{"id":130693,"date":"2020-05-11T08:11:03","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=130693"},"modified":"2020-05-11T08:31:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:31:03","slug":"when-orthodox-rabbis-step-into-a-conservative-seminary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=130693","title":{"rendered":"When Orthodox Rabbis Step Into A Conservative Seminary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marc B. Shapiro blogs<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* We see that Elitzur was in the United States at the time of the great fire at the Jewish Theological Seminary library in April 1966. From the passage we see that he would eat his breakfast at JTS.[1] It could mean that he brought his own breakfast with him, or it could also mean that he ate the breakfast in the Seminary cafeteria. If the latter, it could mean that he only ate the cornflakes or that he even ate cooked items. It is interesting that a text with such ambiguity, and thus liable to create \u201cproblems,\u201d appeared in a haredi work. I therefore assume that the grandchildren who put the book together did not understand the significance of where the fire had taken place, namely, that it is not an Orthodox institution.[2]<\/p>\n

Regarding Orthodox rabbis visiting the Jewish Theological Seminary, in R. Aharon Rakeffet-Rothkoff\u2019s memoir, he tells the following story about R. Moshe Bick:<\/p>\n

Meeting such a figure [R. Bick] in the Seminary library made me feel awkward. Utilizing the rabbinic aphorism, I asked the good rabbi: \u201cWhat is a kohein doing in a cemetery?\u201d . . . With a kindly smile embracing his face, the Bronx spiritual leader immediately responded: \u201cIf the Seminary possesses rare and invaluable rabbinic texts, they must also be available to all Torah scholars. The Seminary cannot withhold these treasures from Klal Yisrael.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n

In R. Pinchas Lifshitz, Peninei Hen (Monsey, 2000), pp. 99-100, there is a 1929 letter from R. Shimon Shkop to Cyrus Adler, Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. In this letter, R. Shkop mentions meeting Adler at his Seminary office, at which time he spoke to him about the difficult financial situation of his yeshiva, Sha\u2019ar ha-Torah in Grodna.<\/p>\n

Regarding the Seminary, Nochum Shmaryohu Zajac called my attention to this video<\/a>. In his discussion with Dr. Dov Zlotnick, we see the Lubavitcher Rebbe\u2019s positive attitude towards Saul Lieberman (which I already mentioned in Saul Lieberman and the Orthodox).[4] It appears, however, that the Rebbe was confusing Lieberman and Louis Finkelstein when he referred to Lieberman\u2019s connection to Torat Kohanim, and that he wrote he\u2019arot and mar\u2019eh mekomot to it. Torat Kohanim, otherwise known as the Sifra, was in fact Finkelstein\u2019s great project.<\/p>\n

* Max Rowe represented the Rothschild Trust which awarded four monetary gifts to outstanding rabbinic scholars. Rowe turned to Lieberman for his recommendations on who should receive the awards. Although today everyone knows about the greatness of R. Hayyim Kanievsky, we see that Lieberman was aware of this fifty years ago, and recommended him for the grant. He even regarded R. Hayyim as greater than his father, the Steipler. <\/p>\n

* Regarding the Seminary library (or any other Conservative institution), R. Moshe Feinstein was asked if one must return books to them, even if the books will not be used at the institution and the person who has them will learn from them. He replied that \u201cit is forbidden for us to permit gezeilah or geneivah [theft].\u201d <\/p>\n

* In the days before hebrewbooks.org and Otzar ha-Hokhmah, I often visited the JTS library. It was common to see Orthodox Jews with impeccable standards of kashrut, who would not eat food served in a Conservative synagogue, eating in the Seminary cafeteria.<\/p>\n

* Nachum commented to the last post that \u201c\u2018slander\u2019 is spoken and \u2018libel\u2019 is printed (or news, etc.).\u201d While that is the technical definition, all you have to do is google \u201cslanderous article\u201d and you will see that \u201cslander\u201d is also generally used for printed material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marc B. Shapiro blogs: * We see that Elitzur was in the United States at the time of the great fire at the Jewish Theological Seminary library in April 1966. From the passage we see that he would eat his … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodoxy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130693"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130699,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130693\/revisions\/130699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}