The Lessons We Learn From Each Other: Rabbi Dr. David Weiss HaLivni z’l

I have often written about people who have inspired me – the teachers and Rabbis whom I have had the ‘zechut’ (privilege) of learning with and from; my amazing peers whom I have been privileged to work with in trying to bring the best out from all of us; and the students who have always made everything so worthwhile and from whom I have always learned new insights. I have always taken the dictum of “Be not a sage on the stage, but rather a guide on the side” seriously and have tried continually to live by it.

Yesterday we learned about the death of one of the most remarkable teachers, people and ‘mensches’ (amazing human beings) with whom I have ever had the honor of sharing an orbit. Rabbi Dr. David Weiss HaLivni left our earthly community of learners, Jews, seekers, and human beings after 94 years of sharing his wisdom, his intellect and most important his heart with us. This loss comes at a time when our world is so fractured, too many have lost the sense of the importance of nuance and no longer value the skill set of listening and learning with and from others. While one of the most formidable sages, he always took on the persona of the guide on the side when I was in the room with him.

Rabbi Dr. Weiss HaLivni was acknowledged as a Talmudic prodigy and was ordained as a Rabbi in his hometown of Sighet before reaching the age of 17. He and Elie Wiesel were lifelong friends and Wiesel often publicly credited HaLivni with safekeeping his Jewish soul and spirit during the horrors of the Holocaust. HaLivni would learn daily in the most horrible of circumstances, using his photographic memory of the Talmud and so much else. His method of learning with others was to reflect the conversation in the Talmudic page, pointing to the disagreement amongst the Rabbis and continuing the lively questioning process drew a great deal of criticism. He was one of the scholarly, strictly observant Jewish leaders who chose to teach at the Jewish Theological Seminary (the Conservative Rabbinical Seminary where he earned his doctorate) at a time when this was a line of demarcation between Conservative and Orthodox approaches in learning. He was there until 1983 when the Conservative Movement changed considerably (ordaining women was part of the realignment, but to be sure, there were other issues as well).

I am an observant Jew who was brought up in Baltimore. In my own educational journey, I was exposed to and educated by scholars of all ideological positions who encouraged such questioning and dialogue – including educators and Rabbis from Gateshead in England, Ner Yisrael in Baltimore, and non-Orthodox learning institutions as well. This notion that guided Weiss HaLivni’s life that one’s level of observance and adherence is not compromised by questions and exploration, hoping to truly absorb the complexity of our faith and its elements resonated well with me.

During the 1980s, I was literally thrown out as a professional in the Conservative Movement’s Educational Leadership in Greater Philadelphia because I was “too observant and therefore not an apt role model.” I had been told I have no home in the movement that began as an incredibly rich intellectual journey in the 1800s with strictly observant Jews. It was then that I could only find community in an Orthodox shul. At the same time, in the fall of 1984, a new organization, The Union for Traditional Judaism was formed and both Rabbi Dr. Weiss HaLivni and I found a home there – he as our founding Rav and me as a founding board member. I was immediately embraced by this group, closer to the roots of the Conservative Movement than what was happening in too many communities and Rabbi Weiss HaLivni became my Rav. In fact, I was privileged to bring him to other communities in my professional world in the years that would follow. One particularly poignant event that was supposed to happen was a conversation between him and Elie Wiesel at a Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education winter conference. However, unfortunately Wiesel was ill at the time, so we just engaged in a wonderful chat with Rabbi Weiss HaLivni, in a style that was uniquely his. You always felt like you belonged and he became an important support structure for me during the 1990s.

This worked for a number of years and Rabbi Weiss HaLivni reinforced that I was on the right track as a learner, engaging with the culture of disputation that one finds in the Gemara, and in many ways keeps Jewish learning alive and fresh throughout generations. I think of him from time to time today and how much more we need voices like his in our deeply fractured world. Too much of Orthodoxy has in too many cases become narrowly “yeshivishized” and is barely recognizable to me, who grew up within its framework. The great divide between those way to the right and others way to the left of our Jewish continuum leave too many of us (who are indeed observant) bereft of our embracing wider Jewish tent.

This is in many ways a loss beyond words. Rabbi Dr. Weiss Halivni gave so much during his 94 years. It is now up to us to continue to take up what he called The Book and the Sword (title of his seminal book) and learn in his spirit and merit. May the teachings and the character of David Weiss HaLivni continue to inspire us all and for those of us who were privileged to learn from him, let us remember the spirit as well as the words and impart both to others.