The Universalism of Particularity

JUDAH-ISM AND UNIVERSALISM

In the 1960s, Rabbi David Luchins, then a student of Rav Ahron Soloveichik, mentioned to Rav Mordechai Gifter that Rav Ahron, known for his interest in current events and public affairs, was at that point very concerned about the suffering in the African region of Biafra. Rav Gifter remarked in admiration, “it is not just that Rav Ahron is the only Rosh Yeshiva that speaks about Biafra, it’s that he is the only Rosh Yeshiva who ever heard of Biafra.”

The universalistic streak in Rav Ahron Soloveichik’s yahadut is a well-known aspect of his legacy, and it has always been a dear one to me. Yet equally dear is an insight of his that I repeat often: the fact that members of kelal Yisrael are now called Yehudim, which is rife with hashkafic significance.. If, he suggested, we have come to be known not as Abrahamites but rather as Yehudim, if we are named for Judah whether or not we directly descend from him, it is because of Judah’s great moment of repentance, his proud proclamation to his father regarding Benjamin: anokhi e’ervenu! Judah-ism, by its very name, proclaims that a Jew is bound to every other member of the Jewish people in a way that is more profound than the ethical obligations binding us to the rest of humanity. We are members of mankind—but we are also first and foremost members of a nation that is a family, in which every other Jew is our brother and sister.