Outside of yeshiva circles, the name Moshe Shapira is hardly recognized by American Jews, even those with a particular interest in Jewish thought. Yet Rabbi Shapira, who died in 2017, had an outsize influence on haredi theology in Israel and to a lesser extent in the diaspora, with his distinctive and intellectually sophisticated blend of non-hasidic mysticism, musar (moral introspection), and reverence for unadulterated Talmud study. Mark Gottlieb reviews a posthumously published work by Mattisyahu Rosenblum that presents many of Shapira’s ideas to the English-language reader:
In a chapter aptly titled, “Finding Truth in Other Traditions,” Rabbi Rosenblum observes, with a candor and authenticity that is refreshingly relevant, “Did you really hope there was nothing there [in the wisdom of the Gentile world, specifically classical Greek culture] that you might find intelligent and compelling?” Rather than glibly claiming that the contributions of the West are a waste of time for a Torah Jew, Rabbi Rosenblum recognizes both the potential worth—and the possible danger—contained in these competing systems of thought.
Rabbi Rosenblum’s ambivalence feels honest, a recognition of the genuine power of ideas and their ability to lead us to places we may not want to go. But there’s a paradox here, too, that sometimes feels lost to the author. . . .
For instance, Rosenblum—himself a Yale graduate—suggests that a young, devout American Jew might be better off studying accounting than taking classes on Plato or Nietzsche:
If Rabbi Rosenblum would have taken his own advice . . . the book under discussion could not have been written—at least not in its current sophisticated, learned and literate form. This insight was surely not lost on the author. But it is not totally resolved, either.
More about: Jewish Thought, Kabbalah, Orthodoxy
