David Weiss Halivni ( he, דוד וייס הלבני; September 27, 1927 – June 28, 2022) was a European-born American-Israeli

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

in the domain of Jewish sciences, and Professor of

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

. He served as '' Reish Metivta'' of the

Union for Traditional Judaism The Union for Traditional Judaism, founded in 1984, is a traditional, Halakhic Jewish outreach and communal service organization. It initially called itself "The Union for Traditional Conservative Judaism" but dropped "Conservative" from its tit ...

rabbinical school A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are stud ...

Biography

David Weiss was born on September 27, 1927, in Kobyletska Poliana (Кобилецька Поляна, Poiana Cobilei, Gyertyánliget) in

Carpathian Ruthenia Carpathian Ruthenia ( rue, Карпатьска Русь, Karpat'ska Rus'; uk, Закарпаття, Zakarpattia; sk, Podkarpatská Rus; hu, Kárpátalja; ro, Transcarpatia; pl, Zakarpacie); cz, Podkarpatská Rus; german: Karpatenukrai ...

, then in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

(now in Rakhiv Raion,

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

). His parents separated when he was 4 years old, and he grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Isaiah (Shaye) Weiss, a

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism ( Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of conte ...

Talmud scholar in Sighet,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. His grandfather began teaching him at age 5, and he was regarded as an '' Illui'' ; he received semicha (rabbinic ordination) at age 15 from Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Gross of the town's

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy a ...

.See the Hebrew Wikipedia article :he:דוד הלבני In March 1944, German troops arrived in Sighet to deport the town's Jewish population to

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

. Weiss, then 16 years old, was sent to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

along with his grandfather, mother, and sister; his father, Ephraim Bezalel Viderman, was murdered by the Nazis elsewhere. The remaining members of his family at Auschwitz were murdered, leaving Weiss as the sole survivor of his family at age 16. One week after he arrived at Auschwitz, Weiss transferred to the forced labor camps at Gross-Rosen, Wolfsberg, and then

Mauthausen Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further ...

, where he worked in a munitions plant. When he arrived in the United States at the age of 18 after his liberation, he was placed in a Jewish

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or a ...

, where he created a stir by challenging the

kashrut (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fr ...

of the institution. A

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

introduced him to Rabbi Saul Lieberman, a leading Talmudist at the

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studie ...

(JTS) in New York, who recognized his brilliance and took him under his wing. Weiss later studied with Lieberman for many years at the JTS. Initially, he studied in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin under Yitzchak Hutner and was allowed to forgo lectures because of his advanced standing. Over the next decade, he completed high school; earned a bachelor's degree in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

from

Brooklyn College , mottoeng = Nothing without great effort , established = , parent = CUNY , type = Public university , endowment = $98.0 million (2019) , budget = $123.96 m ...

; a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in philosophy from

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, and his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in Talmud at JTS. He married Zipporah Hager, a descendant of the Vizhnitzer Rebbes, in 1953, and the couple settled in Manhattan. They had three children: Baruch (formally known as Bernard), Ephraim, and Yeshiahu. Halivni had six grandchildren: Avidan, Hadar, Daniel, Rebecca, Benjamin (Jamin), and Eliana. Weiss, which is German for ''white'', later changed his name to "Halivni," the Hebrew word for ''white''. He died on June 18, 2022, at his home in Jerusalem at the age of 94.

Academic career

For many years he served as a Professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS). He resigned in 1983. Halivni later served as Littauer Professor of Talmud and Classical Rabbinics in the Department of Religion at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In July 2005, he retired from Columbia University and moved to Israel, where he taught at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

and

Bar Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...

until his death. Halivni's "source-critical approach" to Talmud study had a major impact on academic understanding and study of the Talmud. The traditional understanding viewed the Talmud as a unified homogeneous work. While other scholars had also treated the Talmud as a multi-layered work, Halivni's innovation (primarily in the second volume of his ''Mekorot u-Mesorot'') was to distinguish between the onymous statements, which are generally succinct Halachic rulings or inquiries attributed to known

Amoraim ''Amoraim'' (Aramaic: plural or , singular ''Amora'' or ''Amoray''; "those who say" or "those who speak over the people", or "spokesmen") refers to Jewish scholars of the period from about 200 to 500 CE, who "said" or "told over" the teachi ...

, and the anonymous statements, characterized by a much longer analysis often consisting of lengthy dialectic discussion, which he attributed to the later authors- "Stamma'im" (or

Savora A ''Savora'' (; Aramaic: סבורא, "a reasoner", plural ''Savora'im'', ''Sabora'im'' , סבוראים) is a term used in Jewish law and history to signify one among the leading rabbis living from the end of period of the '' Amoraim'' (around 50 ...

'im). It has been noted that indeed the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...

is very similar to the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cent ...

, minus Stammaitic activity, which is to be found only in the latter. His methodology of ''source-critical analysis'' of the

is controversial among most Orthodox Jews, but is accepted in the non-Orthodox Jewish community, and by some within

Modern Orthodoxy Modern Orthodox Judaism (also Modern Orthodox or Modern Orthodoxy) is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to Torah Umadda#Synthesis, synthesize Jewish principles of faith, Jewish values and the halakha, observance of Jewish law with t ...

. Halivni terms the anonymous texts of the Talmud as having been said by ''Stammaim'' (based on the phrase "stama d'talmuda" which refers to the anonymous material in the

Gemara The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemo(r)re; from Aramaic , from the Semitic root ג-מ-ר ''gamar'', to finish or complete) is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah ...

), who lived after the period of the

, but before the

Geonic ''Geonim'' ( he, גאונים; ; also transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders o ...

period. He posits that these ''Stammaim'' were the recipients of terse Tannaitic and Amoraic statements and that they endeavored to fill in the reasoning and argumentative background to such apodictic statements. The methodology employed in his commentary ''Mekorot u' Mesorot'' attempts to give Halivni's analysis of the correct import and context and demonstrates how the Talmudic ''Stammaim'' often erred in their understanding of the original context. In Halivni's books ''Peshat and Derash'' and ''Revelation Restored'', he attempts to harmonize

biblical criticism Biblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical criticism,'' it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to ...

with traditional religious belief using a concept he developed termed ''Chate'u Israel'' (literally, "Israel has sinned"). This concept states that the biblical texts originally given to Moses have become irretrievably corrupted. ''Revelation Restored'' writes as follows:

According to the biblical account itself, the people of Israel forsook the Torah, in the dramatic episode of the golden calf, only forty days after the revelation at Sinai. From that point on, until the time of Ezra, the scriptures reveal that the people of Israel were steeped in idolatry and negligent of the Mosaic law. Chate'u Yisrael states that in the period of neglect and syncretism after the conquest of Canaan when the originally monotheistic Israelites adopted pagan practices from their neighbours, the Torah of Moses became "blemished and maculated".

According to Halivni, this process continued until the time of Ezra (c.450 BCE), whereupon their return from Babylon the people accepted the Torah. It was at that time that the previously rejected, and therefore maculated, text of the Torah was recompiled and edited by Ezra and his "entourage." He claims that this is attested in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and Halivni supports his theory with Talmudic and Midrashic sources which indicate that Ezra played a role in editing the Torah. He further states that while the text of the Pentateuch was corrupted, oral tradition preserved intact many of the laws, which is why the Oral Law appears to contradict the Biblical text in certain details. This view was seen as possibly being in contradiction to the 8th of

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

' 13 principles of faith, which states "the Torah that we have today is the one that was dictated to Moses by God". As a result, Halivni's assertions were rejected by some Orthodox rabbis.

Views and opinions

Halivni was involved in the 1983 controversy at JTS surrounding the training and ordination of women as

s. He felt that there could be halakhic methods for ordaining women as rabbis but more time was needed before this could be legitimately instituted. He maintained that it was a policy decision by the governing body of the Seminary rather than a ''psak halachah'' based on the traditional rabbinic legal process.

Published works

Halivni's published works include: *''Mekorot u'Mesorot'' (Hebrew). Commentary on the Talmud. It currently contains 9 volumes (1. Introductions, 2. Shabbat, 3. Eruvin and Pesahim, 4. Yoma-Hagigah, 5. Seder Nashim, 6. Bava Kamma, 7. Bava Mezia, 8. Bava Batra, 9. Sanhedrin, Makkot, Shevuot, Makkot, Avodah Zarah, Horayot), and a 10th volume (Zevahim and Menahot) that he left in manuscript and is being prepared for publication by his family. *''Peshat and Derash'' : plain and applied meaning in Rabbinic exegesis. Oxford, England : Oxford University Press, 1991. *''Revelation Restored'' : divine writ and critical responses. Boulder, Colo : Westview Press, 1997. *''The Book and the Sword'' : a life of learning in the shadow of destruction. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996. His memoirs. *''Breaking the Tablets: Jewish Theology After the Shoah''. Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, ©2007. A collection of essays on Holocaust theology. The central thesis of "Breaking the Tablets" is that the history of the Jews is "bookmarked" by two diametrically opposing "revelations": Sinai and Auschwitz. The revelation on Mount Sinai was the apex of God's nearness to the Jews, while the revelation at Auschwitz was the nadir of God's absence from them. Halivni's conviction is that Auschwitz represents not merely God's "hiding his face" from Israel, as a consequence of the Jews' sins — a familiar trope in rabbinic theology — but also his actual, ontological withdrawal from human history. In ''Breaking the Tablets'' Halivni explicitly rejected the notion that this withdrawal is simply an example of "God hiding his face" as viewed in normative Judaism. The concept of ''hester panim'' (God's hiding his face) is classically used with regard to punishment, and Halivni is adamant that the Holocaust cannot in any way be regarded as a punishment for Israel's sins.

Awards and recognition

* In 1985, Halivni was a co-recipient (jointly with Hillel Barzel and

Shlomo Pines Shlomo Pines (; ; August 5, 1908 in Charenton-le-Pont – January 9, 1990 in Jerusalem) was an Israeli scholar of Jewish and Islamic philosophy, best known for his English translation of Maimonides' ''Guide of the Perplexed''. Biography Pines ...

) of the

Bialik Prize The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel, for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Israel's national poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik Hayim Nahman Bialik ...

for Jewish thought. *In 1997, he won awarded the

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

for his Talmudic work.

References