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Shall We Never Sled Again?

Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein’s Classic Exchange with Rabbi Aharon Feldman

In 2009, Rabbi Aharon Feldman, Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivat Ner Yisrael in Baltimore, Maryland,
published The Eye of the Storm: A Calm View of Raging Issues. Despite its title, the book is a
passionate and frequently angry polemic “directed towards those parts of the Jewish people which
are not Jewish” – a group in which he includes secular Zionists in Israel and the Diaspora.

In the Spring 2010 issue of Jewish Action, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l, Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivat
Har Etzion, penned a powerful review and critique of Rabbi Feldman’s book. Though he shared
Rabbi Feldman’s commitment to Torah values, Rabbi Lichtenstein was deeply troubled by Rabbi
Feldman’s wholesale dismissal of the Zionist movement and its accomplishments. Rabbi Lichtenstein
wondered why Rabbi Feldman could not take a more nuanced view acknowledging that Zionism
and the State of Israel had contributed greatly to the character of Judaism, even while its vision and
reality leave much much to be desired. It is possible to appreciate the imperfect accomplishments
of Zionism while also working to restore the glory of Torah in Eretz Yisrael!

Most memorable, however, were Rabbi Lichtenstein’s personal recollections of his childhood
friendship with Rabbi Feldman. Though they now found themselves in different ideological camps,
he yearned for the day when the Religious Zionist and Charedi communities would draw closer
together. May we soon see that day!

f I may intrude in a personal to others that which we have been moat plunge quite so deep? Shall we
vein, Rabbi Feldman’s persona endowed. It stands to reason and never sled again?
arouses in me latent but very is, presumably, mandated by a joint
Iwarm memories. We were mission, that our worlds meet and Thank you to Ari Gontownik for his help with
classmates during 1942–1943 in the attain mutual fruition. As we both this article.
shiur of Rabbi Yaakov Bobrovsky zt”l, painfully know, however, this occurs
at Talmudical Academy of Baltimore all too rarely. Excerpted from Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein,
– I, a spindly nine-year-old immigrant “Hands Across the Ocean: A Review of Rabbi
of limited social skills and of dubious Must the walls that separate our
acculturation; he, a bit older, firmly communities and our institutions Aharon Feldman’s The Eye of the Storm,”
entrenched in both a home of soar quite so high, the interposing Jewish Action vol. 70, no. 3 (Spring 2010).
Lithuanian rabbinic stock and in his
native American milieu. We were both
eager, and bright; he, beyond that, to
me, a tower of strength. He befriended
me and invited me frequently to his
home. I still fondly recall the chilling
warmth of joint sledding in Druid Hill
Park on Sunday afternoons. When my
family moved to Chicago after a year,
the friendship gradually dissipated.
But the memory and the appreciation
linger…
Dear Reb Aharon: That pair of juvenile
prattling sledders is now well past
seventy-five. Each has, besiyata
diShmaya, in successive contexts,
respectively, learned much Torah and
has been blessed with the ability and
the circumstances to enable reaching
out and personally transmitting

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