Dilemmas of modern orthodoxy: sociological and philosophical

Judaism, Wntr, 1993 by Chaim I. Waxman

24. Females scored somewhat higher on the scale than did males. At YC, students in the theological seminary were somewhat less modernist than were students in the other Jewish studies programs, but at SCW no such differences were detected, probably because it has a single program of Jewish studies. In both schools, commitment to the intrinsic value of secular education is highest among those aged 20-21 and among those majoring in the social sciences. Perhaps not surprisingly, such commitment is lowest, although still high, among those majoring in the physical sciences, pre-med., mathematics, and computers.

25. Ellenson, Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer, p. 109.

26. Mordechai Breuer, Edah Udyuknah, p. 56.

27. Ellenson, Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer, pp. xi-xii.

28. James Davison Hunter, Evangelicalism: The Coming Generation (Chicago, 1987), p. 159.

29. Peter L. Berger, The Heretical Imperative: Contemporary Possibilities of Religious Affirmation (Garden City, NY, 1979), p. 27.

30. This is one interpretation of the verse, "Lo tukhal lehit'alem" ("You will not be able to avoid it"), (Deuteronomy 22:3).

31. See Breuer, Edah Udyuknah, for evidence of a similar situation in nineteenth century Germany.

32. Cf., David Ellenson, Tradition in Transition (Lanham, MD, 1989).

33. Cf., Norman Lamm, Torah Umadda, pp. 100-102.

34. Robert Michels, Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy (New York, 1962).

35. Cf., Jonathan Sacks' observations as to why Modern Orthodoxy rejects the manner in which the slogan, "daas Torah" ("Torah opinion) is used by the sectarian community:

... daas Torah in its modern sense tends to be opposed by many within Orthodoxy who see halakhah as a rational discipline operating in the empirical world, open to argument and counter-argument and the development of consensus. They also see the new charisma with which the yeshivah head has been invested, as subverting the traditional authority of the mara d'atra, the local rabbi.

(Jonathan Sacks, Traditional Alternatives: Orthodoxy and the Future of the Jewish People |London, 1989~, p. 136).

36. William B. Helmreich, The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Orthodox Jewry (New York, 1982).

37. For an analysis of the development of that whole process, see Chaim I. Waxman, "Toward a Sociology of Psak," Tradition 25 (no. 3, Spring 1991): 12-25.

38. Sol Roth, The Jewish Idea of Community (New York, 1977), p. 145.

39. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, 1984), p. 162.

40. Rav Shimon Schwab, Selected Writings (Lakewood, NJ, 1988), pp. 233-234. This quotation was first brought to my attention by Jacob J. Schacter, in his article, "Haskalah, Secular Studies and the Close of the Yeshiva in Volozhin in 1892," Torah U-Madda Journal, Vol. 2, 1990: 111.