Volume 67, Issue 8

On Modern Orthodox Rabbinical Schools

by Rabbi Nati Helfgot

The Commentator is to be commended for attempting to explore the options currently available here in the U.S. to a Modern Orthodox college graduate who wants to pursue a career in the rabbinate. The survey article describing the programs offered at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School (YCT) contained useful and factual information. The article also contained some criticisms directed at RIETS and YCT. This per se does not trouble me. Constructive criticism, lovingly and supportively offered, is always welcome and any institution, especially one guided by a sense of mission to serve the Jewish people and kiddush shem shamayim, should always be willing to look inward to improve and grow. Unfortunately, at the same time the lengthy essay was marred by a number of factual inaccuracies, impressionistic comments based on no first-hand knowledge of the program and people at YCT (the author, unfortunately, did not spend any time sitting in the Beit Medrash, shiurim or classes), as well as some mean-spirited comments by people the author himself terms “detractors” of YCT hiding behind the cover of anonymity. (As a former editor of Hamevaser, I was troubled by the willingness of the writer and editors to include anonymous critiques which betray a halakhic, intellectual and moral cowardice of not willing to actually stand behind one's views. I was always under the impression that people who voice critiques should only be allowed to remain anonymous when there is real danger that they will suffer some financial, career or personal harm from their words.)

Let me briefly respond to a number of the errors and impressionistic comments contained in the article.

1.YCT is not “affiliated” with Edah either organizationally or financially. YCT is a rabbinical school while Edah is an advocacy and communal organization.  People affiliated with a whole host of Modern Orthodox institutions and organizations including Yeshiva College, Stern College, Revel,Yeshivat Har Eztion,Ramaz, Edah and the R.C.A., have in the past taught or currently teach shiurim and courses at YCT on a regular basis.

2. YCT's Beit Medrash is open every night for night seder. In recognition of the fact that many of our students are married and do not live in the area, as well as have other educational obligations, we only require mandatory attendance in our Beit Medrash one night a week. As the Yeshiva grows in the next two years we hope to expand that requirement as well. Our regular program, however goes from 9:00-6:15 every day for all of our students and not just for those in a kollel program.

3.   My good friend, Rabbi Jeremy Wieder, is quoted as saying “We want to produce talmidei chachamim, they want to produce pulpit rabbis. The serious issue is the implication that one might aim to produce pulpit rabbis without being concerned that they are talmidei chachamim.” If the quote is accurate, I imagine that R. Wieder, (who has also not visited our Beit Medrash or sat in on our shiurim, though our invitation to him and all the other Roshei Yeshiva at MYP/RIETS, many of whom are valued teachers and close friends, remains open) is either misinformed or was overcome by rhetorical exuberance that was off the mark. Firstly, I believe that both R. Wieder and I would agree that completing a three or four year semikha program together with graduate school and life responsibilities hardly qualifies one to be called a talmid chacham in the classical definition of the term. We at YCT certainly encourage our students to work to become talmidei chachamim and the heavy concentration on Gemara and Halakha that is the heart of the program, as anyone visiting our halls will see, attests to that. Many students specifically chose YCT because of our intensive and systematic Halakha program with its systematic curriculum, guided learning and high level shiurim. Let me add that a number of YCT students recently took the Yoreh Deah bekhinot of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in addition to the regular yeshiva tests. These tests are generally considered the most difficult and demanding semikha assessments in the world, with a passing rate of approximately sixty percent. Every single YCT student who took the rabbinate test passed.

YCT is a full four year semikha program in which there are no shortcuts. A student is obligated to learn for a full four years, including during the two years when internships are undertaken. Internships are scheduled for shabbatot and one afternoon or evening a week. The student is learning full-time during all four years, not working full time in his last year. In addition, there is no semikha credit given for shana bet in Israel after high school or the senior year in college, even if the student is learning half-time. Preparation for the rabbinate and growing in learning demands full-time focus and effort.

I would at the same time add that while we both aspire to produce talmidei chachamim, we may slightly differ on the exact parameters of what that ideal type should look like. To use R. Wieder's metaphor we too concentrate on the essence of the cake but we want a multi-layered confection that gives pride of place to Gemara and Halakha, but also includes serious Tanakh, Mahshava and pastoral training as integral parts of the curriculum. I think a more apt distinction between the two institutions might be that RIETS's curriculum seeks as one of its primary goals to produce Roshei Yeshiva in the classical Lithuanian mode whose concentration is solely on Gemara and Lomdus. YCT is focused on training broadly learned Torah scholars who are also professionally trained and sensitive Modern Orthodox communal rabbanim.

We at YCT have tried to be open to hearing the diversity of opinion within our community, and sometimes even beyond our Modern Orthodox bailiwick both to the right and the left. In my two years at YCT we have been graced with shiurim and lectures from a wide range of prominent American and Israeli Roshei Yeshivot, Pulpit Rabbis,

Academics, Chassidic and Hareidi rabbanim and teachers, women scholars and educators, and prominent lay people reflecting a spectrum of hashkafot. We will continue to give access to the range of voices in our community in order to educate our young men in Torah, Hashkafah and the realities of the current Jewish community. The only voices that have been missing are those that have themselves consciously chosen not to accept invitations to share Torah and ideas with our students. We continue to offer an open invitation to any rebbeim, educators and laypeople who would like to visit and share in our community of learning.

 4. Finally, a word to the “anonymous detractors” who chose to conflate the work of YCT with other organizations and tar it with criticism of this or that person's sound bite. Any serious student of halakha and p'sak, of course, recognizes that the dictum “when there is a rabbinic will there is a rabbinic way” while  true in some specific cases, is a gross overgeneralization and can lead to a distortion of the halakhic process. YCT is committed to the integrity of the halakhic process and educates to fealty to that process, as anyone visiting Rav Dov Linzer's or Rav Yaacov Love's Hilkhot Shabbat shiur can attest to. At the same time we are in favor of exploring all legitimate avenues within the tradition and the potential inherent in the sources to address the challenges that we face as modern-orthodox Jews and rabbis. As I stated at the opening session of an Orthodox Forum, convened by RIETS-MSDCS, that I chaired a number of years back, the real question we need to address is "when there is a legitimate rabbinic way is there a corresponding rabbinic will?" which is a wholly different matter that requires much more discussion than afforded in the context of this essay. 

While reflecting on real or perceived ideological battles and internal disputes, a broader perspective must certainly be kept in mind. Klal Yisrael is in dire straits and needs as many talented people as possible to go into the field in any capacity. Ultimately that must be the primary focus of all of our efforts. Yes, there are subtle differences between our rabbinical schools, but that should be celebrated, not viewed as a source of friction. In the ultimate scheme of things, that which unites us, far far outweighs whatever divides us. Mir and Ner Yisrael are all under the rubric of Hareidi Yeshivot though they may differ on major hashkafic issues such as the permissibility of attending college; Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh and Yeshivat Kibbutz ha-Dati are both religious Zionist yeshivot, though they differ in curricular emphasis, use of academic Talmud in the regular shiurim and attitudes towrds full army sevice in the IDF. The same should hold true for the relationship between the nuances that exist within serious Modern or Centrist Orthodoxy. As Dr. Lamm put it so well in an address in 1997: “More prevalent and more disturbing is another phenomenon that plagues us (in the Modern Orthodox community): an ideological fastidiousness, a spiritual squeamishness, such as that the slightest ideological deviation or legitimate difference in halakhic or theological decision is considered anathema and the cause of deliberate alienation. This is an attitude which betrays a curious and paradoxical mixture of arrogant self-righteousness-and a shocking lack of self-confidence...In order for us to succeed, we have to deserve to succeed-and that means to regard each other with respect and affection in a spirit of mutual dedication to the cause of Torah generally and the cause of Torah U'Maddah specifically...May we here initiate the beginnings of such an era of enlightened leadership for the entire Modern Orthodox community. And may it be a community of genuine friendship, one which avows that such friendship does not require agreement on every detail.” (Seventy Faces, Vol 1, pp. 66-7).

Rabbi Helfgot, Chair of the Tanakh and Mahshevet Yisrael Depts. at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, is a graduate of MTA '81, Yeshiva College '85, RIETS '89, and Azrieli '89. R. Helfgot was editor of Hamevaser, Beis Yitzchok, and Rinat Yitzhak during his tenure at Yeshiva College and RIETS. He currently serves on the executive committee of the Orthodox Forum, the plenum of the Orthodox Caucus, and the education committee of the Religious Zionists of America.¨

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