David Weiss Halivni
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Rabbi David Weiss Halivni is a scholar of Talmud and a Holocaust survivor, originally of Sighet, Hungary.
Personal history
Professor Halivni's name was formerly "David Weiss"; however, after World War II, he wanted to change his name, because "Weiss" had been the last name of a certain Nazi guard in a concentration camp where he had been imprisoned. He first thought to change his name to "David Halivni", as halivni in Hebrew means the white one, just as Weiss means white in Yiddish. However, he did not want to give up the name "Weiss" entirely, for it had been the name of his teacher / grandfather, Yesha'yah Weiss. Therefore, he settled on "David Weiss-Halivni."
He studied for a short while in the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in New York. He is the author of Mekorot u'Mesorot, a projected ten volume commentary on the Talmud. He is also the author of the English language volumes Peshat and Derash, Revelation Restored, his memoirs The Book and the Sword and others. Rabbi Halivni also served as Littauer Professor of Talmud and Classical Rabbinics in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. He is the Head of the Metivta of the Union for Traditional Judaism [link].
A close student (or talmid-haver) of Rabbi Saul Lieberman, he studied with him for many years at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Conservative Judaism. Halivni left the Seminary in the 1980s after the controversy surrounding the training and ordination of women as rabbis. He felt that there may be halakhic methods for ordaining women as rabbis but that more time was needed before such could be legitimately instituted. His disagreement with the process by which JTS studied the ordination of women led to his break with the seminary and co-found the Union for Traditional Judaism.
Controversy
His methodology of source-critical analysis of the Talmud is controversial among most Orthodox Jews, but is accepted in the non-Orthodox Jewish community, and by some within Modern Orthodoxy. Halivni terms the anonymous editors of the Talmud as Stammaim, placing them after the period of the Tannaim, and Amoraim, but before the Geonic period. He posits that these Stammaim did not always fully understand the context and import of the statement of the Tanna or Amorah when it was said. 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.
Another controversial aspect of Halivni thought is his attempt in his books Peshat and Derash and Revelation Restored to harmonize biblical criticism with fundamentalist religious belief. He has developed a concept that he terms Chate'u Israel, in which he states that the biblical texts originally given to Moses have become irretrievably corrupted.
Impact
His impact on the Jewish Theological Seminary has been profound. Most of the Talmud professors at JTS follow his source-critical approach. This has impacted the manner in which Talmud is taught to its students. It has been noted that there is a qualitative difference between the pre-Halivni period and the post Halivni period at JTS in terms of the students' Talmudic literacy and scholarship. Halivni himself has indicated on many occasions that he has been unable to pass on his methodology to his students.
Until recently, Halivni was the spiritual leader of Kehilat Orach Eliezer (KOE, [link]), a congregation on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a position he had held since the congregation's foundation in 1992. In 2002, there was a big controversy at this congregation, for many members of the community wanted to allow women to be called up to the Torah, which, while while supported by a then-recent legal argument by Rabbi Mendel Shapiro, is opposed by many Rabbis for halakhic and sociological reasons. Halivni was not excited about the practice, and told the congregation: “I shall allow it, but only if it is done no more frequently than a few times a year, and only if it is done in a separate room from the ‘real’ service.” Thus, the congregation allows this practice only under very limited circumstances. Nevertheless, even this “compromise” was far too liberal for many congregants. On the other side, many liberals were frustrated by KOE's failure to include women in the Torah service, and as a result founded their own prayer group, Darkhei No'am ([link]). (See Partnership Minyan for a general description of such prayer groups.)
Current work
In July 2005, Rabbi Halivni in retiring from Columbia University, emigrated to Israel. He now holds a position at Bar-Ilan University, and also teaches at Hebrew University.
Rabbi Dr. Halivni is married to Dr. Zipporah Halivni, formerly of the Chemistry department in Columbia University, and is father to three sons.
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