Debating morality within and without the Torah

On Sunday evening, May 4, the Young Israel of Teaneck will host a debate between Rabbi Itamar Rosensweig and Rabbi Yitzchak Blau on whether there are moral principles and grounds for morality that exist and obligate us independent of the Torah, Judaism, and its teachings. (See box.)

We tend not to see a lot of formal debates. Middle schools, high schools, and colleges may field teams that vie against each other, but there don’t seem to be a lot of debates outside of schools. Head-to-head confrontations between political candidates usually center on a series of questions rather than a formal staking out of positions on a central subject and allowing for rebuttal.

YIOT, an Orthodox shul, has an active adult education committee that offers a variety of programming. As is the case in many shuls, that programming consists mainly of speakers giving lectures, classes, or shiurim. The committee decided to host a debate because “we felt that it was something that would be really interesting, that it was something that’s really never done,” David Schwartz, a member of the committee, said. “It was done 2000 years ago, and every single page of the Talmud includes debates obviously, but for whatever reason, it’s not something you ever really see any more in the Jewish world. There are speakers, there are scholars, there are sermons, there are panel discussions, but there’s never really a debate.

“While I don’t think the Jewish community needs more machloket” — more arguments — “I do think it needs more debating,” Mr. Schwartz added wryly.

The program will be “a formal debate with timed statements and rebuttals,” Daniel Lowe, the committee’s chair, said. “The committee, under the guidance of Rabbi Beni Krohn,” who leads the shul, “thought it would be very exciting to have a debate, not just because it’s something different, but because of the format and structure of a debate itself. It’s such a unique type of forum where an idea gets to really be tested by two sides. You don’t just have one person orating about something, but you have the two sides really challenging each other and forcing a sharpening of the ideas and getting at the heart of an issue. It’s a unique opportunity that you don’t really have in any other forum.

“So we thought that it would be fascinating to have a debate to help you look at an issue in a way that really forces everyone to crystallize the issue in a sharper way than you normally get the opportunity to think about something. And we thought this topic was one that would generate wide interest because it’s something that is a pretty basic, fundamental question that anyone who is religious should really be thinking about.”

Once the decision to host a debate had been made, the committee identified people to argue for and against the resolution. While in school competitions students often are assigned in favor of, or against, the resolution at issue, “we literally curated the two people who will be debating this issue,” Mr. Schwartz said. “We researched and found two people who have strongly held views on opposing sides.

“Rabbi Yitzchak Blau is on the record in his published work arguing that the answer is yes” — that there are in fact moral principles and grounds for morality that exist and obligate us independent of the Torah, Judaism, and its teachings — and he will argue in favor of the proposition. Rabbi Blau, who lives in Alon Shvut, Israel, is a rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem, teaches at Midreshet Lindenbaum, also in Jerusalem, and is an associate editor of Tradition, A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought.

“Rabbi Itamar Rosensweig holds the opposite view” — that there are not moral principles and grounds for morality that exist and obligate us independent of the Torah, Judaism, and its teachings — and he will argue against the proposition, Mr. Schwartz continued. Rabbi Rosensweig teaches Talmud and philosophy at Yeshiva University and leads the Shtiebel of Lower Merion, an Orthodox shul outside Philadelphia.

Both rabbis are “highly regarded thinkers and public intellectuals, and both are sought-after speakers,” Mr. Schwartz added.

Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, a member of YIOT, will moderate the debate. He is the clinical assistant professor of Jewish values at Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business and is the host and founder of 18Forty, a new Jewish media site that “helps users find meaning in their lives through the exploration of Jewish thought and ideas,” according to its website, 18forty.org.

“Rabbi Bashevkin contributes a lot to our shul’s adult education program,” Mr. Schwartz said. “He gives a very popular shiur in which he uses the parsha of the week as a springboard to talk about contemporary issues, often with an angle related to Jewish history or Jewish thought.” And as host of the 18Forty podcast, Rabbi Bashevkin does an excellent job moderating “conversations with a Jewish theological or philosophical angle” and making those angles “contemporary, relevant, and relatable.”

Who: Rabbi Itamar Rosensweig and Rabbi Yitzchak Blau

What: Will debate whether there are moral principles and grounds for morality that exist and obligate us independent of the Torah, Judaism, and its teachings. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin will moderate.

Where: Young Israel of Teaneck

When: Sunday, May 4, 8:15 p.m.

For more information: Email office@yiot.org