Norman Lamm


Norman Lamm 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, 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 was descended from a respected rabbinic family. In his youth, Lamm attended Mesivta Torah Vodaath in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At Yeshiva College, the men's undergraduate school of Yeshiva University, he obtained a degree in chemistry in 1949, and at the time worked 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. In 1951, he was ordained as a rabbi at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University's rabbinical school. He also took graduate courses at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He considered a career in medicine, but was persuaded by Rabbi Dr. Samuel Belkin, the second President of Yeshiva University, to join the faculty at Yeshiva University. Lamm later earned a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy from Yeshiva University.
Lamm's maternal grandfather was Rabbi Yehoshua Baumol who authored the Responsa - Emek Halakha. In that work, Rabbi Baumol cited several insights from his young grandson, and even included responsa to Lamm's questions. It was Lamm's grandfather, Rabbi Baumol, who encouraged Lamm to leave Mesivta Torah Vodaath, and attend Yeshiva College, where Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik would become his mentor.

Career

Lamm spent almost 25 years as a pulpit rabbi. He was the Assistant Rabbi to Rabbi Joseph Lookstein of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan, New York. His first pulpit was in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was appointed rabbi of the West Side Jewish Center in 1952, became assistant rabbi at the Jewish Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1958, then rabbi of the Jewish Center from 1959 to 1976. In 1959 he also became a professor in Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University.
In 1958 Lamm helped found Tradition, an academic journal of Modern Orthodox thought. He also launched the Torah U-Madda Journal.
He obtained his Ph.D. in 1966, and was elected President of Yeshiva University in August 1976, succeeding Rabbi Samuel Belkin, YU's second president. When he took over the institution he helped save it from looming bankruptcy and raised its endowments as well as its academic rating, becoming eventually a top 100 school in ranking. Lamm also played important "behind the scene" roles in the world of Jewish scholarship. At a time when ArtScroll publisher Mesorah Publications was having financial trouble, Lamm introduced the publisher to philanthropist Jerome Schottenstein. The introduction led to the financial support from Schottenstein for the publication of the massive, yearslong project of the Schottenstein English translation of the entire Babylonian Talmud.

Personal life

Lamm was married to Mindella, who died of COVID-19 on April 16, 2020, at the age of 88. At the time of his death in May 2020, Lamm had two sons, Shalom and Joshua, and a daughter Chaye Warburg. He had a second daughter, Sara Lamm Dratch, who died in 2013. He was also survived by 17 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

Theology

As a "Modern Orthodox Jew", Lamm's theology incorporated the corpus of classical rabbinic Jewish principles of faith. The faith that he preaches and teaches is consistent with these teachings. He believed that God exists, that God can reveal his will to mankind, and that the Torah is an exact transcription of God's revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai. He believed that Judaism's oral law, as recorded in the Mishnah and Talmud and subsequent rabbinical interpretation, represents an accurate and authoritative understanding of how God wants mankind to understand the Hebrew Bible. And, in accordance with standard Orthodox Jewish theology, he held that halakha, loosely translated as "Jewish law", is normative and binding on all Jews.

''Torah Umadda''

One of Lamm's major contributions was as a proponent of the idea of "Torah Umadda" - "Torah and modern culture, or more generally, the environing culture of our days" - a philosophical paradigm which aims at the confrontation of Torah learning and secular knowledge. He argued that the underlying philosophy of Torah Umadda is inspired by the work of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in the mid 19th century in response to the Enlightenment. He states that Torah Umadda and Hirsch's Torah im Derech Eretz are to a large extent complementary - both value the acquisition of secular knowledge and both demand adherence to halakha.

Centrist Orthodoxy

Lamm was a well-known voice of "Modern Orthodoxy", regarding itself as the "center" between the "left-wing" branches of Orthodox Judaism, such as Rabbi Avi Weiss's "Open Orthodoxy," and right-wing" movements such as Haredi Judaism.

Relationship with non-Orthodox Judaism

Lamm was a strong critic of Reform Judaism's attempt to unilaterally redefine Jewishness. In response to their declaration that a person can be considered Jewish with only a Jewish father and not a Jewish mother, Lamm stated that this was "The single most irresponsible act in contemporary Jewish history." 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. 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 to Israel, and would refer them to a beit din that would convert the candidate following traditional halakha.
All negotiating parties came to an agreement that: Conversions must be carried out according to halakha, the beit din overseeing the conversion would be Orthodox, perhaps appointed by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and 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 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 1997 the issue of "Who is a Jew?" again arose in the State of Israel, and Lamm publicly backed the Neeman Commission, a group of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis working to develop joint programs for conversion to Judaism. In 1997 he gave a speech at the World Council of Orthodox Leadership, in Glen Springs, New York, urging Orthodox Jews to support this effort.
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 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 our solar system. He writes:
Lamm's writings on this subject are prominently featured in the "What Is Out There?" featurette, on disk two of the two disk special edition of. 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.
In 1971 Lamm wrote Faith and Doubt: Studies in Traditional Jewish Thought, which was released in a second edition in 1986 and a third and up-dated edition in 2006. This book is a personal examination of his religious beliefs.
In the 1980s many in Modern Orthodox Judaism felt battered by criticism from Orthodoxy's theological right-wing. Many Orthodox Jews, notably HaRav Nissim Cahn, began to perceive Modern Orthodoxy as less compelling, and possibly less authentic, than Haredi Judaism. As such, Lamm wrote a principled theological defense of Modern Orthodoxy in Torah Umadda: The Encounter of Religious Learning and Worldly Knowledge in the Jewish Tradition and its theology of Torah in confrontation with Madda or “Western Civilization”.
In 1989, his doctoral thesis examining the theological-kabbalistic differences in the Hasidic-Mitnagdic schism was published as Torah Lishmah: Torah for Torah's Sake in the Works of Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin and His Contemporaries. Influences on Lamm came from both camps, with Rav Soloveitchik descended from Hayim Volozhin, main Mitnagdic theorist, who is compared with Hasidism's theorist Schneur Zalman of Liadi.
In accompaniment, in 1999 Lamm published The Religious Thought of Hasidism: Text and Commentary, which offered an in-depth development of formative Hasidic thought, the mystical teachings of the movement founded in the 18th century by the Baal Shem Tov. Through examination of primary sources, Lamm illustrates the development of Hasidic theology in the 18th and 19th centuries. The book won the National Jewish Book Award in Jewish Thought.
In 2000 Lamm wrote The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism for a general audience not familiar with Jewish theology; this work focused on how a proper understanding of Judaism would lead a practitioner to spirituality. This work was a rejoinder to the viewpoint that religious, observant Judaism was dry and legal, as opposed to spiritual and meaningful.
In addition to these, Lamm has written many essays on contemporary Jewish issues which were published in the journals Tradition, founded in 1958 by Lamm, and the Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society.

Writings by relatives

Lamm's brother, Rabbi Maurice Lamm, wrote The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning and other books. He died June 30, 2016.

Retirement

Lamm stepped down as President in 2003, 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 of Yeshiva University's rabbinical school, RIETS for an additional ten years.
In July 2013, Lamm announced his retirement as Chancellor and Rosh HaYeshiva after more than 60 years at Yeshiva University, and apologized for not responding more assertively when students at Yeshiva University High School for Boys said that two rabbis there had sexually abused them. After retirement Lamm left the spotlight of communal life. According to a family member Lamm suffered from an illness that affected his memory. Lamm died on May 31, 2020 in Englewood, New Jersey.

Awards

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

Works by Lamm