Riskin’s Life
Shlomo Riskin is an impressive rabbi. He is in his mid-80s now and has had a stellar career. He was trained as an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and was, for a season, the rabbi of the flagship and famous Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan. Riskin was the rabbi for the bat mitzvah of Elana Kagan, the Supreme Court Justice. He studied under the famous Orthodox rabbinic scholar Joseph Soloveichik.
After making aliyah—immigration to Israel—he became the rabbi of the settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem. The town grew large. He developed a system of schools for all ages and a yeshiva, the Or Torah Stone Schools.
Riskin has been a very passionate Zionist and is also very connected to Christian Zionist leaders, some of whom are my friends. He has not been open to Messianic Jews.
His Basic Presentation
After I read a review of his book, Judaism: A Love Story, in the Jerusalem Post, I thought it would be good to read the book. I have to say, after reading it—well done! Riskin makes Modern Orthodox Judaism very attractive. The book is a great apologetic for Judaism. He believes the biblical narrative and sees the ancient history of Israel as accurately presented in the biblical accounts.
The book presents wonderful insight into the Jewish pattern of life, especially the Sabbath and the cycle of feasts. He provides material for giving greater depth to their meaning and celebration. He deals with intriguing questions as well. He also does a fine job of interpreting circumcision. The spiritual meaning and discipline of the food laws is also well presented. As a discipline, it shows a giving up of freedom to eat as we please in order to make eating part of a distinction of Jewish life dedicated to God and His commands, even if we do not know the reason for them all. I say amen to this—but not to the rabbinic additions to biblical kosher laws.
The Weaknesses of Riskin and Orthodox Judaism
What are the weaknesses of his book? Being an Orthodox Jew, Riskin has to embrace the oral tradition of Rabbinic Judaism as from God. He does not argue that God gave the oral law in detail to Moses, but rather the principle of rabbinic interpretation and authority. When Moses cuts out the two tablets of stone to replace the originals that were broken in response to the golden calf incident, we are to see human involvement in producing the laws of God, anticipating the rabbinic oral law.
Riskin does not emphasize keeping the details and minutiae of rabbinic law, but Orthodox Jews are committed to it. As part of this, Riskin defends the exegetical rules of Rabbi Ishmael in the second century. Rabbi Lawrence Schiffman at New York University argues, in his From Text to Tradition, that the rabbinic method of exegesis was developed so that the rabbis would have authority greater than the biblical text, since they can make the text say whatever they desire. Profession of authority is given to the meaning of the text in context, but in practice rabbinic exegesis reigns. Riskin defends this flexibility in interpreting the text: a thousand meanings can be derived from a text.
What do I make of rabbinic exegesis? It is often fanciful and based in imagination. When one reads such interpretations, we can appreciate those times when such interpretations—by analogies, etc.—do reflect biblical values and show the hearts of the rabbis doing the interpretation. Many times, such interpretations do not foster teaching and practice contrary to the Bible in context. But at other times they do foster error. In Riskin’s examples, we are dealing with the first category—interpretations that are somewhat endearing. But no doubt he has selected them in a way that is winsome.
The Defense of Zionism
Another feature of Riskin is his passionate defense of Zionism. For Riskin, the fullness of Jewish life cannot be lived in the Diaspora, and the return to the Land enables a much fuller expression of Jewish life. He defends the view that our people needed to fight for the Land and not only receive it as a supernatural, last-days fulfillment.
Judaism’s Universal Meaning
For Riskin, Judaism has universal meaning. He interprets the Bible as teaching God as the God of compassionate justice and moral righteousness. The universal aspects of the Torah present God in this way, especially the God of compassion in the Thirteen Attributes of God in Exodus 34. This is Judaism’s message to the whole world, and truly a civilized world of nations will embrace the God of the Bible and His standard of Torah in their universal aspects. Thus, Riskin presents the Jewish people as having a universal mission to the nations. I say amen to this.