Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884-1966

Rating:
Summary: Interesting biography of a tormented scholar
Review: Shapiro has produced an extremely interesting biography of a tormented rabbinic scholar who was fated to live through some of the most terrible decades of Jewish history. Shapriro leans heavily on the side of "modern orthodoxy" in his evaluation of Rabbi Weinberg and perhaps could have given more weight to his correspondence and interaction with East European (later American and Israeli) gedolim. The self-imposed isolation in post-war Switzerland is not fully explained and could have stood a more in-depth pyschological analysis. However a brave attempt at a very difficult subject.

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Typical Artscroll Biography
Review: This book is extremely well researched and well written. The author points to conflicting tendencies in Weinberg's personal letters. Shapiro points to the one's that indicate a modern-orthodox view of Weinberg, while dismissing the other letters as the one Weinberg did not actually mean. Indeed, Shapiro apologizes for not having had access to too many of the other kinds of letters which most assuredly exist.

Rating:
Summary: Shayloh: Does one Recite Hatov Hametiv on this Book?
Review: To many the life and works of Rav Weinberg were merely obscure shallos u teshuvos. Any controversy regarding his views was brushed off with a wave of the hand. The seridei eish had been misappropriated and assimilated into the haredi protoplasm...
Commonly heard "he was forced to go to college" "it was a horaas shah".... Thankfully, a full exposition of his explosive ideas is now available. The reality of the great man, this whole person, is open and exposed. Let us all strive to learn from the overwhelming truth and the intelluctual engagement of this revivified Weinberg.

Rating:
Summary: Shayloh: Does one Recite Hatov Hametiv on this Book?
Review: To many the life and works of Rav Weinberg were merely obscure shallos u teshuvos. Any controversy regarding his views was brushed off with a wave of the hand. The seridei eish had been misappropriated and assimilated into the haredi protoplasm...
Commonly heard "he was forced to go to college" "it was a horaas shah".... Thankfully, a full exposition of his explosive ideas is now available. The reality of the great man, this whole person, is open and exposed. Let us all strive to learn from the overwhelming truth and the intelluctual engagement of this revivified Weinberg.