Wissenschaft in the Beit Midrash: Between Critical Study and Torah Study

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

Since the professionalization of critical study of Jewish text in the Modern period, teachers, schools, and scholars have staked out myriad positions on the proper boundaries between “secular” and “religious” Jewish text study. Esriel Hildesheimer and Samson Raphael Hirsch famously feuded over the role that the fruits of academic study might play in their respective yeshivot, a debate that shaped the history of German neoorthodoxy. While yeshivot in Europe at the turn of the century rejected the work of scholars like Wilhelm Gesenius, the Brown-Driver-Briggs’ dictionary, built on Gesenius’ work, is now ubiquitous in English-speaking Batei Midrash.In the last part of the twentieth century, linear commentaries such as Da’at Miqra mimicked the genre of traditional exegesis while relying on the scholarship of the modern university. And with the turn to the digitization of canonical texts, the careful work of philology became central to the reconstruction of classic texts for the digital age. This roundtable will address the phenomenon of Wissenschaft in the Beit Midrash, seeking to understand moments of encounter between the academy and the ritual learning space of the Beit Midrash. The roundtable will ask:
How do the academy and the yeshiva as sites of production of knowledge rely on one another?
What methodologies from the academic study of Jewish text have permeated various batei midrash and do these align with the overt ideology of those institutions?
What influence has the academic study of Jewish text had on the “canon”of the Beit Midrash? (Either through the inclusion of volumes uncovered through critical scholarship or through the inclusion of study aids and dictionaries once seen as outside the scope of ritual learning.)
How and when do sites of knowledge production use the perceived “other” as part of a self-fashioning (ie: the Beit Midrash constructing itself as what the academy is not, and vise versa)?

The goal of this roundtable is to open up a larger conversation about this history, these ideologies, pedagogies, and institutional realities with the AJS community. To that end, our roundtable with pull from multiple stakeholders in the question of Wissenschaft in the Beit Midrash. Phil Keisman’s work on nineteenth century European Hebrew-language readers and writers reveals an ongoing erosion of boundaries between the academy and ritual learning spaces, while also examining new discourses used to reaffirm those same boundaries. Joshua Ladon’s scholarship on the construction of source sheets in Jewish learing spaces engages deeply with questions of the ownership of ideas, and when ideas from one sphere enter into another. Elias Sacks’ work on Nachman Krochmal as a major node in the history of Jewish thought contends with Krochmal’s attempts to make philosophical space for historical-critical scholarship within traditional Jewish communal life. Finally, Sara Wolkenfeld’s work on the website sefaria.org forces her to confront questions of canon, and involves utilizing high source criticism to create a virtual Beit Midrash for learners, many of whom are completely outside of the scholastic milieu. Our moderator, Luciana Lederman not only runs the Beit Midrash at the Jewish theological seminary, but also studies the place of ritual learning in non-ritual settings.

Sub Unit

• Interdisciplinary Approaches

Moderator

• Luciana Pajecki Lederman, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Discussants

• Elias Sacks, University of Colorado Boulder

• Philip Keisman, Jewish Theological Seminary

• Sara Wolkenfeld

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 10