Emes Ve-Emunah: Post Under Construction

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Post Under Construction

I have removed a post that I wrote late in the day yesterday (posted 12:01 this morning) because of a gross error in conflating two separate issues. It was a bothced post! Sometimes my critics are correct. I sometimes post too quickly after only a superficial reading of a news item. That's what happened late yesterday when I posted about an article in Ynet. I am in the process of rethinking the issue and hopefully rewriting it. I apologize for my error and for any inconvenience.

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.