Thank you thank you Ms. Jane Eisner. This week the Forward’s editor provided unwitting albeit not unexpected confirmation for my recent column on the Limmud event in England. I had written that “ironically it is the heterodox hunger for Orthodox conferral of Jewish legitimacy on their bogus enterprises that itself is one element in our refusal to appear in venues like Limmud.” And now along comes Ms. Eisner to provide up-to-the-minute evidence thereof.
Her report on British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’s much ballyhooed appearance at Limmud the “grey-haired conference” at which the most engaged 1 percent of non-Orthodox British Jewry gathers is notable in two respects. First it was that rarity of rarities for the Forward a piece with effusive praise for a non-left-wing Orthodox rabbi: “He was a forceful speaker at times charming moving fluidly from referencing the new Prince George the late Nelson Mandela Kabbalah and lots of traditional Jewish texts to storytelling that left the audience laughing.” One simply does not see words like these written of a frum Jew a rabbinic leader no less in this paper — unless that is he has made even a slight left turn and is being primed to turn even further.
It is one might say the liberal Jewish media’s analogue to the way their ideological compatriots in the general American press can be counted on to massage United States Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s ego every time he uses his swing vote to side with the liberal bloc. At that they roll out the stock phrases about his “courage ” “independent-mindedness ” and of course “reasonableness.”
And then there’s the legitimization aspect which Ms. Eisner makes explicit: “He smartly opened by noting that at Limmud ‘it’s impossible not to feel that it’s great to be Jewish and I’m delighted to be a part of it.’ The audience clearly appreciated this legitimization.” But her unspoken need for Rabbi Mirvis’s approval is such that she goes on to read into his remarks at Limmud meanings that he likely never intended — or so one hopes:
It was his closing affirmation of universalistic ideals that impressed me. Mirvis told the audience that they must be totally devoted to their fellow Jews but that wasn’t enough. They also needed to be concerned about other people “to reach out to all mankind.” … You could read these words as a sly slap at the ultra-Orthodox leadership that condemned Mirvis for even attending Limmud.
To Rabbi Mirvis I say: Kevod Harav do you see what’s going on here? A few hours at Limmud and you’re already on your way to beatification as to borrow Rabbi Yosef Reinman’s delightful phrase “the Rosa Parks of interdenominational dialogue.” You’re even imagined to be administering verbal “slaps ” chalilah to major talmidei chachamim.
Perhaps you thought your strong statement the other week against the fad of pseudo-Orthodox egalitarian “partnership minyanim” would make clear in which camp your feet are planted and counterbalance an appearance at Limmud you felt you had to make. But honestly don’t pieces like Eisner’s tend to show that’s not the case and that your sincere intentions have boomeranged?
Eisner did mention in passing that your “partnership minyanim” statement had angered feminists but she quickly moved on to laud your visit because for her crowd the imperative of the moment is to use it — and you — to legitimize themselves. Soon enough if you haven’t made enough leftward progress to satisfy them the smiles will fade as will the plaudits and you’ll be written off as just another benighted Orthodox extremist.
The key is to understand the nature of the need your visit fulfilled for the Limmud folks. It was captured well by Rabbi Hillel Goldberg in a 1987 Jewish Action article:
One Reform rabbi with a certain degree of national stature in his movement never fails to put to me what he takes to be his most devastating argument: “You don’t even legitimize me! You delegitimize me!”….
Now I never use the word “legitimize” or “delegitimize” when talking to this man (or any other Jew). I argue substantively as to whether any conception of Judaism that either of us sets forth is right or wrong. No matter what I say he relentlessly couches and concentrates his response in two words:” “legitimize” and “delegitimize.” I say: Let’s talk about the Divinity of the Torah. He says: Legitimize me. I say: Let’s talk about conversion. He says: That delegitimizes me.
I never get very far. But I do wonder: Are we talking religion or psychology? What kind of stance requires continuous legitimization from an outside source?
These Jews the Limmud attendees and the adherents of the heterodoxies they’re bright and spiritually sensitive people and most importantly they have Yiddishe neshamos with an unerring sense of the good and the true. And that’s precisely why many of them know at some level that their sundry forms of Jewish expression are intellectually inconsistent inauthentic simply made up. After all the denominational braggadocio they know that what they’re calling “Judaism” bears only the faintest resemblance to the Judaism of the ages; they know we’ve got the goods and they’ve got the cheap knockoff.
And they’ve read enough Jewish history to know that although the external trappings of the Torah community may have changed greatly over the generations the stubborn Yud-Gimmel Ikrim-niks have continued on in every era resiliently making one comeback after another as a multitude of heresies and schismatic sects have faded from view — the American heterodoxies being only the most recent. And so they crave the imprimatur of authenticity.
And because of — not despite — our love for them we can’t give it.

SLOWED DOWN AND SAVORED To be perfectly honest the notion of a 52-year cycle for finishing Shas almost sounds like it belongs in the punch line of a joke. How long is a 52-year cycle starting this year? Long enough to make two Birchas Hachamahs and still have a whole year left to prepare your speech for the siyum. Suggest such a program to some people and you can see them doing the mental math to figure out whether their siyum will likely take place in an assisted-living facility — and that’s the more optimistic scenario.
But such a cycle is precisely what a program called Daf-a-Week or Daf Hashavua follows. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that it seeks to wean its participants away from a “cycle” mindset and from the culture in which all learning is geared toward “the siyum.” It strives to get them off the treadmill and into savoring their learning at a slower pace one that allows for more depth and for regular built-in review.
Shlomo Abrahams who has championed the weekly daf concept since its inception in March of 2005 — it’s now in the middle of its fifth masechta and is poised to begin its sixth Yoma on January 26 — doesn’t see this as a break from Daf Yomi but as an extension of it. His dream is for shuls to have Daf Yomi and Daf Hashavua shiurim that “share the same pot of coffee.” And indeed weekly shiurim by outstanding maggidei shiur optional bechinos and of course learning at the same pace as many other Jews across the country are all features that this program shares with its older better-known brother program.
Underlying the weekly daf concept is the very basic recognition that people are different from each other with varying needs interests and abilities. Having taught through a cycle of the Daf Yomi I know what the seder halimud can give people not only in terms of knowledge and learning skills but also spiritually and emotionally and even in creating a home environment that revolves around Torah.
But there are all types of people in this world. There are people who can’t bear to watch the fabulous riches of sugya after sugya fly past them on their trek through Shas at whirlwind speed and feel they must somehow also find the time for another slower seder. And there are those who rejoiced mightily at the last Siyum HaShas but also felt bad knowing their lack of time for chazarah had made it impossible to retain very much from the 2 711 blatt they’d just spent over seven years completing.
There are those who simply have seen too many Chazals that extol in the highest possible terms the supreme value and the joy of amalah shel Torah the toil in Torah that one can at least taste by spending an entire week on just one daf. Finally there are those who just haven’t “gotten it together” to have a set daily time for learning and need an entry point to the palace of Torah that’s within reach.
And for all of these individuals Daf-a-Week (718-376-9663; dafaweek.com) can be a deeply enriching eminently achievable solution.