[Avodah] A Life Without Simple Sollutions

[Joel Rich]

Landes closes with this powerful passage:

> I am overwhelmed by the realization that Rav Lichtenstein took this
> religious philosophy that he developed when he was 24 years old and
> proceeded to live his entire life by it. A life without simple solutions,
> a life with constant maximum effort, and a life lived continuously and
> consciously in the presence of God.

What else can I say-this is what I aspire to

>From Maaseh Harav:

    Frank public self-criticism by the individual and the community
    is not widespread in the Orthodox world. Partly this is because
    orthodoxy, in twentieth-century North America, faced enormous
    handicaps and its spokesmen are likely to feel justified in
    congratulating themselves for the revitalization of religious life
    under daunting conditions. Partly, as the Rav sometimes noted,
    it is the social insecurity combined with smugness, typical of a
    middle-class culture. Self-confidence and triumphalism were typical
    of the American outlook of this time; the Rav frequently lamented
    the volatility of American moods which swung from the overconfidence
    of post-war years to the corrosive self-doubt of the '6os and '7os.

"When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?" (HT- Pete Seeger)

kt
joel rich