Friday, November 5, 2010

“Once-in-a-millennium scholar”? Really?

Melbourne Rabbi posts:

I have noticed over the years that every time Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz gets mentioned in the AJN - whether it be an article or an advertisement we are reminded that the internationally renowned Maven on Torah scholars and rabbis - Time magazine - labelled him as a “once-in-a-millennium scholar”.
Now if this designation referred to the current millennium which began 10 years ago, it may be palatable to many, though I doubt that those who know of Rav Chaim Kanievski or Rav S Y Elyashiv would agree. But Time wrote this some time in the 80s so they were referring to the earlier millennium.

I am always amazed at the childlike naivety of the average person in accepting and repeating such nonsense.

Rabbi Steinsaltz is indeed an extraordinary and notable scholar. But to make and repeat such an absurd statement is mind-boggling. Is he really a greater scholar than the Rambam, Ramban, Rashi, Rosh, Rav Yosef Karo? Or even more recent Gedolim, eg, the Rogatchover, the Chafetz Chaim, the Chazon Ish, etc etc?

Come on Australian Jewry, grow up!

3 comments:

  1. here's more comment http://tinyurl.com/2b2e6vj

    ReplyDelete
  2. from the LA Jewish Journal

    L.A.’s Global Day of Jewish Learning canceled
    By Jonah Lowenfeld

    On Sunday, Nov. 7, more than 350 communities around the world will take part in the Global Day of Jewish Learning. Due to low pre-registration numbers, Greater Los Angeles will not be among them.

    “We had a great program planned, and to do a quality program we needed more people, and we just didn’t have them,” said Rabbi Mark S. Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, which was one of the event’s local co-sponsors. LimmudLA, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Shalom Institute were also co-sponsors of the Los Angeles event, which was to have taken place at Camp JCA Shalom in Malibu.

    In addition to affirming Jewish learning as a central part of Jewish life and culture, the Global Day of Jewish Learning is intended to celebrate Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’s completion of his translation of and commentary on the Talmud, a project Steinsaltz started nearly five decades ago. The Aleph Society, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting Steinsaltz’s work and to making Jewish texts accessible to Jews around the world, is spearheading Sunday’s event along with about 40 major Jewish organizations.

    The Global Day of Jewish Learning was announced at last year’s General Assembly and has been advertised on a number of different Jewish news sites.

    Saying that the decision to cancel the event was made “with great regret,” Diamond was nevertheless certain that calling it off was the right way to go. “Sometimes you plan a great program and you don’t get the people necessary,” he said. “I’d rather admit that and move on rather than try to run a program for too few people.”


    Let's hope that the Melb event is more successful

    ReplyDelete
  3. so none of you have anything better to do than sit here and criticise articles written by professional journalists just because they displease you? what a sad, sad life you live.

    ReplyDelete

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