27 Elul 5779 27 September 2019
Dear Fellow Idealists,
You believe that halakhah must be humanly sensitive and intellectually rigorous.
You believe in halakhic authority but reject halakhic authoritarianism.
You believe that women must have unrestricted access to Talmud Torah at the highest level, and the full voice and authority in halakhic decision-making that their scholarship deserves.
You believe that Torah should not be partisan, but that Torah scholars must take positions and try to lead on moral and ethical issues even if they have become political, whether within the Jewish community or without.
You believe that Torah and halakhah must welcome moral critique from within and without, and be willing to stand against those critiques when that is what integrity requires
For all these reasons, you support CMTL’s mission with all your heart and soul, and yes, all your possessions. You’re just waiting to find out more about what we’ve done and what we plan to do.
Here are four brief highlights from 5779:
· Our flagship Summer Beit Midrash program just finished its 23nd year modeling and generating Modern Orthodox halakhah at its best. This year’s topic, editing human embryos via CRISPR, required us to consider how our understanding of the Torah’s attitude toward human beings “playing G-d” should be affected by irreversible and ongoing technological progress and by the ideological history of eugenics. Look for our teshuvot soon!
· The inaugural BINAH conference gave women (scholars, professionals, and laypeople) the opportunity for public Torah expression on all issues, not just those associated with gender
· Successful intensive Winter Beit Midrash programs in New York
· An exciting, deep, and substantive series of Compare and Contrast panels on contemporary halakhic issues with Rabbi Dov Linzer (look for them on YouTube)
Most of all, our alumni continue to model, spread, and generate compelling visions of Torah in their roles as Jewish professionals, Jewish human beings, and plain human beings. A special shoutout is due to Editors David Fried and Davida Kollmar and Contributing Editors Miriam Gedwiser and Shlomo Zuckier for their work on The Lehrhaus. I also want to emphasize CMTL’s commitment to the religious value and necessity of journalism by pointing to the internationally renowned work of Yair Rosenberg on anti-Semitism, to Elie Reiter’s essays in the New York Times and elsewhere, and to Avi Hirsch’s appointment as Editor in Chief of the YU Commentator.
In the spirit of self-evaluation required by the Yamim Noraim, I also need to acknowledge that the Lilmod U’lelamed program in New York did not thrive as we had hoped. One general takeaway from 5779 is that partnerships are a great way to compensate for minimal infrastructure, but they also set practical and ideological limits, and can open us to risks beyond our control. A second takeaway is that insufficient infrastructure often leads to burnt out volunteers and overstressed part-time staff. Our plans going forward take those lessons into account, in two ways. First, we intend to fundraise and budget for the staff necessary to run our programs sustainably. Second, the lions’ share of our major programming will run under our own banner.
Here are four anticipated highlights of 5780, in addition to continuing programs such as SBM and WBM:
· A conference for rabbis and educators titled The Effect of Orthodox Psak on Non-Orthodox Jews
· A conference of dayyanim, lawyers, academics, and other relevant practitioners on best practices for obtaining halakhically reliable narratives from women at risk of get-refusal, and for developing halakhically relevant psychological profiles of get-refusing husbands
· A Rabbinic Seminar for synagogue professionals addressing challenging halakhic issues immediately relevant to their work. Participants will prepare weekly in chavrusa and come together for a monthly online seminar with me. Over 20 rabbis responded positively to an initial round of invitations. I am grateful to Rabbi Noah Cheses and Rabbi Adam Starr for supporting and propelling this initiative.
· Lilmod Ulelamed goes online! In response to an inquiry on the Facebook group Hacha B’mai Askinan, over 30 Talmud educators signed up for an every-second-week seminar that will “model diverse pedagogic approaches and be transparent about the reasoning behind pedagogic choices, in terms of both form and substance.”
Supporting CMTL means supporting a vision of Torah, halakhah, and leadership that embodies the best self of Modern Orthodoxy. The more we can accomplish, the more your ideals come to life. Please click here to invest generously in that vision, and then take well-deserved pride in the results.
With all best wishes for a ketivah vakhatimah tovah,
Aryeh Klapper, Dean
