As Shab­bat ends, the din­ing hall is filled with young men singing the tra­di­tion­al songs that accom­pa­ny the Third Meal, the Seu­da Shlishit. In an instant, almost imper­cep­ti­bly, the singing ends, and like a wave of human­i­ty, hun­dreds of chairs are gath­ered around the table of the Rosh Yeshi­va, Rav Ami­tal, to hear his words of Torah. He speaks slow­ly, yet ener­get­i­cal­ly. He moves effort­less­ly from the week­ly por­tion, to rab­binic com­men­taries, Rav Saa­dia Gaon, Tal­mu­dic texts, and Rav Kook. He weaves a tapes­try of Jew­ish thought. As soon as Shab­bat ends, the stu­dents rush to com­mit these thoughts to paper while still fresh in their minds. 

Nev­er in Jew­ish his­to­ry has a great yeshi­va had two heads. Yet, since 1968, Rav Yehu­dah Ami­tal and Rav Aharon Licht­en­stein have suc­cess­ful­ly cre­at­ed what has become the Har­vard of hes­der yeshiv­ot (com­bin­ing study with mil­i­tary ser­vice). This unique­ness as well as their indi­vid­ual styles deserves study elsewhere. 

This vol­ume of essays is a trans­la­tion of a series of dis­cus­sions with Rav Ami­tal and senior stu­dents at the yeshi­va. It may not be the sum total of his reli­gious and edu­ca­tion­al phi­los­o­phy, but we are giv­en a glimpse into the thought process of a mature reli­gious thinker. 

A major theme is man’s posi­tion in the world. One’s per­son­al rela­tion­ship with God, with man and with one­self is ana­lyzed. The need for hon­esty and derekh eretz as well as respon­si­bil­i­ty and sen­si­tiv­i­ty is para­mount in all rela­tion­ships. Rav Amital’s dis­cours­es are divid­ed into three sec­tions: The Indi­vid­ual and His Cre­ator, The Indi­vid­ual and Soci­ety, and The Indi­vid­ual and His Life. He explores the reli­gious expe­ri­ence, Torah study, obser­vance of mitzvot, prayer and Torah val­ues in the first sec­tion. Being a men­sch, oblig­a­tions to the com­mu­ni­ty, and role mod­el­ing (kid­dush HaShem) are explored in the sec­ond sec­tion. Val­ues, human­i­ty, deal­ing with cri­sis, and deci­sion mak­ing are cov­ered in the final sec­tion. What makes these essays com­pelling is not so much the con­clu­sions reached, but the seem­ing­ly effort­less gath­er­ing of sources and texts to illus­trate his points. 

Rav Ami­tal does not lim­it the cur­ricu­lum to rig­or­ous Tal­mu­dic analy­sis. He expos­es his stu­dents to the great Jew­ish philoso­phers, mys­ti­cal lit­er­a­ture, hasidic texts, Rav Kook’s writ­ings, midrash, and many oth­er sources of rab­binic wis­dom. That he has suc­ceed­ed can be ascer­tained by a glimpse into the yeshiva’s Vir­tu­al Bet Midrash where not only his teach­ings, but those of a gen­er­a­tion of his stu­dents may be found. 

Jew­ish Val­ues in a Chang­ing World needs to be stud­ied, not just read, to be ful­ly appre­ci­at­ed. It is well worth the effort.