Rabbi Noah Whittenburg, in his insightful essay “The Power of Inspiration” (November 7, 2024) highlighted the vital role played by Rabbi Meir Shapiro (1887-1933) in shaping modern-day Orthodoxy. I have deep respect for Rabbis Whittenburg and Shapiro. (Full disclosure: The former is the assistant rabbi of my shul.) But any essay that encourages its reader to imagine who had the “greatest impact” will invite discussion and disagreement.
The contributions of Rabbi Shapiro to Jewish life ought to be lauded. But one wonders if they were truly unique or changed the course of Jewish history.
Support for talmidim had already begun at the Volozhin Yeshiva. As Professor Shaul Stampfer documents in his magisterial history of the yeshiva, “at Volozhin, every needy student received a weekly stipend from the yeshiva so he could pay for board and lodging with local families (rather than rely on their hospitality)” (“The Lithuanian Yeshivas,” p. 34). In fact, one wonders if the transformation of the yeshiva into a self- contained institution contributed to the process of separating yeshivot from their local communal contexts.
Likewise, the proliferation of “yomi” study preceded Rabbi Shapiro. Eastern European Jews often belonged to various chevrot that engaged in the daily and organized study of a Torah text—Tehillim, Chumash, Mishnah, Ein Yaakov and the like. These groups inspired the creation of Daf Yomi, the novelty of which is that even ordinary Jews should regularly engage with the hardest text in our literary canon.
Which modern Jew had the greatest impact on contemporary Orthodoxy?
Thankfully, there are so many from which to choose. Two revolutionary figures come to my mind. The first is Rav Moshe miDessau (1729-1786), better known as Moses Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn, who stood on the threshold of modernity, was the first Jew to articulate what a religious life might look like in a world of free choice. Whether one agrees or disagrees with his approach and philosophy, Mendelssohn started a conversation that we all inevitably continue.
The second is Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch (1808-1888), who first put vision and substance to the very term Orthodoxy, a “right thinking” way (in ancient Greek, orthos means “right” and doxos means “opinion” or “notion”) to save Jewish souls from the then thriving Reform movement.
