Norman Lamm - WikiHQ

Norman Lamm (December 19, 1927 – May 31, 2020) was an American Modern Orthodox rabbi, scholar, academic administrator, author, and Jewish community leader. He was the Chancellor of Yeshiva University until he announced his retirement on July 1, 2013.

Lamm served as the third President of Yeshiva University, the first to be born in the United States. He was a disciple of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (one of Orthodoxy's most influential modern scholars), who ordained him at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University's rabbinical school in 1951.

Early life and education

Lamm was one of four siblings and grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His father, Samuel, had several different jobs, including as a kosher inspector for New York state. His mother, Pearl (née Baumol), was descended from a respected rabbinic family. In his youth, Lamm attended Mesivta Torah Vodaath in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He attended Yeshiva College, the men's undergraduate school of Yeshiva University, and obtained a degree in chemistry in 1949 before working in a clandestine laboratory in upstate New York developing munitions for the newborn State of Israel. He was the secular studies valedictorian of his graduating class. Lamm later earned a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy from Yeshiva University.

Lamm's maternal grandfather was Rabbi Yehoshua Baumol (1880–1948), who authored the responsa entitled Emek Halakha. In that work, Baumol cited several insights from the then-young Lamm and responded to his questions. It was Baumol who encouraged Lamm to leave Mesivta Torah Vodaath to attend Yeshiva College, where Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik would become his mentor. became an assistant rabbi at the Jewish Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1958; and then the senior rabbi of the Jewish Center from 1959 to 1976. In 1959, he also became a professor in Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University.

Personal life

Lamm was married to Mindella, who died of COVID-19 on April 16, 2020, at the age of 88. In Auslander's book Foreskin's Lament, he calls Lamm "Nathan." Nonetheless, he has worked over the years to keep lines of communication open between Orthodox and Reform Judaism, in the hopes that Jewish unity can be maintained. Lamm was a proponent of working with Reform and Conservative Judaism in the now-defunct Synagogue Council of America.

In a lecture before Klal, a "mixed" group of rabbis, he maintained that non-Orthodox rabbis are "valid" spiritual leaders of their congregants, whereas the Orthodox are "legitimate" religious leaders. "Valid" comes from the Latin word validus which means powerful, strong–and they are certainly strong and influential Jewish leaders who should be respected for their efforts. But only Orthodox rabbis can lay claim to "legitimacy," a word which derives from Latin lex, law. Only one committed fully to the halakha can be considered Jewishly legitimate as a rabbi.

While strongly disagreeing with the theology and religious practices of non-Orthodox forms of Judaism, Lamm was one of the most outspoken leaders in Orthodoxy for cooperation with Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism.

In 1989 and 1990 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir asked Lamm to help defuse the crisis related to the "Who is a Jew?" issue, which had erupted when a Reform convert wanted to make aliyah (emigration to the State of Israel). Lamm devised a solution for the denominational crisis which required delicate diplomacy as well as goodwill on all sides. In response to Lamm's suggestion, Prime Minister Shamir appointed Israeli Cabinet Secretary Elyakim Rubenstein, later a member of the Supreme Court, who negotiated secretly for many months with rabbis from Conservative, Reform and Orthodox Judaism, including faculty at Yeshiva University, with Lamm as Rosh ha-Yeshiva. The plan called for the creation of a joint panel that interviewed people who were converting to Judaism and considering making aliyah (moving) to Israel, and would refer them to a beit din (rabbinic court of Judaism) that would convert the candidate following traditional halakha.

All negotiating parties came to an agreement that: (1) Conversions must be carried out according to halakha, (2) the beit din overseeing the conversion would be Orthodox, perhaps appointed by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and (3) there would be a committee consisting of representatives of all three groups to interview potential converts as to their sincerity. Many Reform rabbis took offense at the notion that the beit din must be strictly halakhic and Orthodox, but they acquiesced. However, when word about this project became public, a number of leading Haredi rabbis issued a statement denouncing the project, condemning it as a "travesty of halakha". Rabbi Moshe Sherer, then the Chairman of Agudath Israel World Organization, stated that "Yes, we played a role in putting an end to that farce, and I'm proud we did." Lamm condemned this interference by Sherer, stating that this was "the most damaging thing that he [Sherer] ever did in his brilliant forty-year career."

Lamm wanted this to be only the beginning of a solution to Jewish disunity. He stated that had this unified conversion plan not been destroyed, he wanted to extend this program to the area of halakhic Jewish divorces, thus ending the problem of mamzerut.

In his speech Seventy Faces, Lamm warns his listeners that there will be an "unbridgeable and cataclysmic rupture within the Jewish community" unless Jews from all the denominations, including Orthodoxy, listen to each other and try to find a way to work together. In this speech (now an essay) he rejects maximal ideas of religious pluralism, especially relativism. He denies that non-Orthodox Jews have halakhic legitimacy, explaining that their views on halakha do not have normative status. However, he goes on to affirm a moderate form of religious pluralism, and holds that Orthodox Jews must accept that non-Orthodox rabbis are valid Jewish leaders, and possess spiritual dignity. He holds that marriages that are officiated at by non-Orthodox Jews can be halakhically-valid if conducted in accordance with Jewish law, but not so non-Orthodox divorces (which require a beit din). Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews must find ways to work together.

Views on abiogenesis, evolution and science

Originally trained as a scientist, Lamm maintained an interest in the interface between science and Judaism. In his 1971 essay "The religious implications of extraterrestrial life," Lamm writes about scientific developments concerning abiogenesis and evolution, the creation of life on Earth, and the then-developing scientific consensus that life could possibly evolve on other planets outside of the Solar System (i.e. extraterrestrial life). He writes:

:... the fact remains that most of the highly respected scientists of our day, eminent in their fields, do believe that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe...

:No religious position is loyally served by refusing to consider annoying theories which may well turn out to be facts. Torah is "a Torah of truth," and to hide from the facts is to distort that truth into a myth. Of course, it must be repeated that the theories here under discussion have not (yet) been established as true. But they may be: and Judaism will then have to confront them as it has confronted what men have considered the truth throughout the generations.

:Maimonides, over eight centuries ago, was faced with the widely accepted Aristotelian theory of the eternity of the universe, which ostensibly contradicted the Biblical conception of creation in time. Maimonides demonstrated that Aristotle had not conclusively proved the eternity of matter and that since eternity and creation were philosophically equally acceptable alternatives, he preferred to accept creation since this theory was the one apparently taught in Genesis. Nevertheless, Maimonides averred, were the Aristotelian theory convincingly proven, he would have accepted it and reinterpreted the verses in Genesis to accommodate the theory of the eternity of matter.

:It is this kind of position which honest men, particularly honest believers in God and Torah, must adopt at all times, and especially in our times. Conventional dogmas, even if endowed with the authority of an Aristotle – ancient or modern – must be tested vigorously. If they are found wanting, we need not bother with them. But if they are found to be substantially correct, we may not overlook them. We must then use the newly discovered truths the better to truly understand our Torah – the "Torah of truth."

Lamm's writings on this subject are prominently featured in the "What Is Out There?" featurette, on disk two of the two-disc special edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This featurette offers the views of various scientists and philosophers on the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Writings

Lamm was the author of 10 books, and edited or co-edited over 20 volumes. and was succeeded by Richard Joel, who became the fourth President of Yeshiva University and the first layman to hold the office. Joel is a former attorney who also led the Bnai Brith's international Hillel student organization. Joel had previously been associate dean and professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo Law School, and was an assistant district attorney in New York City.

Upon his retirement as president, Lamm was given the position of Chancellor of Yeshiva University. He maintained his title as Rosh HaYeshiva ("head of the yeshiva") of Yeshiva University's rabbinical school, RIETS for an additional ten years. After retirement Lamm left the spotlight of communal life. According to a family member Lamm suffered from an illness that affected his memory.

Awards

1999: National Jewish Books Award in the Jewish Thought category for The Religious Thought of Hasidism: Text and Commentary

References

Works by Lamm

Menachem Mendel Kasher, Norman Lamm, Leonard Rosenfeld (Editors). Leo Jung Jubilee Volume Essays in Honor on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday. N.Y.: The Jewish Center Synagogue, 1962.
Norman Lamm, The Royal Reach, (Feldheim, 1970)
Norman Lamm, A Hedge of Roses: Jewish Insights Into Marriage, (Feldheim, 1977)
Norman Lamm The Religious Implications of Extra-Terrestrial Life, Chapter 5 of Faith and Doubt - Studies in Traditional Jewish Thought, (New York, Ktav, 1971)
"תורה לשמה במשנת ר חיים מוולוזין ובמחשבת הדור" Mossad Horav Kuk, Jerusalem, 1971.
Norman Lamm, Faith and Doubt: Studies in Traditional Jewish Thought, Ktav; 2nd edition 1986, ; 3rd Augmented Edition, 2006.
Norman Lamm, Seventy Faces: Divided we stand, but its time to try an idea that might help us stand taller, Moment Vol. II, No. 6, June 1986 - Sivan 5746
Norman Lamm, Torah Lishmah: Torah for Torah's Sake : In the Works of Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin and His Contemporaries, (Ktav, 1989).
Norman Lamm, Torah Umadda: The Encounter of Religious Learning and Worldly Knowledge in the Jewish Tradition, Jason Aronson, 1990 .
Norman Lamm, 'Halakhot Va-halikhot', Mosad ha-Rav Kuk, 1990.
Norman Lamm, The Religious Thought of Hasidism: Text and Commentary, Michael Scharf Publication Trust of Yeshiva University, 1999, .
Norman Lamm, The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism, Jewish Publication Society of America, 2000, .
Lamm's response to Noah Feldman's July 22, 2007, New York Times Magazine essay "Orthodox Paradox" was published on August 2, 2007. Lamm's article, "A Response to Noah Feldman," was published at the website: http://www.forward.com/articles/11308/
Norman Lamm, Torah Umadda: The Encounter of Religious Learning and Worldly Knowledge in the Jewish Tradition, 20th Anniversary Edition with a New Preface and an Afterword by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Maggid Books (a division of Koren Publishers Jerusalem), 2010 .
Norman Lamm, "The Royal Table: A Passover Haggadah", (OU Press, New York, 2010) .
Norman Lamm, "Festivals of Faith: Reflections on the Jewish Holidays", (Ou Press & Yeshiva University Press, New York, 2011) .

Articles by Lamm

HaPardes, No. 28, Vol. 11 August 1954: בדין מצות עשה להתפלל בכל יום
HaDarom, No. 23 1966: הערה לענין תשעה-באב בימי בית שני
HaDarom, No. 32 : בענין מצות קידוש
HaPardes, November 1977: ברירה ורשות
HaPardes, October 1983: דיני ממונות בשלשה
HaPardes, No. 58 Vol. 5 February 1984: החסיד המעולה וראש הישיבה (Eulogy for Rabbi Yerucham Gorelick)
Bais Yitzchok, 1985: בדין לבישת בגדי כהונה שלא בשעת עבודה
HaPardes, March 1985: ברוך שם כבוד לעולם מלכותו ועד
Sermon anthology of the RCA Vol. 44 (1986): Notes of An Unrepentant Darshan
Sermon anthology of the RCA Vol. 44 (1986): There Is A Prophet in Israel
Sermon anthology of the RCA Vol. 44 (1986): The Leaning Jews of America
HaPardes, May 1986: לענין ספירת העומר
Bais Yitzchok, 1987: קריאת שם הולד על שם אדם חי
HaPardes, May 1987: אין קידוש אלא במקום סעודה
HaPardes, April 1988: צדקה וחסד
HaPardes, July 1992: כעס בהלכה ובמוסד היהדות
HaPardes, November 1993: הכרת הטוב בהלכה
HaPardes, June 1994: מודה במקצת הטענה ישבע
HaPardes, April 1995: כהן בעל תשובה שהרג את הנפש ועע"ז
HaPardes, May 1995: דין כהן שהרג את הנפש אם ומתי מותר לו לישא

External links

Yeshiva University: The Lamm Heritage
Yeshiva University: Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary - Rabbi Norman Lamm Kollel (Yadin Yadin)
Lamm and controversy over gays at YU schools (1995)
Lamm's Eulogy for Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin (1995)
with President Norman Lamm (1999)
Seventy Faces: Divided we stand, but its time to try an idea that might help us stand taller
Interview with Rabbi Lamm about Torah Umadda
Lamm Legacy Archives