This fall, Yeshiva University’s (YU) Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought is providing a multitude of forums for Jews in the modern era to arrive at their own understanding of the concept of “Torah Umadda”: the balance of Judaic and worldly values.
“In undergraduate courses, seminars for semicha [rabbinic ordination] students, adult education and public events, the Straus Center has brought about the bridging of Torah with the world in every part of Yeshiva,” said Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center.
“In just the past year, students in our classes have approached, though a Torah lens, the fields of political thought, American history, law, Zionism, philosophy, art and medicine. We are so proud of having made the vision of Moshael Straus a reality: for Torah Umadda to never be merely a motto, but rather something that can be experienced throughout Yeshiva and the larger Yeshiva University community.”
That includes a new undergraduate fellowship directed by Dr. Aaron Segal, assistant professor of philosophy at Yeshiva College; a semicha seminar for select YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary students taught by Rabbi Dr. David Shabtai, a fellow of RIETS’ Wexner Kollel Elyon; and multiple courses at Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women exploring the Center’s themes.
Together with YU’s Center for the Jewish Future and Congregation Shearith Israel, the Straus Center is also hosting a Community Beit Midrash Program at the YU Museum in the form of a six-week interdisciplinary seminar, “The Image and the Idea,” which discusses art history and Jewish thought.
“We discuss the question whether we can be responsible, authentic and reasonable believers in the absence of any articulable justification for our faith, drawing on such thinkers as William James, Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Soren Kierkegaard, Rav Nahman of Bratslav, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, C.S. Lewis, and the Hafetz Hayim,” said Segal.
“It’s a great opportunity because it encourages thinking deeply about faith and enables students to do so together with an intellectually curious and religiously committed group of peers.”
For semicha students in Shabtai’s Straus Center RIETS seminar, “Jewish Perspectives in Bioethics,” that analysis is critical not only because it helps crystallize their own ideological beliefs, but because it prepares them as future spiritual guides to help congregants navigate complex and often emotionally-fraught decisions about modern medicine and Jewish values.
“The seminar is important because it exposes our future rabbinic leaders to significant advances and discoveries in science and medicine that have important and wide-ranging intersections with Jewish law and thought,” said Shabtai.
“We are looking at issues from their broad perspectives, with a focus on the ‘larger issues’ that they raise as well as analyzing bioethical approaches to these same questions and issues.”
Other public events and lectures designed to provide a broader Jewish audience with a taste of the Straus Center’s undergraduate dialogues are in the works, such as a “Great Conversation” public event on December 17 featuring columnist George Will and New York University President John Sexton to discuss “Baseball, Tradition and God.”
In addition, the Straus Center recently announced the creation of a Tikvah Fellowship, which will support a postdoctoral fellow whose work relates to Torah and Western Thought as they spend between one and three years teaching and doing research at Yeshiva while serving as a resident scholar at the Straus Center.
“Through this generous gift by the Tikvah Fund, we will be able to attract to Yeshiva a gifted future academic star who will be at the heart of all of the Straus Center’s intellectual activities and play a strong role in fulfilling our most cherished charge: the teaching of students,” said Rabbi Soloveichik.