It was moderated by Rabbi Daniel Korobkin.
The discussion was standing room only (with about 150 people in the room).
Questions were limited to submissions on flash cards.
All four rabbis were eloquent.
The substance of the discussion was how to respond to challenges.
Here’s the Prager – Adlerstein dialogue from December, 2006.
The event lasted 90 minutes.
Prager’s name was never mentioned and many, perhaps most, of his points were ignored.
This was a presentation for people who already believe in Orthodox Judaism and simply want their faith reinforced. It’s hard to believe that anybody who did not already believe in Orthodoxy became persuaded of its truth during these talks.
Rabbi Shalom Tendler: “Accepting this legal system, both the divine part and the rabbinic part, requires being a servant to HaShem. It requires humility… Feeling privileged to follow this legal system, divine in origin, rabbinically empowered, if I am truly humble, I will serve within this legal system with joy, enthusiasm and passion.”
Rabbi Adlerstein: “The real purpose of this gathering is to arm ourselves to be better ambassadors for Torah.”
“What the vast majority of people want is assurance. They want to know that they are not being fools.”
“At the end of our long galus [dispersion], we don’t always have the tools we had in previous generations. In the nineteenth century, when Biblical Criticism was a threat to the community, we had some of the chief gedolim such as the Malbim who dropped parts of their career and threw themselves into answering the questions of early Biblical Criticism.
“We are hard-pressed to find people at the top of the pantheon of Torah leadership today throwing themselves into the arena of exploring some of the challenges, such as science…”
“There are some people (mockers, skeptics) you don’t engage with.”
The following line was repeated throughout the night: “We know that Torah is emes (truth).”
