Reply To: R Soloveichik on girls education

As the link did not get thru: the person asking the shaila R Rosenfeld was the head of the New York Board of Jewish Education at the time, asking on behalf of the board, and committing, after the first non-response “why should I write something controversial for no reason”, to implement the psak, whatever it will be.

here are a couple of other interesting tidbits

– RYBS, like his grandfather, in a Brisker way, did not fit well into a posek role as he often saw different sides of the issue. R Chaim, for example, referred some shailahs to R Spector.

– here is a response rejecting cooperation with non-O on a Chumash translation, so you don’t conclude that he is always meikil and bending to “current conditions”: I noticed in your letter that you are a bit disturbed about the probability of being left out. Let me tell you that this attitude of fear is responsible for many commissions and omissions, compromises and fallacies on our part which have contributed greatly to the prevailing confusion within the Jewish community and to the loss of our self-esteem, our experience of ourselves as independent entities committed to a unique philosophy and way of life. Of course, sociability is a basic virtue and we all hate loneliness and dread the experience of being left alone. Yet at times, there is no alternative and we must courageously face the test.

– similarly, With full cognizance of the implications of such a halakhic decision, I would still advise every Orthodox Jew to forego tefilah betzibbur even on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur rather than enter a synagogue with mixed pews.

– When shown a responsum by a non-Orthodox scholar,
… I have not read the responsum you sent me on the question of grafting human bone tissue. I tore it up immediately. I refuse to deal with any halakhic essay, regardless of its scholastic merits or fallacies, prepared by a representative of a group whose philosophy is diametrically opposed to Torah and tradition and which does not accept the authority of Halakhah as a Divine and transcendental guide for the individual and the community.