Revisionism and the Rav: The Struggle for the Soul of Modern Orthodoxy

Interestingly, the Rav acknowledges the often narrowly parochial focus of much of the Jewish community, but attributes this focus to the "unfortunate" fact that "the non-Jewish community has confronted us throughout the ages in a mood of defiance." The Rav explains: "As long as we were exposed to ... a soulless, impersonal confrontation on the part of non-Jewish society, it was impossible for us to participate to the fullest extent in the great universal creative confrontation between man and the cosmic order. The limited role we played until modern times in the great cosmic confrontation was not of our choosing.... We have always considered ourselves an inseparable part of humanity and were ever ready to accept the divine challenge, 'Fill the earth and subdue it,' and the responsibility implicit in human existence." [28]

Similar statements appear in "The Lonely Man of Faith." Let me just cite, however, a passage from an unfortunately little known policy statement formulated by the Rav, "On Interfaith Relationships," [29] which brings out the universal dimension of Judaism in perhaps an even sharper fashion than the passage we cited from "Confrontation."

The Jewish religious tradition expresses itself in a fusion of universalism and singularism. On the one hand, Jews are vitally concerned with the problems affecting the common destiny of man. We consider ourselves members of the universal community charged with the responsibility of promoting progress in all fields, economic, social, scientific, and ethical[emphasis added]. As such we are opposed to a philosophy of isolationism... which would see the Jews living in a culturally closed society.

On the other hand, we are a distinctive faith community with a unique commitment, singular relationship to God, and a specific way of life. We must never confuse our role as the bearers of a particular commitment and destiny with our role as members of the family of man. [30]

We should also remember that, as many individuals very close to him have testified, the very last public act that the Rav performed was to phone the members of Mizrachi in Israel and insist that they support the call for a special commission to investigate the Christian massacres at the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatilla. If they did not do so, he threatened, he would publicly resign from his position of honorary president of Mizrachi. In light of the Rav's written views cited above, I believe it is fair to conclude that this last public act of his reflected that "fusion of universalism and singularism" which he so eloquently expounded, and that he was motivated in this act, as in others, [31] by both more particularist pragmatic concerns as well as general ethical ones.