Moshe Meiselman - Biography

Rabbi Moshe Meiselman is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Toras Moshe, a small American yeshiva in Jerusalem, a former principal of Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles, and the author of Jewish Women in Jewish Law. A student of Dr. Donald Anderson, he received a doctorate in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 for his thesis The Operation Ring for Connective K-Theory. He is a son-in-law of the previous Ziditshoiver Rebbe of Chicago (Rabbi Avrohom Eichenstein). His mother, Shulamit Soloveitchik Meiselman, was the author of the widely acclaimed "The Soloveitchik Heritage: A Daughter's Memoir". [she died July 2009. Source: http://matzav.com/mrs-shulamith-meiselman-a%E2%80%9Dh/ ]

Rabbi Meiselman and Rabbi Soloveitchik

Rabbi Meiselman is one of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's nephews. He formed a particularly close relationship with his uncle during their daily studying sessions from the time he was 18 until he was 29 years old. Meiselman never attended Yeshiva University in New York, to which Rabbi Soleveitchik commuted from Boston and gave his lectures. Instead, Meiselman spent long hours of intensive private study with Rabbi Soloveitchik at Rabbi Soloveitchik's home while he attended Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, until the completion of his Ph.D.

Rabbi Meiselman subsequently cast Rabbi Soloveitchik in the role of a traditional haredi Rosh Yeshiva. Meiselman professes that Rabbi Soloveitchik's Zionism and secular studies were solely for the purpose of outreach and as a response to the assimilation of American Jews. This professed belief has led him to attract the ire of many Modern Orthodox and Mizrachi thinkers.

Rabbi Meiselman and Rabbi Slifkin

After a disagreement over the use of his name in the acknowledgments section of Rabbi Natan Slifkin's book, The Camel, The Hare, and The Hyrax, Rabbi Meiselman gave a series of four lectures at Yeshivas Toras Moshe criticizing both Rabbi Slifkin (calling him an "incompetent nincompoop") and his work specifically his suggestion that the Sages of the Talmud were mistaken in certain scientific matters. Rabbi Slifkin sent a letter to Rabbi Meiselman rebutting the critiques of his work, calling the lectures "factually incorrect and extremely defamatory." Rabbi Slifkin subsequently posted audio of the lectures on his website, with a note that he did receive a request that to remove the lectures from his website on the grounds that 'they were only intended for his yeshivah.'"

Published work

External links