Q&A: Significant Innovations in the Yeshiva World
Significant Innovations in the Yeshiva World
Question
Hello Rabbi,
One of the commenters on one of your columns wrote:
abI dont see any exceptional new development coming from the Haredi yeshivot over the past several decades. Books keep coming out endlessly, but I dont know of a single book that presents a new method of learning or a unique halakhic ruling. In Thomas Kuhns terms, it seems that the Haredi yeshivot today are occupied only with normal talmudic scholarship, which keeps expanding what is already known and applying it to ever more esoteric details, and there are no paradigm shifts like those brought about by Rabbi Chaim of Brisk, Rabbi Shimon Shkop, the great Hasidic masters, the Shulchan Arukh, Maimonides (and these are only examples, and Im sure you could give many more but I suspect you would have a hard time finding such an example from the last generation or two). bb
And the Rabbi answered him:
abYou are mistaken. There are definitely many innovations in the Haredi world as well. Masses of them. Minzberg, then the Schreiber brothers, the Inbal brothers, and others. Surely there are many more whom I dont know. Its just that all of these are considered marginal and esoteric, not great Torah figures who are publicly recognized as such. bb
I didnt understand how that answers the question. That is, there certainly are innovations in the Haredi public as well, but that does not in any way contradict his claim that there has been no paradigm shift in the method of learning, no major new development, or anything significant emerging from the yeshiva world in the past several decades.
Rabbi Inbal, for example, is not directly part of the yeshiva world, and his main work is not necessarily in learning in the yeshiva style and the like, and he is also not connected to any particular yeshiva.
Seemingly, according to that writers claim, it appears that the yeshiva world has reached a certain stagnation since the innovations of Rabbi Shimon, and since then there have been no significant fundamental innovations there.
Does the Rabbi disagree with this claim?
Answer
I didnt understand the question. I brought a few examples of people who clearly think otherwise. They are products of the yeshiva world, even if not every one of them is currently a rosh yeshiva. So you can play with definitions however you like as to whether one can say that the yeshiva world in general is stagnant or not. It doesnt really interest me.
Discussion on Answer
Even if you are right that most Torah scholars come out of there (Im not at all sure about that), the discussion is still not interesting. If you have suggestions for improvement, that can be discussed. Labeling it as stagnant or not is just beating the air.
By the way, where does the Rabbi think most Torah scholars come from?
The genius Rabbi Yosef Schreiber and Rabbi David Inbal are definitely paradigm shifts in the conceptual approach to Talmudic learningI recommend learning about them. After Rabbi Chaim and Rabbi Shimon Shkop, they are the ones leading the new approaches.
I havent checked. It also depends on what you define as a Torah scholar. I wrote about this on the site (search for “Greatness in Torah”).
Papagio, who is Rabbi David Inbal? I didnt find much information about him or writings by him.
I dont understand why a world that doesnt produce new approaches in learning is a problem. What advantage is there in novelty as such? The advantage lies only in truth.
Rabbi Dudi Inbal is one of the Inbal brothers, sons of Rabbi Zvi Inbal from Arachim. Each of the brothers specializes in a different discipline (see, for example, Yehoshuas “Ratzio” website, or Uriyas “Beit Midrash of the Vilna Gaon”), and his “specialty” is conceptual Talmudic analysis…
The first book he published was Binah Lehaskil, in which he builds a new system in contrast to Rabbi Yosef Schreiber. Afterwards he partially retracted it, but either way he developed a new learning approach in that book.
Israel, the lack of development of new approaches is not really the main issue here.
Papagio, very interesting. Do you have a PDF of Rabbi Dudi Inbals critique of Rabbi Schreiber, and could you send it to me please? (If so, Ill send an email, God willing.)
Rabbi, why is it not interesting? Most of the Torah scholars among the Jewish people come out of there, and it is no small matter if that world is stagnant.