Scholar explores what it means to
Orthodox in modern world.

LYNNE SCHREIBER

Special to the Jewish News

R

abbi Shnayer Z. Leiman tried
to define modern Orthodoxy
as Young Israel of Southfield's
scholar-in-residence.
The historian from New York was
invited in honor of the 60th birthday of
Young Israel member Dr. Bert Schreiber,
a Wayne State University math professor.
Rabbi Leiman gave an historical
approach to illustrate how Torah com-
munities dealt with "modernity" and
what leading rabbis thought about secu-
lar studies.
Deanna
Sperka, an
artist from
Oak Park who
attended,
found it "fasci-
nating [that]
this conflict of
attitudes
between the
religious and
the irreligious
Bert and Rita Schreiber
is an extension
of our history."
Rabbi Leiman spoke Friday night to
140 people about what it means to be
an Orthodox Jew in the modern world.
On Shabbat, he discussed the idea of
Ahavat Yisrael (love of all Jews), using
the late Rabbi Abraham Isaac Ha-Kohen
Kook, Israel's first chief rabbi, as an
example.
Saturday night focused on the seem-
ingly contradictory concepts of "Torah
only"
where men sit in yeshivot learn-
ing day and night — and Torah and
Derekh Eretz (the way of the world),
which welcomes culture, confronts it
and rejects what does not jive with a
Torah life.
Ultimately, said Rabbi Leiman, Jews
must learn from the way Western
European communities accepted secular
studies, but understand the lessons of
the Eastern European yeshivot, where
Torah was studied exclusively.
"Wherever Jews reside in significant
numbers, both approaches are neces-
sary," he said.
The honoree's wife, Rita Schreiber,
introduced the Saturday-night talk, tear-
fully dedicating it in memory of her

—

mother-in-law, Amy Schreiber, who
died earlier that week. The laws of
mourning prevented her husband from
attending the talk in his honor, although
he was permitted to hear Rabbi
Leiman's discussions on Shabbat.

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Torah Vs. Secular World

While no beit din (religious court) ever
banned secular studies, Rabbi Leiman
emphasized the difference between
using popular knowledge to enhance a
Torah life versus submerging oneself in
the secular world while marginalizing
observance.
"To say that
there is nothing
redeemable or
that we can
learn from in
the modern
world is to
renounce the
validity of the
Torah itself,"
said Rabbi
Leiman. "On
the other hand,
all the 6 aadolirn
(great rabbis) placed Torah as the cen-
tral theme and the world as an
enhancement of it."
Rabbi Leiman grounded his lectures
in history, referring to rare books and
little-known facts about great rabbis of
the "modern" era, which he defined as
roughly the last 200 years.
The audience reflected the range of
Orthodoxy: Participants included men
in black suits and black velvet
yarmulkes and women in wigs or hats
who wore long skirts and long sleeves;
the audience also attracted women with
uncovered hair and men who wore
jeans and knitted kippot.
"One cannot begin to compre-
hend the current composition of the
Torah community and its fascinating
complexity without returning to
major Torah personalities of the pre-
vious 200 years," said audience
member Tzvi Sherizen, a financial
consultant from Oak Park.
"Professor Leiman is an engaging
researcher who sheds light on the
complexities within the Jewish com-
munity."

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