Yeshiva Holds Quadrennial Chag HaSemikha

Lamm Galvanizes Crowd, Urges Unity

By Dovid Rosen

In an address widely viewed as an emphatic statement of opposition to the ascension of Dov Zakheim to the presidency of Yeshiva, which would have effectively split the roles of President of the University and Rosh HaYeshiva of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, President and Rosh HaYeshiva Dr. Noman Lamm spoke powerfully for maintaining a united university at the quadrennial Chag HaSemikha in Lamport Auditorium on Sunday, March 10th.  Heated reactions to Rabbi Lamm’s speech continued well into the final portion of the general celebration, a reception for the new musmakhim, their friends, and family in Belfer Commons.  Despite Zakheim’s recent withdrawal from consideration as a candidate, Lamm’s arguments have been viewed by many as highly germane to the ongoing selection process as a whole.

Although the Chag was geared toward the musmakhim, most conversations in the auditorium and at the reception focused on Rabbi Lamm’s address, which he delivered upon receiving the second ever Aluf Torah Award, presented in memory or Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik.  To thunderous applause throughout, including an extended standing ovation at one point, Rabbi Lamm intertwined words of Torah, advice to the new musmakhim, and spent significant time outlining the importance of a united future between RIETS and the University.

Playing upon the wording of the Torah in Parshas Terumah, “and the Tabernacle was one,” the outgoing president of Yeshiva stressed that the unity evident in Judaism should exist in the University as well.  “Legally RIETS and the university are separate, and we must obey the law,” he said dryly. “But spiritually we have always understood that it is one, cohesive unit.”  He continued by underscoring that each half without the other would be as good as nonexistent.  “RIETS is the neshamah, the soul, and without which the university is but a corpse,” he declared. “And RIETS without YU as its body is but a ghost.”

The general response to Rabbi Lamm’s lecture—both in the auditorium during the speech and thereafter—was positive and supportive.  Rabbi Chaim Bronstein, Administrator of RIETS, construed the remarks as an obvious continuation of Rabbi Lamm’s explicit imploration of those in charge to seek out one leader for Yeshiva and the rabbinic seminary, an plea made both at the Hanukkah Convocation and the annual RIETS dinner.  Bronstein also noted that the response was not just in the seats, but “also on the platform,” referring to the RIETS board members, administration, and faculty.

The action of several students at the Chag underscores the degree to which members of the student body feel passionately about maintaining a “unified presidency.”  Billing themselves as the Student Organization for the Preservation of a Unified Yeshiva Presidency, they handed out flyers calling for an on-campus protest during club-hour on Thursday against separating the presidency and Rosh HaYeshiva of RIETS.

“We believe that the presidency of YU and RIETS must remain one, based on the model of scholarship and rabbinic leadership of set by Rabbis Revel, Belkin and Lamm,” asserted Yeshiva College Junior Yoel Oz, co-char of the organization along with Benyamin Ron and Avi Robinson.  “At 1970 Chag HaSemikah Rabbi Solovietchik called for a reverse in the trend of secularization at yeshiva, raising concerns about who the possible successor of President Belkin would be.  Today we are facing the same predicament,” he warned. 

Rabbi Yosef Blau, Yeshiva’s Mashgiach Ruchani, commented that Rabbi Lamm was “willing to express his views courageously, despite not feeling well.”  Moreover, he explained, “the Nasi and Rosh HaYeshiva for the past 25 years could have chosen to not worry about the future, having already given his entire adult life to the yeshiva, but Rabbi Lamm did so anyway out of love for the institution that bears his mark as much as anyone else’s.”  The mashgiach did stress, however, that in his view Rabbi Lamm was not attacking anyone specifically, but rather “presenting an image of where he thinks Yeshiva should head, against a proposal which on its surface changes the nature of the yeshiva.”

Some who heard the speech were not as impressed, however.  One YC Senior contended that in all probability the search committee’s actions are made with Rabbi Lamm’s oversight, or at least his implicit approval.  Therefore, unless he states explicitly to the contrary, “we are left to assume [that Dov Zakheim’s possible nomination] is embossed with the stamp of his model of Torah U’Madda.”

Still others criticized the address from another angle. Rabbi Moshe Tendler, Rosh Yeshiva and Rabbi Issac and Bella Tendler Chair in Jewish Medical Ethics, pointed out that a community consensus warrants Rabbi Lamm’s unity plea, but it’s “very important to underline the difficulty with some of our estranged brethren, especially in light of [this past Sunday’s] New York Times article, showing how they are denigrating the Torah by relegating it to a myth.”

Despite the limited criticism, though, Lamm’s speech seemed to resonate in his audience as an enduring message.  “Rabbi Lamm was referring to the entire process,” said one Yeshiva student, following news of Zakheim’s withdrawal.  “Just because it no longer applies to Zakheim doesn’t mean that it no longer stands.  The Board should realize that any candidate it puts forward who jeopardizes the unity of Yeshiva will meet the same protest.”