SW -“A quote out of context is not worth all that much. You, unfortunately, didn’t even give us a quote. A paraphrase out of context is REALLY not worth all that much.”
Ok here is the quote:
“Since he was dealing with a religious matter, Dr. Lamm said he was speaking as the president of Yeshiva’s affiliated seminary, the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, which trains rabbis in the centrist philosophy.
Like more zealous Jews, he said, centrist Orthodoxy follows the halacha, or traditional law, as spelling out ”the authoritative norm for daily conduct,” including Sabbath observance and adherence to kosher dietary laws as well as moral and ethical behavior.
But, unlike what he called the right wing, Dr. Lamm said the centrist group is open to secular culture, is unabashedly Zionist and values tolerance of different opinions.
These principles, he said, are embodied at Yeshiva University where, in accordance with the theme of ”Torah Umadda” – religious principles and secular knowledge – undergraduates pursue dual curriculums of liberal arts education and Jewish studies. Hasidic and other right-wing institutions frown on secular knowledge beyond that necessary to earn a living.
”For us, the study of worldly wisdom enhances Torah,” Dr. Lamm said. ”It reveals not a lowering of the value of Torah in the hierarchy of values, but a symbiotic or synergistic view.”
”For those of us in the centrist camp, Torah Umadda does not imply the coequality of the two poles. Torah remains the unchallenged and pre-eminent center of our lives, our community, our value system. But centrality is not the same as exclusivity.” Ultra-Orthodox Position
Dr. Lamm said the ultra-Orthodox has been ”powered by triumphalism,” which he defined as an attitude of, ”We are winning, therefore we are right.”
When asked for an example of how this group sets the Jewish agenda, he mentioned the effort in Israel to pass legislation that would recognize only Orthodox conversions for those wishing to enter the country as Jews. Without mentioning names, he said certain Hasidic elements have ”set the ‘who is a Jew’ question as the highest priority of political action.”
Dr. Lamm said he hoped that the ”who is a Jew” legislation, which has been defeated in the Israeli Knesset, does not come up again.”
I didn’t quote the whole article, but this enough.
Paragraph 1 -This is they way they train all the Rabbis.
Next paragraph – values secular culture & tolerance of different opinions.
And we see what that means later on. He tolerates conservative & reform conversions. This means he either holds of their conversions -not acc. to Halacha or he finds no problem calling these conversions Jews so innocent/ignorant (Am Haarazim) will possibly end up marrying them, even though they are Goyim.
Need I say more?
“I’m pretty sure that all of Touro’s programs have had many dozens of students – mentioning which one you went to or had something to do with will hardly incriminate you. Certainly if this program, as you say, was SO popular that they had to limit the number of entrants to it, you will not be incriminating yourself”
You seem to post your comments w/o either reading mine or understanding mine. Posting any personal info in this web site has been used by others here for nefarious purposes. I’ve posted too much info about myself already to add anymore. Try to understand my point -it doesn’t mean what I’m saying is false!
Obviously if I thought your opinion about Touro was more important than my privacy -I’d post it anyway. But alas, I don’t really care that much about your opinion regarding Touro!