On Feb. 10, Rabbi Dr. David Hartman passed away in Jerusalem.
He served as a pulpit rabbi in Montreal and then as a professor of Jewish Thought at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; but he is best known for founding Jerusalem’s Shalom Hartman Institute, which he named after his father.
His son Donniel is known to many in our Milwaukee community from his past visits sponsored by the now defunct Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning.
Numerous recollections of David Hartman have been shared in the media, including a piece by Eugene Korn in last month’s Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. I’d like to add my own.
I studied part-time in the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Talmud program for several years in the mid-1990s. David Hartman did not lead the program himself, but he was always accessible and spoke with us on many occasions, so I knew him a bit.
David Hartman’s teachings have always been controversial. Those inclined to a more liberal point of view tend to agree with him, while the more traditional among us do not.
Rather than the content of Hartman’s lectures and books, though, what moved me most about Hartman was his style of leadership and the way he taught.
I recall an incident while I was a student in which someone interviewed for a job at the institute. I don’t remember who it was or the nature of the position, but word got out as to what happened in the interview.
It was just after elections for the Knesset, and David Hartman’s first (and I believe only) job interview question was, “Which party got your vote?” Hartman and the candidate then spent the whole interview talking about politics.
Lawyers amongst us (and likely among the members of the institute’s board) would obviously cringe. Everyone knows you can’t do that! You can’t base a hiring decision on someone’s vote.
But party affiliation was not what Hartman was after. I don’t think it would ever have even occurred to him to hire or not hire based on someone’s political leaning.
What he wanted to find out by asking that question was whether the candidate was fully engaged with Israeli society. Is he informed? Does he care passionately about the issues?
Does he develop opinions carefully after considering all the sides? Does he express himself articulately, confidently, and both speak and listen with respect?
Those are the kinds of people David Hartman wanted to work with. I think Hartman would have seen it as a plus to hire someone who voted for a party that he himself opposed.
Hartman didn’t want to be surrounded by a staff that was like-minded. That would have bored him!
He wanted to be with people who were as bright as he was, but with whom he disagreed. Then by arguing and debating they would all learn more.
David Hartman studied with the esteemed Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik at Yeshiva University, and often Hartman took public pride in having been Soloveitchik’s student.
Nevertheless, Hartman openly defied several of Soloveitchik’s key rulings. This drew the ire of many of Soloveitchik’s other students, who considered it unseemly for Hartman to continue to tout his connection to Soloveitchik in spite of having taken a different intellectual path.
It seems clear to me why David Hartman never stopped citing Soloveitchik as his teacher. For him, to disagree about matters of Jewish law and conduct was not to reject. To not follow his teacher’s rulings didn’t mean that he didn’t still regard Soloveitchik with the utmost reverence.
To carefully and critically analyze another scholar’s ideas, including his teacher’s, was David Hartman’s way of showing respect. If that led to a difference of opinion, it was for the sake of heaven and intellectual honesty, to which Hartman had the utmost commitment.
David Hartman had the confidence to engage those who differed with him and learn from them, to let them broaden his thinking. He never saw those who disagreed as obstacles to be avoided or overcome.
Disagreement will never end. We should follow David Hartman’s example of savoring our diversity of thought and using it to enrich one another. May his memory be for a blessing.
Rabbi Shlomo Levin is spiritual leader of Lake Park Syngogue.
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