabbi of Pressburg (situated sixty kilometers east of Vienna and today called Bratislava), the Chasam Sofer has become famous for the battles he fought against the Reformers, and in many ways it was he who shaped the Orthodox response to modernity, setting the boundaries that are seen to uphold the integrity of Rabbinic Judaism to this day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two important articles, containing many of the primary sources for this post:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">הרב דוד קמנצקי,</span><a href="http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=20292&st=&pgnum=730"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">הסכמותיהם של גדולי הרבנים לחומשים של רבי שלמה דובנא</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ישראל נתן השל,</span><a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=13029&st=&pgnum=149"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">דעתם של גדולי הדור במלחמתם נגד המשכיל נפתלי הירץ וויזל</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (ד)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Related Articles and Blog Posts: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shnayer Z. Leiman</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://leimanlibrary.com/texts_of_publications/49.%20R.%20Moses%20Schick%20The%20Hatams%20Sofers%20Attitude%20toward%20Mendelssohns%20Biur.pdf"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rabbi Moses Shick: The Hatam Sofer’s Attitude Toward Mendelssohn’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Biur</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Y. Mundshine</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://www.shturem.net/index.php?section=blog_new&article_id=128&lang=hebrew"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">הסכמות שתוקות מוולוז'ין ומווילנא</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rabbi Dov Eliach,</span><a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/gedolim/dubno.htm"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">R' Shlomo Dubno</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (a response to Y. Mundshine)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the Main Line</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2009/03/solomon-dubno-in-yated-neeman.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solomon Dubno in Yated Ne’eman; how to make a Maskil a Rabbi</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (comments to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rabbi Dov Eliach</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ishim Ve’shitos</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://ishimshitos.blogspot.com/2008/05/on-some-articles-in-yeshurun-r-menashe.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On some articles in Yeshurun - R' Menashe M' Ilya and R' Shlomo Dubno</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See also articles cited</span><a href="http://michtavim.blogspot.com/2009/01/223rd-yahrzeit-of-moses-mendelssohn.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and most recently,</span><a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/search/results?action=search&searchtype=author&section1=author&search1=%22Stern,%20Eliyahu.%22"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eliyahu Stern</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jewish_quarterly_review/summary/v101/101.3.stern.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Genius and Demographics in Modern Jewish History</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[1]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another</span><a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=838&st=&pgnum=9"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">report</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that illustrates the nuance (or perhaps the paradox) that informed the Chassidic attitude towards Mendelssohn – acknowledging his Religious Observance (frumkeit) but decrying the subversive affect of his persona to the nth degree – concerns Rabbi Zvi Elimelech of Dinov, famed as the author of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bnei Yisoschor</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a disciple of the Chozeh of Lublin (himself a student of the aforementioned Rabbi Elimelech of Lizensk):</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZSHm0WcnVDbByKp7A3YYQpQcNQHQ4SowGI-nANZDBJTHH2llxi5QGTplveNxfTuEzKbp3EoIrAEoquovc-iUMpSRoGYkvmHQZJsZyH71FVR-tnV1R8_48_NFrNnUOvKiW-veBICKO23I/s1600/%25D7%2594%25D7%25A8%25D7%25A6%25D7%2590+%25D7%259E%25D7%2593%25D7%2599%25D7%25A0%25D7%2595%25D7%2591+%25D7%25A2%25D7%259C+%25D7%259E%25D7%25A0%25D7%2593%25D7%259C%25D7%25A1%25D7%2595%25D7%259F.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZSHm0WcnVDbByKp7A3YYQpQcNQHQ4SowGI-nANZDBJTHH2llxi5QGTplveNxfTuEzKbp3EoIrAEoquovc-iUMpSRoGYkvmHQZJsZyH71FVR-tnV1R8_48_NFrNnUOvKiW-veBICKO23I/s400/%25D7%2594%25D7%25A8%25D7%25A6%25D7%2590+%25D7%259E%25D7%2593%25D7%2599%25D7%25A0%25D7%2595%25D7%2591+%25D7%25A2%25D7%259C+%25D7%259E%25D7%25A0%25D7%2593%25D7%259C%25D7%25A1%25D7%2595%25D7%259F.bmp" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[2]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although there is evidence that Dubno and Medelssohn were involved in a dispute over the introduction to their joint work, Dubno himself attributed his departure from Berlin to pressure placed upon him by his much respected teacher Rabbi Naftali Hertz Halbershtat of Dubnow. While he does express his recognition that some of those involved in the project “had removed from themselves the yoke of Torah”, he refers to Mendelssohn himself with respect and stresses that he has “no reason at all to change my mind or regret that I participated in this endeavor”. According to Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Shneersohn of Lubavitch, Rabbi Naftali Hertz Halbershtat of Dubnow was influenced by the Baal Shem Tov and his teachings, this might be supported by the fact that – unusually for a Lithuainian Rabbi – he is often referred to as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ha’goan hamekubal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (see for example</span><a href="http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pagefeed/hebrewbooks_org_36875_16.pdf"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), suggesting an unusual involvement and perhaps adherence to Kabalisitc customs, in the fashion of the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[3]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It should be noted that the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nodeh Beyehudah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and many other non-Chasidic Rabbinical figures were fierce opponents of the educational reforms proposed by Wessely. However, such antagonism did not extend to Mendelssohn and seems to be an exception rather than the rule.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[4]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The Mitteler Rebbe refered to Mendelssohn as “the bad component of Nogah”, in this connection my friend of A. reminded of the statement of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi in Tanya, Chapter 6:</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">והן הם כל המעשים אשר נעשים תחת השמש אשר הכל הבל ורעות רוח וכמ"ש בזהר בשלח שהן תבירו דרוחא כו'</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">וכן כל הדבורים וכל המחשבות אשר לא לה' המה ולרצונו ולעבודתו שזהו פי' לשון סטרא אחרא פי' צד אחר שאינו צד הקדושה</span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In A.’s words, this implies “that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the very use of Nogah for something that isn't kedusha is in essence degrading it to sholosh klipos hatmeos...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">any human contact with anything will change it either to kedusha or sholosh klipos hatmeos, there is no such thing as remaining static in nogah...” In other words, two people can enter into the same realm of grey area, and nothing but their own intention or perception of what they are doing, and why they are doing it, can distinguish between wrong and right, black and white. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[5]</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has been noted that the Chasam Sofer’s own father-in-law, the famed Rabbi Akiva Eiger, was a subscriber to Mendelssohn’s Biur and even quotes it with respect. See </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yitzchok Adlerstein</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2007/08/02/r-akiva-eiger-mendelsohn-and-the-shema/comment-page-1/#comments"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">R. Akiva Eiger, Mendelssohn, and the Shema</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
</div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-29193101119332367122011-10-24T03:23:00.000-07:002011-12-07T21:18:08.311-08:00What Mendelssohn Did Wrong - Part One<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>MENDELSSOHN, HIRSCH AND THE MITTELER REBBE OF LUBAVITCH</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://chabadrevisited.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-mendelssohn-did-wrong-part-two.html">Click here to read Part 2</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moses Mendelssohn is widely acknowledged as one of the great Jewish thinkers whose ideas marked the progression of Modern Jewish thought. However, the image of the man in his own time and his legacy thereafter, continue to mystify. Despite his almost legendary fame, there is no modern stream of Judaism that traces its roots back specifically to his worldview or labels itself "Mendelssohnian". On the other hand, it is clear that he and all others associated with the early Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement, have been generally disassociated from Orthodoxy. Relative to the great Jewish thinkers of the nineteenth century, Mendelssohn is more likely to be associated with Abraham Geiger and other reformers than with Orthodox figures such as Samson Raphael Hirsch or Esriel Hildesheimer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By all accounts, however, Mendelssohn was a strictly observant Jew who championed the validity of the ritual component of Jewish law as Divinely mandated by the authority of the Revelation at Sinai. If so, it would seem that the differences between Mendelssohn and Hirsch, are less significant than those between the former and Geiger, for example. To be sure, Hirsch was a Rabbi with a beard, while Mendelssohn looked and lived the part of a renaissance man of letters. But their attitudes towards Torah and modern society don't seem to be so fundamentally different. There certainly are differences, but apparently they relate more to semantical aspects of Jewish thought than to the fundamental tenets of belief. Both attempted to draw Judaism into the modern world, championing the causes of general education and integration into secular culture, without compromising on Jewish law and practice.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, while the contribution of Hirsch to Orthodoxy and to Modern Orthodoxy in particular is acknowledged, and he is acclaimed - even in more right wing Orthodox circles - as the savior of German Orthodoxy, Mendelssohn is written-off by the Traditionalist establishment as a free thinker, and considered the forerunner of the Reform movement. Often, Mendelssohn's Traditionalist detractors will point to the fact that few of his children remained true to their father's faith as proof of his own "heretical" leanings. Many have wondered what exactly it was that Mendelssohn and his contemporaries where guilty of that they deserved such treatment. (In this connection it is also important to distinguish between the German Haskalah and its Eastern European successor, which was often more directly antagonistic towards Rabbinic authority.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every historical figure must be viewed within their own contemporary context. No one lives in a vacuum and the various external forces at work in a given time and place go a long way to defining the nature of a particular individuals thought and loyalties. This brings us to the one obvious distinction between Mendelssohn and Hirsch; Hirsch lived in an environment where Traditional Judaism was being challenged from within the Jewish community itself. His activities (if not his general worldview) were in many ways formed as a direct response to the threat of the Reformers. As an activist he was an upholder of Tradition and Orthodox Jewry. Mendelssohn, on the other hand, faced no such challenge from within, and in the context of his own times his philosophy and activities can only be seen as a step away from Tradition and towards assimilation.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nevertheless, the suggestion that the only distinguishing factors between Mendelssohn and Hirsch are time and space, seems to amplify the question even more: Certainly they were each moving in different directions, and in his own time Mendelssohn was moving to the left of the Traditional establishment, but does that explain why his memory has been so ostracized for ever after?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recently, I came across the following statement, attributed to Rabbi DovBer Schneuri, the Mitteler Rebbe of Lubavitch, son and successor of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (thanks to S. of <a href="http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/">On the Main Line</a> for drawing attention to this</span><a href="http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=13026&pgnum=115"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1c51a8; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">source</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">):</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">הדעסואי הוא הרע שבנוגה, הירץ וויזל - טוב שבנוגה, סטנאב הוא כתר דקליפה</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Dessauite</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(i.e. Mendelssohn of Dessau) is the bad component of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nogah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (a mundane domain; neither sacred nor profane, but potentially either) Hertz Wessely is the good component of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nogah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Satanow is the Crown of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">klipah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is most significant about this source is that it does not tar all Maskilim with the same brush, but acknowledges the subtle differences between the theological positions of these individuals, even going so far as to acknowledge that neither Wessely, nor Mendelssohn, were "all bad", rather they belonged to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nogah,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a category that straddles good and bad, a grey area. By entering the secular world and contemporary society they entered into the world of the mundane, a domain where one must strike a careful balance and is at constant risk of employing the mundane in a cause that is not holy; that serves not the cause of the Torah and its commandments but rather the causes of other allegiances. It is clear that Hirsch also entered this realm, as did many others. Some succeeded in utilizing the mundane in the cause of the holy while others leaned more towards the profane.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Based on the above, it would seem that the reason Mendelssohn is categorized as "bad" is due more to his motives or priorities than his progressive and open attitude to modernity and secular society. It would seem that he put greater faith in the philosophy of the rational mind, emancipation and the good will of the nations, than he did in G-d and the Torah. He used the former as the benchmarks of his worldview, to which the latter must be made to conform. The view expressed in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jerusalem</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; that the role of revelation in Judaism is merely to confirm rational truths already available to unaided reason, is indicative of this attitude. While he never explicitly crossed the line into the realm of the profane, Mendelssohn saw the mundane realm of secular civilization, embodied as rationalism and emancipation, as an end to itself. Indeed, on a personal level he realized this ideal, and in certain circles his image has been enshrined as the Jew who was enlightened enough to be acceptable to Berlin society.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In direct contrast to Mendelssohn's position, in his </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nineteen Letters</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Hirsch asserted that Torah is not to be measured by standards or values independently derived, but most be understood purely within its own revealed context. He even went so far as to criticize Maimonides for allowing Aristotelian rationalism to influence his understanding of Judaism. Unlike Mendelssohn, Hirsch saw the rational mind, along with the offerings of modernity and secular society, as no more than a means, to be embraced in the service of Divinity.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moreover, as we shall see in the forthcoming Part Two, Mendelssohn’s priorities led him down a path, which while not openly heretical, was subtly subversive to the authority of the Torah.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Related Articles and Blog Posts:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Allan Nadler</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2010/12/6/main-feature/1/whatever-happened-to-moses-mendelssohn"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whatever Happened to Moses Mendelssohn?</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the Main Line</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-was-mendelssohn-so-bad-again.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why was Mendelssohn so bad again?</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (see also</span><a href="http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2007/07/be-curious-about-r-akiva-eger-and-r.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leo Baeck Institute</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://www.lbi.org/2011/08/continuing-conversation-moses-mendelssohn-legacy-of-enlightenment/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Exhibition</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and</span><a href="http://www.lbi.org/2011/08/moses-mendelssohn-symposium-september-18/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Symposium</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, A Continuing Conversation – Moses Mendelssohn and the Legacy of the Enlightenment</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meir Hildesheimer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://seforim.blogspot.com/2009/08/meir-hildesheimer-historical.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Historical Perspectives on Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B. Wein</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Reform, Mendelssohn, Hirsch and the Jewish People in Historical Hindsight</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-66597263785946012862011-06-05T02:56:00.000-07:002011-06-05T05:40:09.826-07:00A Leaf in the Wind<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The Principle of Specified Providence (part 2)</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One of the principal theological innovations of Rabbi Yisroel of Mezibush – the founder of Hasidism, known universally as the Baal Shem Tov – is the principle that Divine Providence extends even to the most apparently insignificant of events. In the words of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn:</span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Baal Shem Tov says that G-d moves many diversified causes in order to carry out a specified providence for even the smallest of created beings. In order that a fallen leaf, which has already blown around in a backyard somewhere since autumn a year ago… should be moved from one place to another… To this end, a strong wind breaks out in the middle of a warm summer day, moving heaven and earth, and thereby is the ordained providence fulfilled for that fallen leaf… </span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In a lengthy discourse (Lekkutei Dibburim Vol. 1, page 164), Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak dispels the sense of helpless and arbitrary insignificance normally conveyed by the ‘leaf in the wind’ metaphor, and in its place builds a model of elaborate providence. The image is now used to exemplify an irreplaceable component in a carefully ordained plan; a grand design in which each and every created being is endowed with its own unique significance relative to its station. The millions of small events, apparently swept together at random by the great gusts of world shaking events, are in fact precisely ordained, designed to fit together like the pieces of some great puzzle. There is nothing which is not a priority.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When applied to the story of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak’s life, this model fits like a glove. Some of the most earth-shattering milestones of modern history; the social and political upheavals that began to plague Tsarist Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, the First World War, the Rise of Communism, and the Second World War, swept Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak from the provincial village in white Russia where he was born, to the tottering grandeur of Tsarist St. Petersburg, to the darkly secretive silences of communist Leningrad, to Riga, the Holy Land, Warsaw and ultimately to New York. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another may have seen himself as a helpless leaf, powerless in the grip of such powerful winds. But Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak saw each new situation into which he was thrust as a provident opportunity, orchestrated with a demanding – if sometime unfathomable – deliberation. For him there was no such thing as default. Each new circumstance carried with it the weighty import of a Divinely ordained mission – it was his responsibility to set his own concerns aside and meet the need of the hour, however difficult.</span></div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-2441501817681780452011-05-25T06:41:00.000-07:002011-10-24T04:05:15.941-07:00Hashgacha Protis - The Principle of Specified Providence (part 1)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In Elul 5645 (1885) The Friediker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, then a youn boy just five years old traveled to Yalta with his parents. More than forty years later, while under soviet arrest in the Shpalernaya Prison in Leningrad, he fortified himself with a lesson imparted by his father on that trip:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We were traveling then amongst the Mountains of Crimea, between Sevastopol and Yalta, in a closed carriage harnessed to four horses, as is the custom in those parts… The journey takes us amongst lofty mountains, towering high – a wilderness strewn boulders – with the road twisting and turning below. On the right are the mountains and on the left the sea shore…</span> </div>
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<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Once we stopped to rest in the open field, that is to say, between one stopping place – where the wagon drivers usually stop to graze their animals – and another. While we sat on a rock, my father turned aside under one of the tall overhanging boulders, or rather into a kind of valley sheltered between two towering boulders, and there he prayed the afternoon prayer, although it was only two o’clock in the afternoon. My mother set out a variety of different foodstuffs, for we still had to travel for five or six hours in this carriage or another.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Although I preferred the company of the wagon driver, who was taking care of his four horses… however I had already come to understand the obligation of a son to worry for his father’s health, and I was very pained by his weak health. However, my strong desire that my father should study with me was stronger than anything, and I thought that my good conduct would make my father feel better. So well did I conduct myself that since we left Charkov [where Rabbi Sholom DovBer was warned by the Doctors to guard his health carefully], I carefully considered each aspect of my conduct that it should be executed in the most helpful fashion. Therefore I took a prayer book and reviewed my lesson; the psalm “the heavens describe the glory of G-d”.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We sat to eat, and my father pointed out a place, high on the mountainside and far away. From where we sat we could see what seemed to be a large hole in the rock. My father told us that when, in the year 1884 [according to the extent correspondence it would actually have been the late summer of 1883] he traveled with his brother, my uncle Raza, they traveled this road at night. At six in the mourning they stopped to rest in this very place, and went to pray high up on the mountain. At first, from a distance, it appeared to be no more than a hole, but once they arrived there they saw that it opened into a large cave, complete with smaller stones ideal for seating.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My father then explained to me then, that G-d created the world in such a way that each Jew is enabled to fulfill the commandments of G-d. When someone is traveling on a journey and the time to pray arrives, it is forbidden to pray in the open field. Therefore G-d created hollowed out rocks like these – which are like houses, in order that one may pray therein.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-21193170039435375852011-05-19T03:39:00.000-07:002011-10-24T04:05:57.044-07:00CHASIDIC TEXT OF 1882 PUBLISHED<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://lubavitch.com/news/article/2030941/CHASIDIC-TEXT-OF-1882-PUBLISHED.html">Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A <a href="http://store.kehotonline.com/index.php?stocknumber=HRM-SM42" style="color: #3072c2; text-decoration: none;">new volume</a> in the series of Chasidic discourses by the fourth leader of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi <strong>Shmuel Schneersohn</strong>, covering the year 5642/1882, has just been released by the Kehot Publication Society.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The year 1882 was a year of great upheaval for Russian Jewry. A large wave of anti-Jewish riots swept through south-western Imperial Russia from 1881-1884. In that period more than 200 anti-Jewish events occurred in the Russian Empire. During these pogroms, which continued for more than three years, thousands of Jewish homes were destroyed, many families were reduced to poverty, and large numbers of men, women, and children were injured. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The year 1882 was also the last year of Rabbi Shmuel’s leadership, as he passed away in the fall of that year, on 13 Tishrei, 5643.Rabbi Shmuel (1833-1882), known as the <strong>Rebbe Maharash</strong>, fought very hard for protection of the Jewish population from the pogroms, traveling often to the capital city of Petersburg to meet with and implore high-ranking government officials, and in fact, being instrumental in quelling the disturbances.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The year was also significant in that the Rebbe’s youngest son, R. <strong>Menachem Mendel</strong>, wed the granddaughter of the renowned Rabbi <strong>Moshe Sofer</strong> (Schreiber) author of Chatam Sofer.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The present volume, Torat Shmuel Sefer 5642, contains the Chasidic discourses delivered and written by Rabbi Shmuel during this eventful year. The discourses cover a wide variety of topics, such as the Chasidic meaning of the holidays of Sukot, Chanukah, Purim and Pesach; the inner meaning of prayer and study; insights into Biblical figures such as the Patriarchs and Moses. The volume also includes the discourses delivered by the Rebbe at the wedding of his son and a unique discourse (M’eimatai kor’in) which covers the topic of siyum hashas.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The book was expertly annotated by Rabbi <strong>Alexander Z. Piekarski</strong>, of the Chabad Research Center, and is rounded out with a full index compiled by Rabbi <strong>Simcha Zaiontz</strong> of Migdal Haemek, Israel.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In a unique effort led by <strong>Mordechai Engel</strong> and <strong>Dovid Blier</strong> of Melbourne, Australia, 200 Chabad community members, banded together to dedicate this volume. “Dedicating the publishing of a text by the Rebbes is an extraordinary zechus which benefits the donors and their families in an everlasting way,” said Rabbi <strong>Nosson Gurary</strong>, the driving force behind this collective effort. The names of the donors are published in the book.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Officials at Kehot noted that this effort has ignited interest in other communities and a group of donors in New York have recently dedicated a volume of Chasidic discourses by the fifth Rebbe, Rabbi <strong>Shalom Dovber of Lubavitch</strong>, containing the discourses of the following 3 years – Sefer Hamaamarim 5643-45 (1883-84).</span></div>
</div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4649296739635327765.post-60711534774893307182011-05-14T06:04:00.000-07:002011-05-15T15:17:20.026-07:00The Tanya: revealing the essentially transcendent<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>The "Tanya" is the central work of Chabad thought, a complete guide to the deep and often complicated relationship between man and G-d, instructing the "average" person every step of the way, foreseeing and forewarning all possible obstacles to his or her service of G-d. Written by the first Rebbe of Chabad it was first published in Kislev 5557 (the winter of 1797-8).</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>The following is a collection of extracts from a letter of the Friediker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneesohn, describing the great importance, value and power of the Tanya. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The title page of the first addition of the Tanya</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For twenty years the Alter Rebbe wrote the Tanya, adding and subtracting, and meticulously analysing every word till it was refined to the last letter, and then he gave permission for it to be copied and publicized. However, due to the thousands of copies of various manuscripts the number of errors increased, and then the Rebbe sent special messengers to the Tzadikim Reb Yehuda Leib HaKohen and Reb Zushe of Hanipoli to decide with them if it should be printed, and with their agreement the Rebbe granted them permission to print it. In his letter to the printer in Slavita he pleaded that he should be very careful with every letter, in order not to ruin the inner intent which he arrived at through intense effort.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Mittler Rebbe said:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“With the Tanya my father opened a new hall in the heavenly Yeshiva; for the simple Chassidim who recited the words and letters of the Tanya, through which the essence of the soul was revealed in their fulfillment of Mitzves – and how much more so in the case of those of knowledge and perception.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When my father began studying the Tanya with me, he said:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“The Tanya is like the Chumash; every Jew from the greatest scholar to the most simple and ignorant studies the Chumash, and each according to their ability understands what they are able to, yet none of them understand anything, and the greater one is, the greater one’s recognition of how supremely removed its conception is from one’s grasp.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Not only does a chapter of Tanya shatter all that hides and impedes, but more-so it brings about the revelation of the essentially transcendent [manifestation of G-d], both spiritually and physically,” and he concluded with these words – “a chapter of Tanya brings about an abundance of blessing and success.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(אג"ק כ"ק אדמו"ר הריי"ץ ח"ד ע' רסא ואילך)</span></div>Chabad-Revisitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12507040680453821805noreply@blogger.com0