Rav Aharon X2

Must the walls that separate our communities and our institutions soar quite so high, the interposing moat plunge quite so deep? Shall we never sled again?"

A CALM VIEW OF RAGING ISSUES

Rav Aharon Feldman and Rav Aharon Lichtenstein are two rosh hayeshivas, Rav Feldman of Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, and Rav Lichtentenstein of Har Eztion in the Gush, Israel.  Both are engaged in a subtle discussion that started with Rav Feldman's recently published book titled The Eye of The Storm: A Calm View of Raging Issues. The book is a compilation of previously published articles by Rav Feldman that deal with contemporary issues, such as homosexuality, feminism, and Chabad moshichism. 

While it's refreshing to read a charedi rav's perspective on these controversial issues (rather than the traditional approach of simply ignoring that issues exist), I still had serious issues with certain parts of the book.  But this is what I expected for a book that promises to deal with controversial issues.  For example, one of Rabbi Feldman's goals in writing the book was "to expose the vacuity of the Zionist ideology" (p. 3) while also demonstrating how the "religious community is a viable, flourishing society...filled with concern for one another" (p.14).  In reading these two statements, I felt Rav Feldman was implying that being religious and Zionistic are not compatible.

A CALM RESPONSE TO A CALM VIEW

In response to Rav Feldman's book, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, wrote an article in this month's Jewish Action.  The article is titled "Hands Across the Ocean: A Review of Rabbi Aharon Feldman’s The Eye of the Storm."

It turns out that the two rabbis have much in common.  Both studied in the same Baltimore yeshiva (in which Rav Lichtenstein fondly remembers "the chilling warmth of joint sledding in Druid Hill Park on Sunday afternoons") and both learned under Rav Yitzchak Hunter at Yeshivat Chaim Berlin.

THE PLEA FROM RAV LICHTENSTEIN
Despite a shared past, Rav Lichtenstein's prupose for writing the article was to bring to attention certain diffucltuies that he found in the book.  Rav Lichtenstein is a leader in the religious Zionist world while Rav Feldman is a top charedi rov in the U.S., and their points of dissention could have been predicted.  Rav Lichtenstein critique of the section of the book titled Zionsim is that he wonders:  "...is it indeed desirable...to engage in a foray of utter denial of Jewish worth to what the Zionist enterprise...hath wrought?"   And in dealing with a contemporary feminist issue, Rav Lichtenstein bring sources to dispute Rav Feldman's statement that "“that the classic authorities agree unanimously that women are forbidden to wear tefillin.”

The conclusion of the article struck the deepest chord with me.  As I mentioned above, Rav Lichtenstein remembers sledding with Rav Feldman as a youth.   Rav Lichtenstein concludes by writing:

"That pair of juvenile prattling sledders is now well past seventy-five. It stands to reason and is, presumably, mandated by joint mission, that our worlds meet and attain mutual fruition. As we both painfully know, however, this occurs all too rarely. Must the walls that separate our communities and our institutions soar quite so high, the interposing moat plunge quite so deep? Shall we never sled again?"

WHAT'S NEXT
I currently live in Baltimore and have heard reports that Rav Lichtenstein's article has circulated throughout the Ner Israel beis medarsh.  Rav Feldman is purported to have drafted a response to Rav Aharon Lichtenstein's article, which will be published in the next Jewish Action.  I look forward to reading it.