Paths of Moderation

BAYME, STEVEN

Paths of Moderation Seventy Faces—Articles of Faith Norman Lamm Hoboken, N.J.: KTAV, 2002. Two volumes, 300 pp. per vol,, S29.50 hardcover per vol. REVIEWED BY STEVEN BAYME Lamm has compiled...

...Moreover, these impressive volumes often leave the reader wondering how Lamm's championing of Modern Orthodoxy resonates within Yeshiva University, given the prevailing intellectual influence of the Talmud faculty, one of whom went so far as to equate Modern Orthodoxy with Amalek, the eternal enemy of Israel...
...Repeatedly, Lamm insists that Modern Orthodoxy's engagement with Western culture is an ideal rather than a concession to reality...
...He decries the efforts to rewrite the biography of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, intellectual dean of Modern Orthodoxy, so as to claim that Soloveitchik really did not endorse secular education, except as practical necessity...
...At times, however, one wishes for more...
...However, unlike most Orthodox rabbis, he is willing to speak positively about the Conservative and Reform movements and urges the establishment of a new social contract between Jews, a brit shalom under which contentious personal status issues might be resolved...
...As of this writing, Lamm has announced his impending retirement, but no successor has been named...
...First, Lamm ardently believes in countering extremism and pursuing, with passion, the paths of moderation...
...Missing, for example, is his essay on homosexuality, which distinguishes between understanding private behavior and opposing its articulation as public norm...
...Unquestionably, he criticizes the patrilineal descent decision as a disaster for the Jewish people and decries the tendency toward religious relativism, noting, correctly, that "if everything is kosher, nothing is kosher...
...To his credit, he regrets his error in seeking to replace the term "Modern Orthodoxy" with the more neutral and ambiguous "Centrist Orthodoxy," a term that suggested ideological positioning, i.e...
...REVIEWED BY STEVEN BAYME Lamm has compiled a most impressive record as scholar, communal leader, and public intellectual...
...probably our greatest and most pressing need...
...Much depends on the ultimate choice...
...Although he publicly warned against the dangers of messianic activism as early as 1967, Lamm now faults himself for failing to speak out consistendy on that issue—as well as on religious extremism in general— until after the Rabin assassination in 1995...
...Lastly, Lamm ardently advocates civility in Jewish communal life—an end to intra-Jewish polemics and a recognition that the non-Orthodox movements possess "functional validity" and their rabbis need to be accorded "spiritual dignity...
...Lamm believes that critical encounter with modern culture will produce Jews sure-footed in both worlds of Torah and of modernity...
...These essays are written with considerable erudition, and good humor...
...Nor does he hesitate to engage right-wing detractors...
...Yet for the time being, the future path of Modern Orthodoxy's flagship institution remains uncertain...
...Biblical criticism is dismissed in one paragraph as a "nuisance," although elsewhere he notes that "some must leam modern historical and biblical and theological scholarship...
...Frequently, Lamm displays great courage in articulating ideas that are highly unpopular in some contemporary Orthodox circles...
...These volumes encompass a compendium of Lamm's popular writings and underscore his role as president of Yeshiva University and intellectual spokesman of Modern Orthodoxy...
...Several themes permeate these essays...
...centrism," rather than placing concrete value on modernity...
...Revealingly, Lamm's addresses at rabbinic ordination exercises, comprising a major section of these volumes, consistendy reference Jewish history, thought, and literature, as if to remind new rabbis that their task entails far more than talmudic scholarship...
...Steven Bayme is national director of Contemporary Jewish Life for the American Jewish Committee...
...Lamm justifiably may look back with pride on a career dedicated to strengthening American Orthodoxy...
...In particular, he is unequivocal in his condemnation of Yigal Amir and Baruch Goldstein, admonishing that there is "no such thing as acceptable terrorism for the sake of Torah or Israel...

Vol. 27 • August 2002 • No. 4


 
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