1/ I'm just reflecting about how many leaders from the Modern Orthodox community passed away in 2020. The list is an overwhelming pantheon of pivotal, unique, and creative rabbis. I'm stunned by the enormity of the loss.

2/ Right at the end of the year, the 9th of Tevet, we lost Rav Henkin z'l, probably the most prominent & compassionate Dati-Leumi posek we had! It's rare to have a highly superior halakhist with unimpeachable standards who is also wise & thoughtful.

https://t.co/W7x3dWZkMB
3/ Another Dec. loss: Rav Schwartz z'l of Chicago, another towering posek who took brave & indominable positions that understood modern society while having complete, airtight respect for tradition.

In my work in medical halakha, he was a crucial ally.

https://t.co/GoAiiA3fiR
4/ In Nov. we lost Rabbi Dr. Sacks z'l! His paramount leadership wasn't in halakha but in theology. He was able to navigate the secular & traditional worlds at the highest level; a rare rabbi whose philosophical work was universally recognized as valuable.
https://t.co/5sFrwsgWoh
5/ In Aug. we lost Rav Steinsaltz z'l! I'm - accurately - running out of superlatives; please understand this thread is not overstated. Steinsaltz is a nearly irreplaceable, unique figure in modern Jewish history.

https://t.co/W0EK8ku2Hm
https://t.co/2mdhUPYkcZ
6/ In June we lost Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm z'l, president of YU when I was in RIETS, bridge figure in the translation of Torah U-Madda after the passing of his dissertation advisor, The Rav, Rabbi Dr. Joseph Soloveitchik z'l.
https://t.co/RY9cUb0sx3

https://t.co/Ukzv7ts8Oy
7/ In May we lost Rabbi Dr. Nachum Rabinovitch z'l, former head of Jews College, rosh yeshiva of Maale Adumim, a major figure in combining secular knowledge with the highest levels of Torah skill & a leader of Dati-Leumi community.

https://t.co/Jp5bzW6N43
https://t.co/Mo8xW6OWXx
8/ This list isn't meant to be comprehensive, it was spontaneously spurred by the cumulative enormity of the losses that I remember. These were leaders of my community, a specialized, difficult, l'chatchila path of respect for all God has commanded us. Yafet in tents of Shem.
9/ Being Modern Orthodox aka Dati-Leumi (religious Zionist) aka Torah U-Madda (religious academic) is the path I'm on b/c of the intellect & talent & history God gave me. I believe this path is what God wants from Judaism. These leaders helped me immeasurably & the loss is great.
10/ We've lost other irreplaceable leaders this year: Rav Dovid Feinstein z'l, Prof. William Helmreich z'l, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg z'l, Rav Matis Blum z'l & the enormity of those losses cut deep, but the specialized leadership in Torah U-Madda is so difficult to replace.
11/ If I've missed other giants who passed in 2020, I will add them to this list. I apologize for not eulogizing these Arzei Levanon properly. I've described our time of crisis as needing to swim in rapids; when calm is attained, B"N I will provide a proper recall & reckoning.
12/ @threadreaderapp please unroll.

@threader_app please compile.

More from Joshua Cypess

1/ A thread of comments & observations about the death of the cackling vampire Rush Limbaugh.

My first observations in the main thread are here, but this offshoot is needed because there's been so many wise & witty things I've


2/ First, re: those who in their wayward moral obtuseness feel we "can't speak ill of the dead." I've said that this is what abuse enablers say, but I hear that some religious traditions preach this. Oy.
So there's this: https://t.co/7Ky4RA3nkZ &


3/ Drucker is another great wit, and this carries the proper mood


4/ There's definitely a Jewish Tradition angle for how to treat evil people who die: the only respect is to justice, right & wrong, and above all compassion's existence necessitates condemning cruelty


5/ We're coming up on #Purim, and that's all about how to remember evil. There may be a reason, then, that I share the attitude of many other people committed to righting
1/ OK a few more #Exodus thoughts (because I'm going through a mountain of parsha stuff amidst all my other writing) connected to the #DvarTorah here about the nameless collective-compassionate action of the multitude being the engine of the salvation.


2/ It struck me to link to another conundrum (kinda like the large plague frog in the room): how Pharaoh has his free will removed

So, the nameless action could be a purposeful contrast to the singular powerful individual who normally is history's

3/ IMO God manipulates Pharaoh in order to prevent one person making too much of a difference!

This ties into another larger point I often make about the culpability of the Egyptians & how actually they, not Pharaoh, are the focus of the plagues.

4/ My point contrasts how the Egyptians - who were responsible for being enslavers, for dehumanizing & stealing the labor of Israelites up to the point of joining in the Pharaoh command of infanticide (see

5/ These individuals needed to make their choices without coercion from the autocrat, hence Pharaoh lost 'free will' in his capacity as someone who can move the engines of political power.

He lost free will in order to preserve the free will & action of his subjects

More from Society

Patriotism is an interesting concept in that it’s excepted to mean something positive to all of us and certainly seen as a morally marketable trait that can fit into any definition you want for it.+


Tolstoy, found it both stupid and immoral. It is stupid because every patriot holds his own country to be the best, which obviously negates all other countries.+

It is immoral because it enjoins us to promote our country’s interests at the expense of all other countries, employing any means, including war. It is thus at odds with the most basic rule of morality, which tells us not to do to others what we would not want them to do to us+

My sincere belief is that patriotism of a personal nature, which does not impede on personal and physical liberties of any other, is not only welcome but perhaps somewhat needed.

But isn’t adherence to a more humane code of life much better than nationalistic patriotism?+

Göring said, “people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”+

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