Moshe Meiselman
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Moshe Meiselman () is an American-born Orthodox rabbi and
rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...
(dean) of Yeshiva Toras Moshe in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, which he established in 1982. He also founded and served as principal of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA) from 1977 to 1982. He is a descendant of the
Lithuanian Jewish {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Litvaks , image = , caption = , poptime = , region1 = {{flag, Lithuania , pop1 = 2,800 , region2 = {{flag, South Africa , pop2 = 6 ...
Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty Soloveitchik ( ) (also Soloveichik) is a surname. The name is a diminutive form of the Russian language, Russian word соловей, "nightingale", since the Soloveitchiks are a family of Levites, who are commanded by the Torah to sing in the Beit ...
.


Early life and education

Rabbi Meiselman was born to Harry Meiselman, a dental surgeon, and Shulamit Soloveitchik, a teacher and Jewish school principal who attended
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
and
Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...
. On his father's side, he is a descendent of the
rebbe A Rebbe () or Admor () is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spirituality (Audio)''. UCTV, 20 Oct 2011. web. ...
(hereditary leader of a
hasidic dynasty A Hasidic dynasty or Chassidic dynasty is a dynasty led by Hasidic Jewish spiritual leaders known as rebbes, and usually has some or all of the following characteristics: * Each leader of the dynasty is referred to as an ''ADMOR'' (abbreviation ...
) Baruch of Kossov. On his mother's side, he is a descendant of the Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty. His maternal grandfather was Rabbi
Moshe Soloveichik Moshe Soloveichik (1879 – January 21, 1941) was an Orthodox rabbi. He was Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University. Biography He was born in Valozhyn, the middle son of Chaim Soloveitchik and gr ...
and his maternal great-grandfather was Rabbi
Chaim Soloveitchik Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik (Yiddish: חיים סאָלאָווייטשיק, ), also known as Chaim Brisker (1853 – 30 July 1918), was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the Brisker method of Talmudic study within Judaism ...
, known as Reb Chaim Brisker. His mother, Shulamit, authored the book ''The Soloveitchik Heritage: A Daughter's Memoir'' (1995). Rabbi Meiselman was a nephew of Rabbi Dr.
Joseph B. Soloveitchik Joseph Ber Soloveitchik ( ''Yosef Dov ha-Levi Soloveychik''; February 27, 1903 – April 9, 1993) was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic ...
, rosh yeshiva of R.I.E.T.S., with whom, according to Rabbi Meiselman, he had
study sessions Study or studies may refer to: General * Education **Higher education * Clinical trial * Experiment * Field of study * Observational study * Scientific study * Research * Study skills, abilities and approaches applied to learning Other * Study ...
on a near daily basis from the time he was 18 until he was 29 years old. Rabbi Meiselman graduated from high school at the
Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...
and then went on to attend
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
(which all three of Soloveitchik's children and his American grandchildren attended) and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
where he earned his doctorate in mathematics in 1967 with the thesis "The Operation
Ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...
for Connective
K-Theory In mathematics, K-theory is, roughly speaking, the study of a ring generated by vector bundles over a topological space or scheme. In algebraic topology, it is a cohomology theory known as topological K-theory. In algebra and algebraic geometr ...
".


Career

Rabbi Meiselman began his career teaching mathematics at City University of New York. After his marriage in 1971, he became a '' maggid shiur'' at Beis Medrash L'Torah in Skokie. Afterward, he taught at Yeshivas Brisk (Brisk Rabbinical College) in Chicago, headed for a time by his uncle, Rabbi
Ahron Soloveichik Ahron (Aaron) Soloveichik (; 1918 – October 4, 2001) was an Orthodox Jewish ''rosh yeshiva'' (seminary dean) and scholar of Talmud and ''halakha''. Biography The youngest of five children, Ahron Soloveichik was born to Moshe Soloveichik in ...
. In 1977 he moved to the West Coast and founded the Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA), opening separate high school programs for boys and girls, a yeshivah gedolah, and a kolel. He also served as a
posek In Jewish law, a ''posek'' ( , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the application of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah, in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities are incon ...
(arbiter of Jewish law) for the local community. In 1982, having built up enrollment to nearly 400 male and female students in YULA's various divisions, Rabbi Meiselman moved to Israel to open a yeshiva for American students, together with co-rosh yeshiva Rabbi Doniel Lehrfield (Rabbi Lehrfield and several other faculty members subsequently left to start another yeshiva, Bais Yisroel). He named the new school Toras Moshe after his grandfather, Moshe. He selected Rabbis Michel Shurkin and Moshe Twersky, both close students of Rabbi Soloveitchik, to head the teaching staff. In 2011, Meiselman reported about his yeshiva that "We have 96 boys in the beis medrash and 44 in the kollel, and almost all of our kollel yungerleit are home-grown". Rabbi Meiselman is one of several grandchildren of Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik who have established yeshivas in Israel, perhaps the most famous being Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, son-in-law of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, who established
Yeshivat Har Etzion Yeshivat Har Etzion (YHE; ), commonly known in English as "Gush" and in Hebrew as "Yeshivat HaGush", is a Hesder yeshiva located in Alon Shvut, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. It is considered one of the leading institutions of advanced T ...
in the late 1960s. Yeshivat Reshit, a popular yeshiva in Israel for American students in
Beit Shemesh Beit Shemesh () is a city council (Israel), city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District. A center of Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodoxy, Beit Shemesh has a population of 170,683 as of 2024. The city is named afte ...
, was established by the Rabbis Marcus, also descendants of Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik. Rabbi Meiselman is the author of several books and numerous magazine articles. His ''Jewish Woman in Jewish Law'' (1978) sparked much discussion among authors and feminists for his traditional Jewish response to
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
. Additionally, Rabbi Meiselman has authored Tiferes Tzvi, a commentary to the Rambam, as well as numerous articles on Talmudic study and thought in Hebrew.


Philosophies and controversies


''Torah, Chazal and Science''

Rabbi Meiselman's 2013 book, ''Torah, Chazal and Science'', promotes the theory that all unqualified scientific statements of the Talmudic sages are sourced from the word of God, who can not be wrong, and are therefore immutable: "All of Chazal’s (the Talmudic sages') definitive statements are to be taken as absolute fact
ven Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It comprises an area of , and its popul ...
outside the realm of
halakhah ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...
(Jewish law)". The flip side of this thesis, and another major theme of the book, is that modern science is transitory and unreliable compared to the divine wisdom of the sages. His book has been criticized by Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin and others.


The Holocaust

Following the opinion of some Haredi thinkers in the area of Holocaust theology, Meiselman has argued that the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
was the result of Jewish cultural assimilation in Western Europe in the early twentieth century. He writes that "the turning away from the status of an ''am ha-nivhar'', a chosen people, and the frightening rush toward assimilation were, according to the rules that govern Jewish destiny, the real causes for the Holocaust."


The State of Israel

Rabbi Meiselman subscribes to Haredi views regarding the State of Israel and the
Israel Defence Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, an ...
. He has stated that it is forbidden for a yeshiva student to join the Israeli army, and has criticized the Nachal Haredi, stating in an interview that Nachal Haredi has "not been successful in maintaining commitment to Torah." In 2013, Rabbi Meiselman sat on the dais at a rally in NY against conscription of yeshiva students into the Israeli army. Both
Satmar Satmar (; ) is a group in Hasidic Judaism founded in 1905 by Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum (1887–1979), in the city of Szatmárnémeti (also called Szatmár in the 1890s), Kingdom of Hungary, Hungary (now Satu Mare in Romania). The group is a b ...
Rebbes were involved in the planning of, and also sat at the dais at, this rally.


Modern Orthodoxy

In commenting on
Modern Orthodox Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...
innovations with regard to women, Rabbi Meiselman has stated that "when it comes to the rabbis and the people who are at the forefront of pushing for these changes so that they can 'update' Orthodoxy to conform with today’s 'progressive' cultural norm ... hecommon denominator between nearly all of them is that they are largely ignorant of halacha and devoid of serious Torah scholarship. If your knowledge of Torah and halacha are limited, then you are not limited by halacha. One is never confined by things that one doesn't know and never learned!" Some of Yeshiva Toras Moshe's faculty members dissuade students from enrolling at
Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a Private university, private Modern Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.
when they leave Toras Moshe, while others are less opposed.


Personal

Meiselman is married to Rivkah Leah Eichenstein.


Bibliography


Books

* * *


Selected articles

* * *


References


External links


"Book Review: 'Torah, Chazal and Science'"
'' San Diego Jewish World'', March 27, 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Meiselman, Moshe Algebraists American Orthodox rabbis Harvard University alumni Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Rosh yeshivas Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty Rabbis from Boston 1942 births