UnPresidented Times

The world in which we live exhibits many features that render it less than ideal.  Economists tell us, and rightly so, that the key to human happiness lies in our ability to best satisfy our unlimited desires with the limited resources at our disposal.  The relative success of human endeavors and decisions, then, can only be measured with an eye towards the delicate equilibrium that must be maintained between achieving a desired result, on the one hand, and accepting the practical realities and limitations of a situation, on the other.

Thorough understanding of this truth - that in the absence of ideal conditions, decisions must necessarily reflect a certain amount of concession - would have averted the raucous histrionics that greeted the Yeshiva Board of Trustees' announcement that it hoped to appoint Dov Zakheim as President of Yeshiva University, an appointment that threatened to split the university presidency and the leadership of RIETS into two separate positions.

Of course, in an ideal world, the next President of Yeshiva University would embody the noblest and most laudatory characteristics of Bernard Revel, Samuel Belkin, and Norman Lamm, and none of their (minimal) faults.  In a perfect world, he (and she) would possess rabbinic credentials worthy of the Kollel Elyon, academic qualifications that the most pompous Ivy Leaguers would find impressive, and fundraising skills that put Jerry Lewis to shame.  Additionally, this individual would exemplify, all at once, every rabbi, scientist, and layman's personal understanding of the rather nebulous ideal known as Torah U'Madda.

The unfortunate problem, of course, is that no such individual exists, and those who come closest seem uninterested, or unable, to assume Yeshiva's Presidency.  As such, the ideological hand wringing and sky-is-falling pronouncements that met Dov Zakheim's abbreviated candidacy are entirely unfounded.  In the absence of a viable candidate who would satisfy all elements of Yeshiva University - and the loudest complainants against Zakheim have been oddly silent about offering an alternative to him - the insistence upon maintaining a unified Yeshiva Presidency amounts to nothing more than banging our collective heads against a wall of impossible fantasy.

Certainly, the candidacy of Dov Zakheim  - or anybody else - for Yeshiva's Presidency deserves to be debated and discussed.  The Board of Trustees ought to consult, to whatever degree feasible, every element within Yeshiva University's vast constituency before a President is named.  However, the Board cannot handcuff itself by locking itself into a mode of thinking that has yielded a grand total of zero worthy candidates during the twelve months since Rabbi Lamm announced his impending retirement.  It is not the cleaving of G-d's indivisible Oneness that the Board has taken under consideration.  They simply believe that, perhaps, two persons could best meet the diverse, multiple sets of responsibilities that Yeshiva's President is expected to shoulder.