The Conceptual

Approach to Jewish
Learning
edited by
Yosef Blau
Robert S. Hirt, Series Editor

THE MICHAEL SCHARF PUBLICATION TRUST

of the YESHIVA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK

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 THE ORTHODOX FORUM

The Orthodox Forum, convened by Dr. Norman Lamm, Chancel-

lor of Yeshiva University, meets each year to consider major issues
of concern to the Jewish community. Forum participants from
throughout the world, including academicians in both Jewish and
secular fields, rabbis, rashei yeshiva, Jewish educators, and Jewish
communal professionals, gather in conference as a think tank to
discuss and critique each other’s original papers, examining different
aspects of a central theme. The purpose of the Forum is to create
and disseminate a new and vibrant Torah literature addressing the
critical issues facing Jewry today.

The Orthodox Forum

gratefully acknowledges the support
of the Joseph J. and Bertha K. Green Memorial Fund
at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

The Orthodox Forum Series

is a project of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary,
an affiliate of Yeshiva University

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 Copyright © 2006 Yeshiva University Press

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Orthodox Forum (11th: 1999 : Congregation Shearith Israel, New York, NY)
The conceptual approach to Jewish learning / edited by Yosef Blau.
p. cm. – (The Orthodox Forum series)
Proceedings of a conference held at Congregation Shearith Israel,
New York, N.Y., March 14–15, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88125-907-1
1. Judaism – Study and teaching – Congresses. 2. Jewish religious education –
Teaching methods – Congresses. 3. Jews – Education – Congresses. 4. Jewish
learning and scholarship – Congresses. I. Blau, Yosef. II. Title. III. Series.
BM71.O78 2005
296.6’8 – dc22 2005027025

This book was typeset by Jerusalem Typesetting, www.jerusalemtype.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

Published by
KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
930 Newark Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Email: orders@ktav.com
www.ktav.com
(201) 963-9524
FAX (201) 963-0102

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 Contents

Contributors viii
Series Editor’s Introduction xi
Preface xiii
Yosef Blau

1 The Conceptual Approach to Torah Learning: The Method

and Its Prospects 1
Aharon Lichtenstein
2 The Impact of Lomdut and Its Partial Reversal 45
Yosef Blau
3 Polyphonic Diversity and Military Music 55
Shalom Carmy
4 Lomdut and Pesak: Theoretical Analysis and Halakhic
Decision-Making 87
J. David Bleich
5 The Brisker Derekh and Pesak Halakhah 115
Mordechai Willig
6 Conceptual Approach to Learning and Hinnukh 131
Yosef Adler
7 The Role of Lomdut in Jewish Education 145
Jeremy Wieder

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 8 “What” Hath Brisk Wrought: The Brisker Derekh Revisited 167
Mosheh Lichtenstein
9 Reflections on the Conceptual Approach to Talmud Torah 189
Michael Rosensweig
10 From Reb Hayyim and the Rav to Shi’urei ha-Rav Aharon
Lichtenstein – The Evolution of a Tradition of Learning 229
Elyakim Krumbein
11 The Brisker Method and Close Reading – Response to Rav
Elyakim Krumbein 299
Avraham Walfish
12 Beyond Complexity – Response to Rav Avraham Walfish 323
Elyakim Krumbein
The Orthodox Forum Eleventh Conference
List of Participants 333
Index 337

Editor’s Note: At times, we have used the term Lomdus rather than
Lamdanot to describe erudition, as it is popular common usage.

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 Other Volumes in the Orthodox Forum Series

Rabbinic Authority and Personal Autonomy

edited by Moshe Z. Sokol
Jewish Tradition and the Non-Traditional Jew
edited by Jacob J. Schacter
Israel as a Religious Reality
edited by Chaim I. Waxman
Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah:
Contributions and Limitations
edited by Shalom Carmy
Tikkun Olam:
Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law
edited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman,
and Nathan J. Diament
Engaging Modernity:
Rabbinic Leaders and the Challenge of the Twentieth Century
edited by Moshe Z. Sokol

Jewish Perspectives on the Experience of Suffering

edited by Shalom Carmy

Jewish Business Ethics:

The Firm and Its Stockholders
edited by Aaron Levine and Moses Pava

Tolerance, Dissent and Democracy:

Philosophical, Historical and Halakhic Perspectives
edited by Moshe Z. Sokol

Jewish Spirituality and Divine Law

edited by Adam Mintz and Lawrence Schiffman

Formulating Responses in an Egalitarian Age

edited by Marc D. Stern

Judaism, Science And Moral Responsibility

edited by Yitzhak Berger and David Shatz

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 2
The Impact of Lomdut and
Its Partial Reversal
Yosef Blau

Starting with the shi’urim of Rav Hayyim zt”l in Volozhin, lomdut

(analysis) became the dominant approach to Talmudic study in the
Lithuanian yeshivot and in those modeled after them in Israel and
the United States. Since the Talmud scholar has traditionally been
the model of a religious personality in Orthodox Judaism, this
change had enormous influence on the observant community. Its
impact has been felt on all levels of Jewish education including those
schools that now exist for women. Jewish observance that reflected
this rational analysis became more precise and rational.
In recent years there has been a partial reversal within the ye-
shiva world as the rigor required to be successful in learning clashed
with the growing numbers expected to remain in yeshiva settings.
Precision in analysis is difficult and only a few will be successful us-
ing this methodology. With the transfer of the world of the yeshiva
from Eastern Europe to the United States and Israel, students com-
ing from a radically different educational and cultural background
45

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 46 Yosef Blau

make up the student body and rabbinical faculty of the yeshivot. This
radical shift in preparation, coupled with the increase in numbers of
students in yeshivot affects the methods used in instruction.
As opportunities to receive university level education opened
to Jews, traditional religious studies were seen by many as inferior.
The emergence of analysis instead of association and memorization
in Talmudic study enabled the world of yeshivot to better respond
to the challenge. Clearly there was much reasoning in traditional
learning, but the perception that this new approach was more precise
and rigorous was widespread. Rav Hayyim had a consistent meth-
odology, which controlled the kind of analysis that was acceptable.
While others shared many of his specific insights, they also suggested
many different approaches to the texts that he never would have
even considered.
While there was opposition from some major Torah scholars,
the new approach rapidly became the norm in the Lithuanian yeshi-
vot. Pupils of Rav Hayyim Soloveitchik became the rashei yeshivah
in Kamenitz, Slabodka and Slutzk. In Telshe, a similar methodology
prevailed. The most outstanding students in the Mir were sent to
study privately with Rav Hayyim’s sons.
During the generation after Rav Hayyim, the acceptance of his
close students as rashei yeshivah is particularly significant, because
they were neither sons nor sons-in-laws of the previous rashei
yeshivah, the usual practice in the yeshiva world. In general, when
intellectual creativity becomes the measure of achievement, family
background becomes less important than ability. This introduced a
democratic component to selecting leadership. Stress on excelling
intellectually opened up leadership to the able, creating a meritoc-
racy. After one generation, the old system of yeshiva leadership being
inherited began to reassert itself.
The period when this new approach to learning emerged, the
latter half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twen-
tieth, was one of change in the primary educational system. The tra-
ditional hadarim were attacked both by internal and external forces.
Both the government and Jewish maskilim criticized the method
of teaching as well as the content of instruction. In the twentieth

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 The Impact of Lomdut and Its Partial Reversal 47

century, among the new types of schools that were founded were
Orthodox schools under the auspices of both Agudah and Mizrachi
that differed from the old hadarim. It is not clear whether the new
approach to learning played a significant role in this change.1
The Lithuanian yeshivot were elitist and students entered with
a strong foundation of extensive knowledge of Talmud and Torah
she-Bikhtav. The major figures in the development of lomdut were
products of the old traditional educational system. This background
made the new approach intellectually appealing as a contrast to
the way that they had learned previously. Some of the subsequent
criticism of over intellectualization based on limited knowledge of
sources that resonate in today’s world may not have been relevant to
people who had been brought up using the old style of learning.
The goals of these creative minds were to understand the
inner meaning of the sources. There was no conscious effort to
demonstrate that Torah studies could compete with scientific ones.
Nevertheless, the fact that this internal revolution occurred when
opportunities opened for Jews to gain entrance to universities and
that the new approached kept many involved with Torah studies, has
great significance. The great yeshiva in Volozhin was also a major
source of maskilim and the intellectual excitement associated with
the new approach to learning kept many of the top minds in the
world of Torah.2
Adherents of lomdut, as this method of analysis is known, dif-
fer on virtually every other issue facing Orthodox Jewry. The gap
between the attitude of descendents of Rav Velvel and the views of
the Rav about secular studies and the state of Israel is enormous.
Nevertheless, there is a common perspective on the need to make
these judgments on rational halakhic terms.3 Differences on how to
respond to modernity, as fundamental as they are, should not pre-
vent people from appreciating the common elements in the religious
mentality of those who have adopted this methodology.
It is important to acknowledge that despite the impact of Rav
Hayyim and his methodology, many Talmudic scholars continued
to learn using more traditional styles. Rav Henoch Eiges in the
introduction of his Marheshet (published in 1931) defends the old

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 48 Yosef Blau

method of learning. The critique of Rav Hayyim’s classic work on the

Rambam by the Hazon Ish fundamentally reflects a totally different
mentality. As the Hazon Ish became accepted as the key halakhic
figure in Israel, his works became more and more prominent.
The difficulty in maintaining the level of creativity necessary to
innovate using analysis, is clearly reflected in the various versions
of Brisk in Yerushalayim where descendents of Rav Velvel repeat
his analyses and do not say any new ideas of their own. While not
the same phenomenon, it is clear that many of the disciples of the
Rav, who quote much of his Torah in their lectures, use a different
approach to learning then he did and stress different goals. The vast
majority of halakhic works that appear today though, are collections
of earlier material and make no attempt to be original. There is a
perception that little can be added to the existing corpus of “Brisker”
Torah.
On the surface there is no connection between the methodol-
ogy of learning in the Lithuanian yeshivot and women’s education.
When Rav Hayyim introduced his analytic method in Volozhin,
there were no Jewish schools for girls. According to Halakhic Man
however, this mode of thinking reflects a total approach to religious
life. When Jewish girls in Eastern Europe began to get a secular
education, the traditional model of informal education from mother
to daughter no longer sufficed. Any new model of formal educa-
tion had to be rigorous enough to counter the attractiveness of the
secular schools.
In America, where the law mandates schooling until the age
of sixteen and it is difficult to maintain any employment without a
high school diploma, Jewish Day Schools for girls had to provide
more extensive Judaic learning. In Modern Orthodox circles where
young women go to college and often pursue advanced degrees, the
need exists to further upgrade women’s Jewish education. It should
not be surprising that women are introduced to logical analysis in
their studies. This is essentially the rationale for adding the study
of Talmud to their curriculum and for advanced study of Torah she-
Bikhtav and Halakhah.
In the United States, first Rav Shlomo Polatchik, a close pupil

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 The Impact of Lomdut and Its Partial Reversal 49

of Rav Hayyim, and later his descendants said the highest shi’ur in
Yeshiva University and the leading figures in other yeshivot also
reflected a similar approach. Even on the elementary level in the
United States, where most had been receiving minimal Jewish educa-
tion, the day school movement could easily adopt new educational
models. With the exception of Hasidic schools, the new schools at-
tempted to teach Talmudic analysis in some form. In contrast with
Eastern Europe, the American yeshivot were open to almost all those
who were interested. The educational background of the students,
graduates of day schools that combine Judaic and secular studies in
one school, could not duplicate the quantity of Torah knowledge
that had been taught in Europe.
Orthodoxy in the United States during the first half of the
twentieth century was in serious decline. The children of Eastern
European immigrants in their desire to acclimatize to American
society dropped many observances that caused them to feel differ-
ent and identified with Conservative and Reform congregations.
The afternoon Hebrew schools, which followed a full day in public
school, did not attract them. Whatever observances did remain
reflected nostalgia and had no inner coherence.
An Orthodoxy that was coherent and based on a profound un-
derstanding of sources could compete more successfully. Education
had been the path that enabled Jews to become accepted in Ameri-
can society. Jewish graduates of City College went on to become doc-
tors, lawyers, scientists and mathematicians. Academic achievement
by Jews were seen as our special contribution to America. Only an
approach to Judaism that could demonstrate that Torah and obser-
vance when understood properly were intellectually equal to science
could reverse the trend. The analytic method as personified by the
Rav zt”l played a critical role in Orthodoxy’s revival.
The Rav was on many levels the key figure in transmitting the
analytic method in this country. He expressed, both orally and in
his writings,4 his concern that Judaism was perceived as customs
and traditions not rooted in Halakhah. His public shi’urim often
focused on prayer and blessings, topics that had been neglected in
scholarly circles. He would analyze customs, demonstrating that

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 50 Yosef Blau

they were rooted in halakhic sources and their rationality. In the

Halakhah sheets given to the teachers at the Maimonides school, the
kindergarten teachers were instructed to differentiate between the
biblical obligation of hearing the sound of the shofar and the custom
of dipping an apple in honey. The approach he used to assure the
revival of Jewish observance in America was to influence the young
by appealing to their intellect. Demonstrating that Talmudic study
was as profound as nuclear physics was his counter attack on the
attraction of secularism.
Disciples of the Rav dominate the rabbinical faculty at Yeshiva
University as well as the synagogue rabbinate and the Modern Or-
thodox intelligentsia; his ideas dominate their thinking. The rejuve-
nation of Orthodoxy in America was primarily due to his influence.
Even though there is much disagreement between people who claim
to speak in his name, it is clear that they all feel the need to reflect
their connection to him and his heritage. On some level, he did
influence their thinking and sense of Orthodox Judaism.
The impact of the new method of Talmudic analysis on Ameri-
can Orthodoxy has not been limited to the Modern Orthodox. The
great figures of the traditional yeshivot also reflected the impact
of Rav Hayyim. While not many understood his shi’urim, which
were very complex, Rav Aharon Kotler’s leadership reflects wide
recognition of his brilliance. During the early years of his yeshiva
in Lakewood, he was quoted as saying that understanding one shi’ur
was equivalent to learning eighteen two sided pages of Gemara. Even
today before going to learn in Lakewood, the outstanding students
spend years studying in one of the branches of Brisk in Jerusalem.
Rav Aharon’s leading role in revitalizing the traditional world
produced both increased commitments to full time Torah studies
and a rejection of modernity. He consciously modeled his yeshiva
in Lakewood on the yeshiva he headed in Kletzk. If the old ways are
to be preferred, then a return to stressing memorization and opposi-
tion to any educational innovations that could be labeled ‘modern’
became the basis for the heder school in Lakewood. Recently, other
elementary schools promoted as more religious have been founded
in the same mold.

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 The Impact of Lomdut and Its Partial Reversal 51

Paradoxically, the incredible success of the Lakewood yeshiva

and kollel, which together now include thousands, has produced a
gigantic study hall without any methodology of study. The analytic
approach that requires critical thinking does not lend itself to mass
learning. It has become impossible to restrict the beit midrash only
to the gifted.
While his influence was enormous, the Rav, in a little known
article,5 acknowledged the limitations of only reaching the intellect
and saw it as his failure. He saw an intellectual connection to Torah
as the critical initial level of religious development, but if it fails to
lead to an existential awareness, as leading to distortions. Without
this internalized experience of Torah, one will not develop a sense
of perspective, which leads to either excessive extremism or to com-
promises of principles. The Rav admitted that he had been unable
to transmit to his pupils his inner religious sensibility.
It is likely that this did not reflect personal weakness, but the
limit of transmitting Judaism purely through the mind. The im-
pact of a Judaism that has been taught but that is removed from a
transmitted tradition has already been analyzed fully by Dr. Hyam
Soloveitchik in his seminal article in Tradition.6 This critique of
the limited impact intellectual analysis can have on a full religious
life, without it being clearly articulated, is much of the basis for the
counter-revolution that is occurring.
Within the sphere of primary and secondary education, the
influence of analysis has decreased in the Jewish Day Schools in
an analogous manner to the failure of new educational theories
in the public schools. The “new math” which tried to replace the
traditional memorization with understanding the underlying logic
of mathematics was a dismal failure. Elementary and high school
teachers were asked to teach concepts they did not truly understand.
Almost all youngsters can memorize, but only some could follow the
concepts and even fewer had any sense of why they were learning
them.
Similarly, a rebbe teaching a concept of Rav Hayyim to a boy
who cannot read the Gemara will not be successful. Technical skills
will inevitably be neglected and answers given for questions that

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 52 Yosef Blau

were not themselves understood. Without the traditional foundation,

success in learning was achieved only by the few, with many of the
others disliking the Talmud that they were studying. It is likely that
requiring all to master Talmud, which was never a goal in earlier
times, would have produced the same problem if another method
was used to teach. Following the analogy with the “new math,” many
students hated math taught the old way and failed at memorization,
yet the response to dissatisfaction with the new approach was a call
to return to the old ways.
The two most significant events that occurred in Jewish history
in this century, the Holocaust and the return of Jews to their home-
land through the existence of the state of Israel have impacted on the
nature of Jews sense of their religion. The impossibility of rationally
understanding the Holocaust, coupled with the Nazis emerging in
Germany, the country most associated with culture and science,
has led to a more emotional, mystical Judaism. Attempts to explain
that there were terrible faults of the victims that would justify the
lack of Divine intervention have not been satisfying and to some
of us repugnant. The faith that remains is a faith not buttressed by
rational explanations.
One can understand the attempt by the survivors to reconstruct
the lost Jewish world of Europe. This idealizing of the past comes
with a rejection of anything modern. While Rav Hayyim is clearly
included, his method of learning is seen as simply part of the tradi-
tion and any suggestion that a radical transformation of learning
occurred is denied.
The sense of the miraculous accompanying the birth and sur-
vival of Israel accompanied by the return of Jews from all parts of the
exile has created a messianic fervor. Mysticism has flourished, with
a growing interest in kabbalah. There clearly is a highly intellectual
mysticism, but what is popular is a simplistic magical folk religion.
It is not a time where calm rational analyses tend to dominate. Israeli
yeshivot often focus on Jewish thought, with the mystical writings
of Rav Kook and the Maharal the focus. The phrase “Torat Eretz
Yisrael” of Rav Kook has become a justification for less focus on he
study of Talmud. American students who study in Israel return with

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 The Impact of Lomdut and Its Partial Reversal 53

increased religious commitment and devotion to learning but little

of this is reflected in intellectual growth.
The shift away from rationalism in recent years has been a
worldwide phenomenon; this affects the Jewish world as well. It
should not be surprising that the impact of analytic learning on
religious life has lessened. When rationalism dominated and science
admired, a Judaism that was equally analytic kept the bright young
from straying. Even those who were far removed from analytic
learning were more secure in their observance, knowing that such
learning of Torah was done by others. With the increase in recent
years of skepticism in science’s ability to answer fundamental ques-
tions and reduced reliance on reasoning, this became less needed. In
the postmodern era with reason doubted and a pseudo-mysticism
popular, many are attracted to a more emotional type of religion.
Even in a yeshiva where reaching a high level of learning
would seem to be the goal, one finds a serious amount of anti-intel-
lectualism. The admired figure is the matmid, even if his intellectual
achievements are meager. Religious fervor as measured by length of
prayers and number of humrot adopted is seen as more important
then learning ability. The number of pages covered rather then the
level of understanding becomes the standard of accomplishment.
The incredible growth in the number of yeshivot and amount
of students studying Talmud has caused an increase in frustration.
Many who have not gained basic skills in Talmud are attending ye-
shivot in Israel and America that demand a high level. Students who
lack familiarity with Talmudic texts and terminology look foolish
when they try to analyze concepts. In this environment, one who is
able to clarify the text becomes invaluable. Without basic knowledge
conceptual analysis is irrelevant.
This does not mean that analytic learning is not taking place.
Yeshivot are by definition centers of study and intellectual concerns
remain prominent; the shift is partial but significant. In many circles,
possessing a large amount of knowledge has become the goal. The
old dispute whether to prefer the one with encyclopedic knowledge
or the one with keener analytic skills is being revisited.7
Interestingly, the growth of computers and in particular Judaic

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 54 Yosef Blau

software such as Bar Ilan’s Judaic Library which makes encyclopedic

knowledge readily available may lead to a renewed stress on analysis.
Having an exceptional memory is less valuable when anyone with
basic computer skills and a decent background in learning can access
virtually all relevant sources. The ability to differentiate and analyze
these sources will again be recognized as crucial.
It is unlikely that anti-intellectualism will long prevail. New
advances in science will inevitably excite the young. A Judaism that
is associated with amulets and miracle rabbis will be seen as primi-
tive and medieval. The need to demonstrate the profundity of Torah
learning to our best minds remains a necessity.
Even if analysis alone cannot create a religious personality, a
Judaism that lacks rationality loses much of its flavor. An irrational
Judaism has limited appeal to the educated and will find it difficult
to compete with Eastern religions. Torah learning is basic to Judaism
and unless that learning is intellectually satisfying our best minds
will be attracted by other disciplines. The issues that threatened
Orthodoxy a century ago have not lost their potency. Ultimately the
mind will have to be engaged as well as the heart. Lomdut by itself
may not longer suffice to maintain Judaism, but Judaism without it
is equally in jeopardy.

Notes
1. “Education; The Modern Period (1800–1939),” Encyclopedia Judaica 6, 419–
430.
2. Saul Stampfer, “Three Lithuanian Yeshivot in the Nineteenth Century” (Ph.D. diss.,
at Hebrew University, 1981), 64.
3. Mah Dodeikh mi-Dod, reprinted in Be-Sod ha-Yahid ve-ha-Yahad, (Jerusalem:
1976), 241–244. In particular see the allusion to the view of others (himself) on
page 243.
4. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man, trans. Lawrence Kaplan (Philadelphia
and New York: Jewish Publication Society, 1983), 139–143 n. 4.
5. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Al Ahavat ha-Torah u-Ge’ulat Nefesh ha-Dor, reprinted
in Divrei Hashkafah (Jerusalem: 1992), 249, 251.
6. Dr. Haym Soloveitchik, “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of
Contemporary Orthodoxy,” Tradition 28:4 (1994).
7. Horiyot 14a, and see commentary of Rabbi Menahem ha-Me’iri ad loc.

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