The Man of Faith and Religious Dialogue: Revisiting "Confrontation"

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903–1993) was the undisputed leader of Modern Orthodoxy for more than forty years. As the scion of an elite Lithuanian rabbinic family, he became the brilliant carrier of the analytic method of Talmud study pioneered by his grandfather, 2ayyim of Brisk; and as a recipient of a doctorate in neo-Kantian epistemology from the University of Berlin, he developed a mastery of the classics, philosophy, and theology of Western literature. R. Soloveitchik's remarkable intellectual biography combined with his personal charisma enabled him to shape Modern Orthodoxy's ideology, religious philosophy, rabbinic education, law, and politics. He taught both Talmud and Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University, the intellectual center of the movement, where he is said to have ordained more rabbis than any person in Jewish history. For the Modern Orthodox community, he functioned as the master of both the philosophy of halakhah and its practical decisions. He left such a potent legacy of students and writings that more than a decade after his death he remains the unrivaled spiritual guide of Modern Orthodox Jews.

No writing or oral discourse by R. Soloveitchik achieved more practical impact than his essay "Confrontation," first delivered at the 1964 Mid-Winter Conference of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA). The work was formally published later that year as an article in the spring edition of Tradition, the official journal of the RCA. As a result of the address, the Rabbinical Council adopted a statement stressing the uniqueness and incommensurability of each religious community (in this case, Jews and Christians) and rejecting any interreligious discussion not based on "the full independence, religious liberty and freedom of conscience of each faith community." Since this statement was largely confined to philosophical principle, the council adopted a more concrete statement in February 1966 stating that Jewish– Christian cooperation be confined to "universal problems" that are "economic, social, scientific and ethical." Again stressing that faith is a unique, private, and intimate experience for each community, it asserted the RCA's opposition to dialogue in areas of "faith, religious law, doctrine and ritual." To ensure that this nuanced position was not misconstrued, it concluded: "To repeat, we are ready to discuss universal religious problems. We will resist any attempt to debate our private individual (faith) commitment."¹

The context is critical to understanding what prompted R. Soloveitchik (and the RCA) to delve into the complex matter of interfaith relations. It was the early 1960s, when the Second Vatican Council was undertaking the challenge of aggiornamento, that is, the updating of the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrines. A good part of this modernization entailed rethinking Catholic teachings about Judaism and the Jewish people. The Holocaust demonstrated for all who were honest that something had gone horribly wrong in Christendom, and many Catholics from Pope John XXIII downward deemed reconsideration of their Jewish spiritual patrimony and the Church's relations with the Jewish people to be urgent necessities.

The Vatican turned to religious representatives of Jewry, inviting them to enter into dialogue and join the process of reconciliation. Many American rabbis welcomed the gesture, but the development posed both a cultural and a theological problem for Orthodox rabbis—that sector of the Jewish people whose character has been largely forged in the fire of historical experience and tradition. Taken aback by the bold innovation of cordial relations with its perennial enemy, yet not wishing to be impolite by rejecting the offer out of hand, Modern Orthodox leaders looked to R. Soloveitchik, the one theologically sophisticated traditionalist with sufficient authority to craft an appropriate and politically acceptable response. His position rejecting any participation in interfaith theological dialogue was immediately accepted as both the de jure and the de facto policy of the Modern Orthodox community and has remained as such until today.²

More than forty years have elapsed since R. Soloveitchik wrote "Confrontation," and as Jews move forward in the twenty...