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Rabbinical Comments on the works of R. Nathan Slifkin
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Excerpts of a letter by Rabbi Aharon Feldman Shlit"a, Rosh HaYeshiva Ner Yisroel: "Probably the public issue most damaging to the honor of Torah and to its leaders in recent memory is what is known as the Slifkin affair. Rabbi Nosson Slifskin, a talented young man still in his twenties, wrote three books in the past several years in which he attempted to justify certain conflicts between the findings of modern science and parts of the Torah and the Talmud. ... Nevertheless, in September of last year [2004] a public letter banning the books was issued by some of the leading Torah authorities in Israel, and then shortly afterwards a similar ban, signed by many prominent American Roshey Yeshiva, was issued in the United States. The books were banned because they were deemed to contain ideas antithetical to Torah ... The ban was met with resistance by Slifkin who vigorously defended himself on his Internet site on several grounds." ... "Slifkin’s campaign was eminently successful. In short time, most people were convinced that the ban had no basis or reason, and that Slifkin had been unwarrantedly victimized. His campaign made the signatories appear easily swayed and naive. Easily swayed, because they had relied on the “extremists” and had not sufficiently checked the accuracy of their claims. Naïve, because the tumult over the ban catapulted the books into best-sellerdom. The books had been previously virtually unknown but after the ban began selling by the thousands even at inflated prices – which meant that the ban accomplished nothing." "Blogspots, Internet sites (mostly anonymous) where anyone with access to a computer can express his spontaneous, unchecked and unedited opinion with impunity, became filled with tasteless, derogatory attacks on these authorities, at times to the accompaniment of vulgar caricatures." "As a result, many thoughtful, observant Jews were beset by a crisis of confidence in the judgment of the signatories. This was an extremely vital crisis since these authorities constitute some of the greatest Torah leaders of our generation, authorities upon whom all of the Jewish people rely for their most serious decisions. More important, it threatened to make any of their future signatures on public announcements questionable. The irony of it all is that the books, which had originally been written to defend the honor of Torah, became one of the most potent vehicles in our times for weakening the authority of Torah." ...Rabbi Avraham Chaim Carmel on the Slifkin Controversypublished at DovidGottlieb.com [Rabbi Carmell is commenting on the following passage by Rabbi
Nathan Slifkin:
Dear Nosson הי"ו, As you realized on your last
visit, my father, shlita, is unfortunately no longer in a position to
discuss the issue of your books. I
would like to share with you some ideas I have discussed with him in the past.
I have tried to imagine what would have been Rabbi
Dessler’s position with regard to the ban against your books.
The following three points come to mind:
1) Rabbi Dessler advocated a healthy skepticism, to the point of contempt,
towards the “conclusions” of scientism, in particular where these challenged the
beliefs of a Torah Jew. See the
epilogue to Artscroll’s biography of Rav Dessler (p. 365), “Against the worship
of Science”.
He would not have taken kindly to your attitude that
anything reported in “The New Scientist” as fact is to be accepted as such.
2) Rabbi Dessler, following in the footsteps of the Maharal, taught us to
have the greatest reverence for Chazal and the tremendous siyatta
diShmaya and divine insight that permeates all their teachings.
I think that his advice to anyone tackling issues of
science and Torah would have been to use their knowledge to discover, or come up
with, alternative theories that the bias of scientism may have rejected, but may
give more credence to Chazal.
3) As you may have by now discovered, the main opposition of the Gedolim
is to your attempt to “re-educate” or reformulate the thinking of the chareidi
community. As one person put it:
“your worst crime” was to put haskamos on the books. Rabbi Dessler was
uncharacteristically outspoken in his criticism of such attempts (see letters
vol. 3).
4) Finally, regardless whether I am correct in my assessment of Rabbi
Dessler’s attitude to the above, one thing is definite.
After the fact, Rabbi Dessler would have accepted the decision of those
Rabbanim, Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgichim in whose hands Hashem has
entrusted the directions of our generation.
When Hashem showed Adam and Moshe, “dor dor vedorshav… manhigav”
these are the names on that list.
We can get no closer to Hashem’s ratzon than by listening to our
Gedolim who have spent their entire lives in ascertaining the emes of
Torah. Even if, as a result of all
the non-Torah ideas that we have read, their opinion seems to us to be
incorrect, Hashem wants us to follow them.
Their siyatta diShmaya in knowing what is good for Klal Yisrael
is unimaginably greater than ours.
Wishing you all the best,
Avraham Chaim Carmell P.s. I saw a statement on your website to the effect that “G-d told you that the mabul never happened.” I would like to draw your attention to the Radak who writes that a navi sheker may truly believe that he had a Divine revelation about the falsehood he prophesizes about. He is nevertheless chayav missa, because as a believing Jew, he is required to realize that he has allowed himself to be mislead by his imaginations (or as a horaas sha’a, since he is a danger to Klal Yisrael.) Letter by Rabbi Shalom Kamenetsky Shlit"a prior to the Ban
From:
owner-
>I do not accept that Ralbag only has validity if
backed up by Chazal,
Dear R' Yoel,
Thank you for the note. My name does appear in his
book and a careful reading of the haskomo will show that I gave
no haskomo on the content. What impressed me about the book is
its science. The uninitiated unlettered Jew often finds that the
responses he gets when he questions the seeming incompatibility between
science and Torah (l'havdil) are lacking.
Sholom Kamenetsky The ban and statements by other leading Torah authorities
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