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Aharon Lichtenstein (born 1933) is a noted Orthodox Jewish rabbi.
Rabbi Lichtenstein was born in France, but grew up in the United States, studied in Yeshivas Rabbi Chaim Berlin under Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner. He earned a bachelor's degree and semicha (rabbinic ordination) at Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. in English Literature at Harvard University.
After serving as Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University for several years, in 1971, Rabbi Lichtenstein answered Rabbi Yehuda Amital's request to join him at the helm of Yeshivat Har Etzion, located in Gush Etzion, Israel, and moved to Jerusalem.
He is committed to intensive and original Torah study and articulates a bold Jewish worldview that embraces modernity, reflecting the tradition of his teacher and father-in-law, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik.
He is a source of inspiration for a wide circle of Jewry, for both his educational attainments and his intellectual leadership. He is the author of Leaves of Faith - The World of Jewish Learning, and By His Light: Character and Values in the Service of God, as well as several books on various tractates of the Gemara.
Views of non-Orthodox Judaism
Like most other Orthodox rabbis, Lichtenstein believes that all non-Orthodox Jewish denominations are incorrect. In the 1980s, with the resurgence of Orthodox Judaism well-established, debate emerged within the Orthodox community over whether Orthodox Jews should have any contact and cooperation with non-Orthodox forms of Judaism at all, and whether or not non-Orthodox forms of Judaism have any value. A few dozen Orthodox rabbis participated in a symposium on this topic in 1982.
- Nor do I share the glee some feel over the prospective demise of the competition. Surely, we have many sharp differences with the Conservative and Reform movements and these should not be sloughed over or blurred. However, we also share many values with themand this, too, should not be obscured. Their disappearance might strengthen us in some respects but would unquestionably weaken us in others. And of course, if we transcend our own interests and think of the people currently served by these movements, many of them both presently and potentially well beyond our reach or how can they, or Klal Yisrael as a whole, be effected by such a change? Can anyone responsibly state that it is better for a marginal Jew in Dallas or in Dubuque to lose his religious identity altogether rather than drive to his temple?"
- (Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Symposium on the State of Orthodox Judaism, 1982)
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