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| Herman Wouk- circa 1955 (Wikipedia) |
I first discovered this author as a young teenager through a lesser known work entitled This is My God (published in 1959). It was a best seller (Number 2 on the New York Times Best Seller List) despite its subject matter: a defense of Orthodox Judaism. Apparently a lot of non Jews read that book!
In what is perhaps the best column ever written by Eitan Kobre in Mishpacha Magazine he describes some details about Professor Wouk about which I had no idea. I knew he was a professor at Yeshiva University. that is because back in the 1980s when Rav Hershel Schachter was a scholar in residence at my alma mater, HTC, he quoted his professor, Herman Wouk, at the concluding event - a Melave Malka which I chaired. But I had no idea that Professor Wouk also attended Shiurim by Rav Moshe Feinstein in Tifferes Yerushalyim and became pretty close to him.
Kobre quoted HTC’s current dean, Rabbi Zev Eleff’s 2018 monograph about Wouk wherein he demonstrates that one cannot overstate the significance of This Is My God. It was a ‘watershed moment for Orthodox Jewry in the United States’. Which until about that time was considered to be a dying relic. To be replaced by the then far more vibrant movements of heterodoxy.
Not only were predictions of Orthodoxy’s demise ‘premature’ the exact opposite happened. It is heterodoxy that is in the throes of death. Orthodoxy is on the rise! Professor Wouk is in large part responsible for putting Orthodox Jewry on the map. For the most part that book was lauded by impartial critics.
Calling them ‘dissenters’ ‘departures’ and ‘shock absorbers of the enlghtenmant’ Kobre notes that it is unsurprising that the book was panned by leaders of heterodoxy. One prominent Reform leader excoriated Wouk for his ‘flippant parody of Reform’.
Professor Wouk was unrelenting. He once said that a typical heterodox sermon was ‘a digest from the past week’s liberal newspapers and magazines with a few references to the bible’.
Herman Wouk was living proof of how a Jew could thrive in the modern world without sacrificing his principles. A Jew could live the American dream, achieve the pinnacle of success in their chosen field - and remain completely devout. He was in fact a role model of Torah u’Mada or Torah Im Derech Eretz. I believe he could best be described as a Centrist. He was a man who not only lived those ideals but made it almost cool to be an observant Jew. He was fearless in his legitimate criticism of Jewish movements that surrendered to the Zeitgeist with compromises. Even though I am nowhere close to his level of achievement, I nevertheless believe that we are kindred spirits in that sense.
Professor Wouk’s contributions to authentic Judaism have long ago been all but forgotten. I believe that is largely due to the ascendancy of a right wing that no longer values success in the modern world. Other than what it can do for them financially.
That mindset was articulated by Lakewood Rosh Hayeshiva, R’ malkiel Kotler in his remarks about the passing of Bernard Lander. Lander created the Touro University System that actually caters to those on the right seeking higher education for purposes of getting into careers that will better provide for their families. While R’ Kotler had some faint praise for him, he nevertheless called second class Jew (or something very similar). I doubt that Herman Wouk even registered a blip on the radar screen of any right wing Rosh Yeshiva today. They probably do not even know who he was!
I must therefore give credit to Eitan Kobre for giving Professor Wouk a proper eulogy. The sad thing is that now that Professor Wouk is gone, I don’t see anyone on the horizon like him.