New Age?

By: Jonathan Seidel

Who comes after the achronim? A period beginning at the close of the half millennium with the expulsion and running till today. Unlike every other generation, this has lasted the longest. Will it persist on or is there a new age brewing?

The history of the stages begins with the zugot during the last century BCE at the end of the second temple. Following the destitution of temple with R Yochanon Ben Zakkai and the Tannaim until the formulation of the Mishnah to the Amoraim and the Gemara to the intermediate Saboraim before the Geonim during the Muslim conquest in the 600s till the spawning of yeshivot in Andalusia and France. The Rishonim reigned until the expulsion and the demographic shift to Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Following are the achronim which had persisted into the new millennium. There are legal and political relations between the two. Yet each are burdened by their era and the context to which they prevailed. An era marked by association and devotion. One that has yet to end. Every period increases in its accommodations. 

Each period is marked not by its scholars but by its events. The scholars are truly significant but so are the events. Shaped by their time and discerned by their linkage. It is a moment a ripple in time that advances to the next stage. If it was the relocation of communities to North Africa and France for the Rishonim or the expulsions for the achronim, both moved towards novel scenarios in Jewish history. The torch passed on to the next generation of scholars. In that vein, the transition to America and Israel and/or the Israeli state ought to mark that shift to a new era. The shift of not only community but also of the holocaust and state of Israel. If it is the demographic shift, the tantalizing correspondence that leads to a new outlook on the socio-legal network. If the migration to a new community lends a premiere feature of legal and philosophical aptitude the era is sharped by its new beginning.

The migration is genealogically parcel of a larger conduit. It is never just migration but more an event or events that prematurely re-characterize the framework spellbound to its fate. For the zugot it was the temple and for the Rishonim it was the expulsion. The reshaping of the socio-political layout of Jewish society better reflects the outlook and impact of Jewry on society and those studies. Their relation is severed from their predecessors. They are children to their ancestors. Respecting the difference between them and their forebears. At what point does this take place? When looking back is entirety a debatable subject. When the way of old is revered and branded with a seal. When grouped together under a headline they recognizes the grandeur of the past and ceases to challenge that bunch. It is a grouped effort and for collective identity is sound. 

Is there an event or events that turn the table for us? Are we in a post-achronim age or has that occurred previously? Evidently the quickest answer is the holocaust and the state of Israel. An event that distanced the two eras. A destroyed and a celebrated people. An exiled people and a liberated people. The war and the establishment altered the course of Jewish perception. The loss of religiosity and concern. Challenges facing the people in this new age have become some of the hardest in its history. The postwar era tried rebuild what was lost but the shifting demographic required a new perspective. Yet those who lived through the war and those born afterwards are different people. It is this reference to prewar scholars due to their pure elder notions of Judaism preceding the calamity. The magnitude of the hierarchy expanded with the destructive consequences. Though in all fairness such a destitute separation remains cogent in the community.

By and large the holocaust truly demonstrates a shift to a new period but the twenty-first century has expended a new model that differs from the past. While the postwar period sought to rebuild whether in Israel or abroad the successive shift didn’t occur until the grandchildren of war were maturing. Those who survived and rebuilt recovered their old ways and educated their old model to their children. The cutoff while occurring in the calamity that befell the people, the true continental ideological shift occurred in the past twenty years. A new model of committed Jewry. Dedicated in all different aspects of religiosity. The profound revival of religiosity diverts from its prewar association. If this is the new path that heralds the title of the next age. An age of uncertainty but close communal roots. A Jewish identity more centered on Israeli heritage and prosperity than traditional commitment. 

What is this group called? What comes after the last ones? While we call them the first and last ones, various previous scholars concerned their predecessors with the same titles. While it may not be time to describe this era just yet its success so far demonstrates a change. When does the achronim end? Is it 1945, 1948 or 2000? Either it begins with the silent generation or millennials. The goal of course is to encourage and acknowledge the past as a separate entity. One that engenders its own era. The Rishonim are the medievalists and the Achronim are the modernists. Each generation is honoured by their status and strata. It is only truly in the contemporary generation that codes are the basis of identity. The Shulchan Aruch is accepted as the ultimate canon. Yet it isn’t so much this prestigious pinnacle but more so the reverence to the Sages prior. The disapproval to challenge their craft, a superiority that hangs over the minds of the contemporary generation.

This generation may be known as the seekers. Those lost and finding their way back and pioneering religiosity in Israel. It is no longer grassroots but established and attentive to the course of religious growth. Communities dedicated to religious worth. Mass amounts of learning in favour of a higher dedication. This mounts to a newfound age of integration. One blessed with fervour but also inclusion. Academia has spread into observant fields and strong observance has overshadowed mellowed faith. While the Israeli consciousness unites Judaism on many fronts, it isn’t the central piece to the puzzle. Yet it does play a significant role in its relation between Israeli and American rabbis. An ironclad presence in Israel procuring definite yet at times alternative models of devotion. All observant but varied in approach. This substantive novelty produces a contemplative advancement in Jewish identity. 

It is the novel thinking emerging through figures such as Rabbis Lieberman and Lichtenstein. These methods passed on to Rabbis Brandes, Bigman, Cherlow, Reem Rabinovitch and Shagar foster a new engagement with learning. Pulling from classic, mystical and academic visions to cultivate a motivating model for learning. Each proposed a varied way of learning tradition and approaching the sacred text. Incorporating divergent aspects congruent in their efforts for a more contemplative metric of Jewish identity. What is generally regarded in the contemporary frame is dually extended in today’s emphasis. The extension to aggadah advanced by R Kook and now with the Israeli sector. The cornerstone of academic persistence is its honing of an external strata and novel code. While marvelous in its orchestration, it is not a new theme. It is rather expanded and expended from the old. A refined and rekindled dialectically prolific methodology.  

A genuine concern for tradition by coupled with innovative styles of engagement. The biblical aura captured in the enamoring state. Conjoining the entirety of yiddishkeit on a shared heritage. The icons of old remain at large. Fidelity, is merely an acknowledgment reinforced by intensive loyalty to bygone estrangement. The collective unity marshals under the statehood umbrella. Even those with grievances do not desire a return to Eurasian Jewry. Stateless dispersed and vulnerable is not a common nor mainstream view even amongst the strict. Statehood is collectively encouraged and assured for the safety and prosperity of the people. Statehood has impacted two communities the anglophone and the Israeli. The anglophone more so American communities are as diversified as their Israeli counterparts though with more extremes on either end of the spectrum. The anglophone and the Israeli perceive the world differently linguistically and culturally.

They are not two sides of the same coin but rather divergent strands occupied with their respective issues. Nevertheless, the flexibility promoted in America is criticized while in Israel is encouraged. The safety and security of Israeli consciousness procures innovation despite all odds. The appeal of new female opportunity in classically masculine roles. The mass breath of learning and its widespread availability. The techno world pushes beyond the dreadful holocaust and gracious statehood. Following the war, the recovery moved in with an insurgent conservatism to receive and override the infective liberalism. With changing sociocultural dynamics as fervent resistance to the past has summoned a novel mark on fundamentally a-historical yet legal quandaries. The feminine activity has only furthered this cause into various other demographics and faculties. More than the postwar era has been the technologically proficient era. Elders of this era burn following the war have properly announced new pathways from their predecessors. It is their students that are truly changed by this. Time will only tell the impact.

These innovative elders have cushioned these novelties in light of the sociocultural shifts. Under the statehood banner and technological revolution. Yet they weren’t privy to the access that exists today. The explosion for the postwar era has reached a record high in the new millennium. These innovators succeeded their prewar mentors and alongside the technological jump have produced fascinating approaches. This is not solely in the Israeli sphere but apparent in the states as well. Yet it is the pioneers of these missions. The scholarly fascination that continues to develop from platform to platform. From yeshiva to yeshivot. From the likes of Rabbis Lamm to Sacks shining a light on the the ensuing age. An age that followed glowing lights of Chazon Ish, Sridei Eish and R Kook to the glorified philosophers of Rabbis Soloveitchik, Heschel Leibowitz and Berkovits. It is their students who have paved a new route. For anglophones, Rabbis Lichtenstein, Lamm and Schachter have headed the modern orthodox with Hartman and Weiss nearing more to the liberal models. In Israel such a disparity is also apparent. 

Since in the enlightenment and the expansion into the modern world, Jewish identity and community has diversified. The likes of Drs. Geiger, Maimon, Frankel, Luzzatto and Hirsch exposed a new subset across the spectrum. Even R Chaim and Netziv were groundbreaking in their unique approaches to Torah. While not academic, intensely logic and treading on the academic mold. It was Volozhin’s diversity that impacted the best generation. Permission to enter university and expand horizons was undertaken by the few religious radicals of the time leading to a stark shift in embracing the world. The hybrid R Soloveitchik strove for attended university like a liberal Jew and committed to halakha like a haredi Jew. The few proponents outside the German advocates were rabbis Moshe Soloveitchik, Yechiel Weinberg, Shimon Shkop, Meir Amiel and Yitzchak Reines. These scholars propelled the novelty that would soon become the anglophone hybrid modern orthodoxy. There was always an innovative spirit moving despite such “liberal” consequences yet the war may have propelled it further. Take the war out and while the developments may have persisted, the demographics surely wouldn’t have. The urbanization and communal integrity may have expanded into European suburbanites but the war surely altered the moment and its successors.

The interruption in the chain of events does not mitigate the evolution but rather momentarily halts all continuation as more causes extensive damage to the ongoing network. The light of liberalism continued no matter the event but the impact and the assault caused all sorts of turmoil. An entire generation bereft of education and affinity to the old. Starting anew in foreign lands perplexed and distressed. For the elders who preceded rebuilt through their old ways but the youngsters installed novelties to deal with what ceased to exist. Encountering with shifting strides in a cataclysmic age. The burden rests on the incoming generation to promptly answer to this devastating impact with assurance and dexterity. The youngsters who learned the old calibrated a novelty in light of their predecessors. It is in light of the tragic events that conditioned a novel proposal. Responding to the ailing inquires and difficulties posed to survivors and deserters. Addressing all problems hastily yet inclined to proficiency. 

The shift encapsulates a novel acceptance commitment and capital. Extensive learning and drive to the spiritual audacity. A marvelous synthesis that is difficult to ascertain. It is but a step in the right direction. A generation with a new mission in light of the current variables.