Appreciation: Rabbinic Leader Mixed Faith, Openness          

Rabbi Amital

Rabbi Yosef Blau

Special To The Jewish Week

Rabbi Yehuda Amital, who died last Friday in Jerusalem at 85 after a long illness, was a unique blend of Talmud scholar and political activist who balanced his love of Israel with his advocacy for territorial concession to save lives.

A Holocaust survivor who lost his entire immediate family, he helped found the hesder yeshivas in Israel, combining rabbinic study and army service, and was rosh yeshiva (head of seminary) of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Israel's largest hesder yeshiva. He also helped found the Meimad political party, as an intended antidote to the move to the right among the religious, and he served as minister without portfolio in the Peres government following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.

Rabbi Amital (original name Klein) was born in a small town in Hungary (now in Romania). Educated in the local cheder (Hebrew school), he then studied with a Rabbi Levy, who introduced him to Lithuanian-style learning and the thought of Rav Abraham Isaac Kook, a leading scholar who became the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi in the Land of Israel under the British Mandate.

Rabbi Amital survived the Holocaust after many months in work camps with his faith intact but with no surviving close relatives; he lost his entire immediate family. As soon as he was freed, he arranged to go to the Land of Israel to return to his Torah studies.

As committed as Rabbi Amital was to Israel, he rejected any attempt to see the founding of the state as ameliorating the horrors of the Holocaust. To him, the Holocaust was the greatest chillul Hashem (desecration of God's name) and the only possible response is kiddush Hashem (sanctifying God's name) through how one lives one's life. The Holocaust also taught him that there are questions for which we do not have answers.

Arriving in Israel, Rabbi Amital joined the Hebron Yeshiva, the premier Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) yeshiva in Jerusalem. Maintaining his independence, he regularly attended the lectures of Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlop, a disciple of Rabbi Kook. Rabbi Amital fought in the Israeli War of Independence, and wrote the first article about the appropriate role for the rabbinate in the Israeli army.

Rabbi Amital married Miriam Meltzer, the daughter of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Meltzer, and joined his father-in-law in yeshivot in Pardes Hannah and Rehovot, where Rabbi Meltzer served as rabbi. The father and son-in-law together created the concept of a yeshiva (seminary) that would combine Torah studies and army service, which became the hesder yeshiva movement.

After the Six-Day War, Rabbi Amital was asked to create a hesder yeshiva in the Gush Etzion bloc, an area in the West Bank that had been settled by Jews but destroyed when captured by the Jordanian army in 1947 during the battle for independence. In appealing for students he quoted a Hasidic story whose message was that one should not become so absorbed in Torah study that one not hear a baby crying. This epitomized his goal of a high-level yeshiva that remained concerned for the welfare of society.

In 1971 Rabbi Amital invited Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein to come from America and join him in leading the yeshiva. Rabbi Lichtenstein agreed to become joint rosh yeshiva, a partnership that lasted until Rabbi Amital retired officially in 2008.

Yeshivat Har Etzion has become the largest hesder yeshiva in Israel, known for its intellectual and open approach to Jewish learning, with a significant contingent of students coming yearly from the United States and other countries. Connected to the yeshiva are the Herzog College, the largest institution training Orthodox teachers, and the seminary for women in Migdal Oz for advanced Jewish studies.

Rabbi Amital combined intellect and warmth. He consistently refused to make decisions for his students, unlike many other heads of yeshivas. As he put it, "I am not interested in making little Amitals." He sought to develop independent thinking among his students and was prepared to allow those who opposed his views full expression.

In 1982, Rabbi Amital publicly demanded a governmental inquiry into Israeli negligence in allowing Lebanese Christians to enter Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatilla and massacre inhabitants. His views were controversial in the religious Zionist community. A gathering was held at the yeshiva, where Rabbi Amital explained his position. When he finished, Hannan Porat, a founder of the yeshiva who had become a Knesset member from a right-wing party, raised his hand. Rabbi Amital offered him the podium to present the opposite view. When Porat finished, Rabbi Amital did not respond to the criticism. Those who heard the debate were left to form their own position.

As much as Rabbi Amital loved the land of Israel and was a follower of Rabbi Abraham Yitzchak Kook, he disagreed with his son, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, who emphasized the mitzvah of settling the land as the highest priority. Rabbi Amital was convinced that the people of Israel are more important than the land. Accordingly he supported territorial concessions for the sake of peace. He strongly condemned illegal behavior and actions that flouted the authority of the government.

Concerned that the religious Zionist community had moved politically too far to the right and had become disconnected from the broader society, Rabbi Amital founded Meimad in 1988. As a party, Meimad was not successful, though it did influence the national dialogue. After the Rabin assassination, which to Rabbi Amital was a terrible chillul Hashem as well as a crime of an individual, he agreed to become a minister without portfolio in the Peres government. He traveled around the world trying to bring Jews together. For many non-Orthodox Jew he was an Orthodox rabbi whose genuine love for all Jews and integrity overcame stereotypes.

When Rabbi Amital turned 80, he announced his retirement and his desire to have successors in place to prevent succession disputes. One of the new proposed roshei yeshiva was a star pupil whose political views were far to the right of his own. Rabbi Amital's reaction was that political attitudes should not influence the decision.

Religious life suffers from a dearth of independent leadership. It is rare to find a rabbi who is both prepared to take unpopular positions and secure enough to allow his own students to disagree with him. With the passing of Rabbi Amital, Orthodox Judaism has lost a unique combination of creativity and loyalty, faith and openness, warmth and integrity.

This appreciation appeared in The Jewish Week:

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/appreciation_rabbinic_leader_mixed_faith_openness

I ask whoever visits this page to listen to this clip and hear Rabbi Amital explain, in just over one minute, the essence of his philosophy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODi08e5P7Kg&feature=player_embedded

 

For additional appreciations in English and in Hebrew, go to: http://haretzion.org/ and click on the "Hespedim" link in the left side of the page.