Emes Ve-Emunah: Judging Your Brother Favorably

Friday, October 24, 2014

Judging Your Brother Favorably

The original post here has been deleted. In my zeal to defend a fellow Jew, I ended up judging another Jew too harshly. I now regret that. For that I apologized. Rabbi Oppenheimer has accepted it. I only judged one side favorably and not the other. I guess that I need to take my own advice more seriously. I'm truly sorry for all the commotion and for any harm I may have caused Rabbi Oppenheimer or his family.

I have also deleted all comments except for Rabbi Oppenheimer's acceptance of my apology and the request that I remove the post... which I did.

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My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.