Reviewing: “Search Engine: Finding Meaning in Jewish Texts, Volume 2,” by Rabbi Gil Student. Kodesh Press. 2018. $24.95.
Rabbi Akiva: The Great Out-of-the-Box-Thinking Tanna
His path was so different from all the other Tana’im (contributors to the Mishnah), and thus Rabbi Akiva’s approaches were so different from all the other Tana’im. Rabbi Akiva began to study Torah at the age of 40. So how did he manage to catch up with his colleagues who began learning at a tender young age, let alone dramatically surpass them all and emerge as the leading scholar of his generation and the most illustrious of all of the Tana’im?
We suggest that Rabbi Akiva specifically utilized his late start as a means to launch his great Torah career. He used his unusual path to look at things and examine Torah in a different manner from which everyone else was accustomed. This in turn facilitated his greatness. Rabbi Akiva thought out of the box and saw things no one else was able to see. As such, thousands upon thousands of talmidim flocked to his revolutionary new ways of revealing the inner depths of Torah.
Two examples illustrate Rabbi Akiva’s willingness to break from what had been the conventional wisdom. Until Rabbi Akiva, the Gemara (Bava Metzia 62a) reports, all thought that if two people were walking in the desert with enough water only for one of them, they had to share the water even if this meant the demise of both parties. Ad sheba Rabbi Akiva, until Rabbi Akiva came and interpreted “v’chai achicha imach,” that your life enjoys priority over another’s life. Only after helping himself does one help others. Thus, taught Rabbi Akiva in what emerged as the accepted view, the one holding the water may not place himself in grave danger in an attempt to preserve the life of his companion.
Gemara Shabbat 64a reports that rabbanim did not give their blessing to a woman using cosmetics at a time when she is not permitted to her husband. Ad sheba Rabbi Akiva, who boldly overturned this ruling, arguing that it threatened to damage the vitality of a marriage.
During an enjoyable Shabbat last March, distinguished Orthodox physicist Dr. Jeremy England shared another important insight into Rabbi Akiva. Dr. England argued that Rabbi Akiva’s background prepared him, unlike three of his illustrious colleagues and teachers, to emerge unscathed for his mystical journey in Pardes (Chagiga 14a). Rabbi Akiva, explains Dr. England, was able to find the path back to Torah when confronted with challenges to his faith. Since he forged a path to Torah later in life, Rabbi Akiva, unlike his colleagues and teachers who grew up with Torah, left “a trail of gingerbread crumbs” that guided him back when confronted with mysteries of the world he was unable to unravel.
Rabbi Gil Student’s Approach
The Orthodox community has learned that when one sees an article penned by Rabbi Gil Student, it is an article worth reading. Like Rabbi Akiva, we have come to expect an out-of-the-box approach from Rabbi Student that does not shy away from breaking from the conventional wisdom and confronting the “sacred cows” of the community.
In his second volume of “Search Engine: Finding Meaning in Jewish Texts,” which focuses on Jewish leadership, Rabbi Student does not shy away from a critical examination of each and every aspect of the Jewish community and its leadership. In this volume, which grapples with a stunning array of communal issues, no one escapes some gentle and necessary criticism from Rabbi Student. He is critical of those segments of the charedi community that devalue the importance of gainful employment, he evaluates whether Israel’s Chief Rabbinate is an institution worth maintaining, he documents Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s dramatic shift to the Orthodox hard left and even includes bold discussions on challenging and rating one’s rabbi.
Rabbi Student, as he relates in the book, began in a non-Orthodox synagogue and a non-Orthodox day school. He thus was raised outside of what some may consider the groupthink of the Orthodox community. He continues to function in an out-of-the-box fashion. He lives in a moderately charedi community and sent/sends his children to moderately charedi schools. Yet he functions professionally for the most part within the Modern Orthodox community.
He does not serve in a typical position of a pulpit rabbi or a teacher or administrator in a Jewish school. Rather, he is a master blogger on the “Orthodox internet” and editor for the Orthodox Union’s publications. Rabbi Student’s out-of-the-box professional life affords him a view of the community that typically differs from what most Orthodox writers project in their columns.
Moreover, in this volume, Rabbi Student does not hold back from examining books and essays composed by less-than-traditional writers. Rabbi Student does not shy away from these topics and offers a cogent response to those whose approach deviates (sometimes severely so) from the Orthodox mainstream. Similar to Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Student has left a trail of gingerbread crumbs that leads him from the non-Orthodox viewpoints back to the embrace of tradition.
One specific example illustrates this phenomenon. Rabbi Student has emerged as a leading critic of Open Orthodoxy in general and women’s ordination specifically. Interestingly, it is specifically Rabbi Student’s rejection of Conservative Judaism as a youngster that propels him to see the immense spiritual dangers posed by the dissidents within the Orthodox community.
He offers, yes, an out-of-the-box response to the proponents of ordination of Orthodox women as rabbis. He distinguishes between influence and authority. He notes that the internet has leveled the intellectual playing field and thus one can exert much influence today without wielding formal authority. Thus, he argues that those who advocate women’s ordination are behind the times, which now diminishes the role of authority and champions the role of influence. Thus, Orthodox women can exert much influence without the need of the authority conferred by a formal title. They can fulfill the traditional role of the navi who historically exerted much influence without occupying any formal position. Moreover, the nevi’im and their contemporary successors did and do exert great influence specifically because they do not enjoy a formal position of authority.
All in all, Rabbi Student’s writings and specifically his new book follows in the spirit of Rabbi Akiva, and thousands upon thousands are drawn to drink from his fount of wisdom. One caveat, however: The essays in these books fall in the genre of an op-ed, not an in-depth examination of specific topics. There is certainly a place and a great need for Orthodox op-eds written from the view of tradition and that espouse views that emerge from an analysis of traditional sources. However, many topics are better addressed in a more in-depth format. One example is Rabbi Student’s treatment of Epipen pricing. While his approach is interesting and, once again, an out-of-the-box approach, one is left with the gnawing feeling that this is a far more complex issue than what is presented in Rabbi Student’s essay. Many more issues, such as the question of ona’at mamon (price gouging) in the contemporary marketplace, require a far more in-depth exploration in order to arrive at an authoritative conclusion regarding this controversial matter.
We in the Orthodox community are most fortunate that Rabbi Akiva arose from his humble origins as a shepherd to emerge as a transformational figure who made an indelible impact on Torah Judaism. We are also most fortunate that Rabbi Gil Student has forged his unique path of Torah influence whose writings enrich and inform. He indeed exerts much influence on our community as a major thought leader of the Jewish world.
By Rabbi Haim Jachter
