7/01/2006

The Spectrum of RYBS's Students

I just noticed this line in a guest post by Steve at Harry’s blog:

all of RYBS's Talmidie (sic) Muvhakim ranging from RAL to RHS

I’ve often heard and seen R’ Hershel Schachter and R’ Aharon Lichtenstein portrayed as the opposite ends of the spectrum of the Rav, zt”l’s talmidim. It is ironic that Steve accuses Heilman of having a ‘highly simplistic view of RYBS’. The spectrum of the Rav’s students runs from Rav Michel Shurkin to R’ Dr. David Hartman. R’ Schachter and R’ Lichtenstein are standing pretty close to each other along that spectrum.
It’s typical, though, that dyed-in-the-wool YU people miss the full range of what’s actually out there (which I suspect is true of most institutions, and which is why I made a point of spending enough time in many of them to learn their different cultures), even when it comes to the various interpreters of RYBS’s oeuvre.
When we do that, we run the risk, to paraphrase RAL, of interring the Rav in a Procrustean sarcophagus. It doesn’t matter if the interment takes place on the right, left, or center.

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