A Modern Orthodox Life: Sermons and Columns of Rabbi Emanuel Rackman - Hardcover

Emanuel Rackman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1602800235 ISBN 13: 9781602800236

Publisher: KTAV Publishing House, 2008

Synopsis

A Modern Orthodox Life by Rabbi Emanuel Rackman brings together some 13 sermons, 62 columns (out of nearly one thousand columns) published in the New York Jewish Week from 1971 through 1992 by one of Modern Orthodoxy s most distinguished figures. Some of the writings in this volume go back many years, but the thoughts they express are as pertinent today as they were when first set down. They cover a broad range of topics that will be of interest to thoughtful readers of every Jewish background. All in all, this volume is a moving and profoundly human distillation of the wisdom of a lifetime spent in the rabbinate.

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman is Chancellor Emeritus of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, and previously served for many decades first as its President beginning in 1977 and then as its Chancellor. Before taking up his responsibilities at Bar-Ilan, he was Provost of Yeshiva University in New York City, where he taught political science and jurisprudence. During his long and fruitful career, he has also served as spiritual leader of Shaaray Tefila in Far Rockaway, NY. (1946-1967) and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan (1967-1977), as president of the New York Board of Rabbis (1955-1957) and the Rabbinical Council of America (1958-1960), as chairman of the Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy in the U.S. Armed Forces, and as associate editor of Tradition, a publication of the Rabbinical Council of America.

Born in Albany, NY in 1910, he graduated Columbia College in 1929 and graduated Columbia Law School in 1931 and was ordained at R.I.E.T.S. in that same year. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia in 1952. He served as a chaplain in World War II and in the Air Force Reserves for 20 years thereafter. He also headed Jewish Studies at the City University of New York from 1971 to 1977.

This book is a treasure for anyone interested in passionate, rational Judaism. Reading Rabbi Rackman s sermons and essays, some going back many decades, I was struck by how relevant they are today, and how important his voice was, and is, particularly in an Orthodox Jewish community that has become more fundamentalist in practice and less compassionate in spirit. There is no better time to reflect on and appreciate Rabbi Rackman s shared wisdom.
Gary Rosenblatt, Editor and Publisher, The Jewish Week, New York

No one can describe or model the essence of Modern Orthodox Judaism better than Rabbi Rackman. This fascinatingly readable collection of sermons from the 50 s and 60 s, and columns from the 70 s through the 90 s, is at once a history of Modern Orthodox thought in America and the impressive measure of one of its most eloquent, informative, and inspiring spokesmen.
Haskel Lookstein, Senior Rabbi, Congreation Kehilath Jeshurun, New York

If you read these works and afterwards check the original date, you will understand what way ahead of his time means. This book contains a lifetime of wisdom, of compassionate caring, of courage and fearlessness in speaking out for justice when others fell silent. Read this book for its stimulating Torah, its insightful spirituality and, most of all, to encounter the mind and soul of a great rabbinic leader of our times.
Blu and Yitz Greenberg; Blu Greenberg is a founder and Past
President of JOFA and Yitz Greenberg is a Past President of
the Jewish Life Network and CLAL.

This book -- and Rabbi Rackman -- provide a model for how Jewish life ought to be conducted and how Jewish principles and commitments should find expression in both private life and the public arena.
David Ellenson, President, Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion.

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman is a legend in our times. Caring, incisive and courageous, his essays reflect bold responses to the

About this edition

• Publisher: KTAV Publishing House
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1602800235
• ISBN 13: 9781602800236
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308