<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Prof. Levine,</span></div><div><br></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana">Thank you for the link. </font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana">IMHO, the lack of balance is rooted in the distant past when secular studies first became an issue.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana">Rabbanim such as Rav Hirsch z”l are partly to blame. </font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana">Let me explain.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="font-size: 16px;">In the essay you sent, Rav Hirsch justifies secular studies because they can help us better understand Torah; for instance, "</span><span style="font-size: 16px;">the extent to which disciples of Talmudic learning can benefit from familiarity with these fields of general knowledge</span><span style="font-size: 16px;">….</span><span style="font-size: 16px;">to raise them to become good and true sons of our Judaism.</span></font></span><font face="Verdana">”</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br></span></font></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">Some years ago, someone I know (American Hareidi) organized a new school in a certain Jerusalem neighborhood that was going to have the great innovation of including laboratory science. </font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">Some neighbors were livid. NIMBY!</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">The organizers had a haskama from no less than HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt’l. </font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">The neighbors didn’t believe it! Impossible that the Gadol HaDor would agree to such heresy!</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">They all went together to the Rav.</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">Neighbor: Did the Rav say they could have secular studies at this new school?</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">The Rav: Chas v’chalila!!</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">Neighbor: Let’s just make sure that we understood the Rav clearly: did the Rav say it’s OK to use microscopes and teach geography and so on at the new school?</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">The Rav: Teach about Hashem’s briah? Of course, that’s a wonderful thing!</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">Conclusion: “secular” studies do not belong in our chedarim, yeshivas and seminaries! But all of the goals of secular studies – mathematics, reading, writing, astronomy, physical sciences, computers, etc., can all be achieved within the framework of limudei kodesh (with the possible exception of high school math, I’m not sure about that yet). </font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">RAv Hirsch says this much in his essay – his justification for these subjects is to enhance limudei hakodesh. So let’s drop the term and concept of “secular” studies and I wager 90 percent of the arguments on this will go away. </font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">Moreover, you could then employ the rebbe to teach a full day rather than have to interrupt his work and bring in a “secular” teacher. </font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><font face="Verdana">That, as my grandfather z’l would have said, is my 2 bits.</font></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span></div></span><div>Alexander Seinfeld</div><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14px;"><font face="Verdana"><div><br></div><blockquote id="MAC_OUTLOOK_ATTRIBUTION_BLOCKQUOTE" style="border-left-color: rgb(181, 196, 223); border-left-width: 5px; border-left-style: solid; padding: 0px 0px 0px 5px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px;"><div><br></div><div>Have some in the Orthodox community lost their minds? Where is</div><div>balance and normalcy? YL</div></blockquote></font></span></div></span></body></html>