Luke Ford

In his second lecture for Torah in Motion on Rabbi Moses Kunitz, professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “They’re building Shmuel Kamenetsky into America’s pope. He now is the man to deal with all issues, be it Orthodox gays… Ten years ago, five years ago, I wouldn’t have said Shmuel Kamenetsky. I would’ve said Dovid Feinstein or someone else. The roshei yeshiva at YU (Mordecai Willig, Hershel Shachter, David Bleich), there’s no comparison [in their superiority in Torah knowledge when compared to Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in America.”

According to Wikipedia: “Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah[1] (Heb.: מועצת גדולי התורה (“Council of [great] Torah Sages”)) refers to the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of any of several related Haredi Jewish organizations.”

In his second lecture for Torah in Motion on Rabbi Moses Kunitz, professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “There was a plan [in 1912] put forth by Agudath Yisrael that there would be 23 rabbis on this Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.”

“This whole thing is a fiction. It hasn’t existed for many years. Yes, there is a so-called council of Torah sages in Israel. First, they never meet. They can go years without meeting. In the Agudah world, decisions are made by important rabbis (such as Rav Elyashiv or Rav Shach). These groups find one great rabbi and he makes the decision. For the Hasidic world, decisions would be made by the Gerrer rebbe or the Belzer rebbe. I’ve termed this the papal model. These groups find one great rabbi and he makes the decisions. No one took on Rav Shach [except the Gerrer rebbe] and Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.”

“Agudah wanted to make it 23 sages, which would correspond to the small sanhedrin of ancient times, with the idea that when they made a decision, it would be authoritative. They still think it is authoritative. Just watch some of the videos online of some of the spokesmen at the Agudah convention. It’s a joke. This Rabbi Sherrer and others. Many people in the Lithuanian world don’t go anymore. These guys getting up and saying everyone is obligated to listen to the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. There’s no one on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah who comes near Rav Hershel Schachter in Torah knowledge.”

“The American Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah used to meet. You had people of huge stature such as Reb Moshe Feinstein. Rav Aron Kotler kept Rav Ruderman off it for a while. There was a famous dispute where Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky got so angry at Moshe Feinstein because Reb Moshe would not condemn Chabad. Reb Moshe was always sympathetic to Chabad.