Rabbi Saul Lieberman Memorial Lecture

Monday, June 8.

Please click to enlarge.

Rabbi Saul Lieberman bio.

Comments

[The Conservative Kid]

Interesting how he is now being claimed by the MO as one of their own.

From what I heard from my teachers at the Seminary, he was a mean SOB. Last time I checked a tzadik was also supposed to be a mentsch.

[Sanford Hausler]

I don't see anything above claiming that he as a tzadik. No one can deny that he was a great scholar.

I have also never seen the Modern Orthodox claim him as one of its own. But the Union for Traditional Judaism does.

[justayid]

But the UTJ is claiming him for their own AS MO. Implying that UTJ sees itself as MO. At the same time UTJ sees itself as authentic C Judaism. OTOH maybe its just this Yutter, whose affiliations seem mainly O (aside from his long ago JTS smicha)

BTW, interesting choice of drop-in rabbi for Bnai Israel. An old shul near the Baltimore waterfront, where until a few years ago almost no Jews lived within walking distance, reviving with waterfront yuppies, some O, maybe some not.

[justayid]

CK - USCJ has lots of really, really fine mentches in its rabbinate. What they seem to be short of us is halachik scholars of the caliber of a Lieberman. Im not saying CJ should go back to the 1950's, or follow the UTJ path - but it would more compelling if the current path were defended with a more powerful and engaged approach to halacha. Roth's role is declining. Dorff of al peoples seems the last one really committed to proper halachic justification for change, as opposed to Gilman and Tucker looking to make CJ into Reform for the non-intermarried.

I dont think UTJ is the path as so many of our finest young people are committed to egalitarianism (including many of the unaffiliated minyanim) - We need a traditional, halachik, egalitarian movement. Sorry if some of you think thats a contradiction. Klal israel wants it.

[Successful Messiah]

"Implying that UTJ sees itself as MO. At the same time UTJ sees itself as authentic C Judaism."

UTJ is officially non-denominational.

[Successful Messiah]

"UTJ is officially non-denominational"

oops - I meant to say JCC, the location where this event will be held.

[S.]

>From what I heard from my teachers at the Seminary, he was a mean SOB. Last time I checked a tzadik was also supposed to be a mentsch.

Personality-wise he was a typical ascerbic Litvak; the kind where if you can't take the heat, don't be in his shiur. But he was also a big ba'al chesed and ba'al tzedakah, without fanfare.

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

Yuter has no right to present Lieberman as orthodox. Lieberman lost all rights to that title when he turned down Rav Hutner's entreaties to teach at Chaim Berlin for the Jewish Theological Cemetery.

[justayid]

I guess Yuter doesnt consider teaching at JTS, esp at old JTS to disqualify someone as O. Seeing Yuter is Mishmach (?) JTS, that kind of makes sense.

[Lawrence]

He was also the model for Prof. Malchuson in Chaim Potok's The Book of Lights.

[mitch morrison]

Justayid, if you do a bit of checking you'll find that R. Yuter has 4 semikhot, of which 3 are very strong Orthodox.. i don't think anyone would dismiss the Skokie yeshiva as lightweight, or semikha from fmr chief Sephardic Rav in Israel, or from R. Tendler.
R. Lieberman had indicated that before joining JTS he approached 3 Gedolim for psak. 2 said yes he could go -- one apparently felt he should go to be a positive influence -- which he undoubtedly was in stemming the dissolution of normative halakha. the 3rd Gadol apparently did not give him an answer.
while at JTS, he remained a major figure whom many well-known Gedolei Torah, including Ravs Kotler and Feinstein, approached on specific questions. Likewise, his relationship with many major Torah figures in Israel is well known, especially his close relationship with Rav Goren. Not everyone accepted him and no doubt, his decision to go to JTS -- even 70 yrs ago -- was controversial. But a look at the Talmud faculty of JTS then and even until a couple of decades ago, will show the faculty to have been comprised primarily of Orthodox intellectuals who embraced traditional as well as scientific approaches to learning.