Rabbi Rosensweig Speaks on the Interaction of Halakha and Society

On Monday April 27, RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Michael Rosensweig addressed a crowd of over 50 YC and SCW students on the topic of "The Interaction of Halacha and Social Reality: Implications and Applications" in the Rubin Shul. The lecture was part of the Spring 1998 Torah u'Madda Lecture Series.

Rabbi Rosensweig discussed how law shapes society and how society influences law. He contrasted secular law’s potential for external adjustment with the immutability of Divine law. Rabbi Rosensweig described Halakha’s centrality to Jewish society based on the fact that Torah knowledge and performance have defined Judaism through the ages. According to Rabbi Rosensweig, a Jew can approach God only through the acceptance of the revelation at Sinai and the obligations that it entails. In his view, in engaging social reality, the Jew must view the world from the prism of Halakha, and not allow society to define his relationship to the Torah.

Rabbi Rosensweig asserted that the challenges modern social reality create can serve as a means for religious growth. He explained that religious greatness does not arise "in spite" of external pressure but "because" of that pressure.

In addressing societal influence on p'sak, or normative rabbinic interpretation, Rabbi Rosensweig suggested that society could give rise to a reevaluation of Torah issues but that final decisions would always be decided by considerations internal to Halakha.

Rabbi Rosensweig had delivered this lecture earlier at the Orthodox Forum. Joshua Cypess, the organizer of the Torah U-Madda lecture series, asked Rabbi Rosensweig to deliver the lecture to the wider student body of Yeshiva. Cypess was pleased with the turn out and the questions students raised after the lecture. The lecture will be printed in the forthcoming publication of the Orthodox Forum.