Chaim Dov Keller

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Chaim Dov Keller is a Haredi rabbi, Talmudic scholar, co-founder and co-rosh yeshiva ("dean") of the Telshe Yeshiva in Chicago.[1] He is a posek ("decisor" of Jewish law") and writer in Haredi newspapers such as the Yated Ne'eman in the United States.

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[edit] Biography

Rabbi Keller was born in New York City and attended Yeshiva University. His ability to speak and write English on a high academic level is due to his general education ouside the world of the yeshivas. He subsequently attended the Telshe yeshiva after it was established in Cleveland, Ohio in 1940 by Rabbis Chaim Mordechai Katz and Eliyahu Meir Bloch. Rabbi Keller became a student and disciple of Rabbi Bloch in particular.[2][3]

[edit] Telshe yeshiva in Chicago and Agudath Israel of America

Rabbi Keller, together with Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levin, were hand-picked by the leadership of the Telshe yeshiva in Cleveland to oversee the establishment of a similar yeshiva devoted to serious Talmudic studies in Chicago in 1960. The new institution was to carry the same name as its mother institution, hence the birth of Telshe yeshiva (Chicago). The yeshiva is the main non-Hasidic Lithuanian (Misnagdish) yeshiva in Chicago. Rabbi Keller and his co-dean are regarded as the leading Agudath Israel-affiliated rabbis in Chicago, with Rabbi Levin serving as a full member of the national Agudah's top policy-making body, the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah while Rabbi Keller is a member of the level below the Moetzes which on Agudah's Presidium (Nesius in Hebrew.)

[edit] Views

There is no record of Rabbi Keller's views and opinion pieces being publicly refuted by his colleagues in Agudath Israel of America. It is because Rabbi Keller is a member of Agudath's Israel's presidium, that his views have the approval of Agudath Israel of America and have elicited strong counter-responses and opposition.

[edit] Recognition by Agudath Israel

With the passage of time, and as a relatively significant number of alumni graduated from the Telshe yeshiva in Chicago, it added to the reputations of its founders in the world of (New York-based) Agudath Israel of America to which they belong. While Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levin was elevated to a seat on the exclusive American Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah ("Council of Torah Sages") of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Keller became a member of its "Nesius" ("Presidium"), a lesser yet still prestigious appointment. Thus at Agudath Israel's premier event, its annual convention, Rabbi Keller has frequently been one of the official rabbis and rosh yeshivas designated to give official speeches or lecture, such as at the: 77th Agudah convention in 1999 (symposium, "Drawing Lines, Drawing Near -- Securing The Future Of American Jewry")[4]; 80th Agudah convention in 2002 (plenary session, "What in the World is Going On? -- Searching for Meaning in the Maelstrom")[5]; 83rd Agudah convention in 2005 ("Shabbat speakers")[6];

[edit] Publications

The following is a short list of subjects and articles to which Rabbi Keller has addressed his critiques:

Rabbi Keller has also written a widely published obituary on Rabbi Raphael Baruch Sorotzkin, Telshe rosh yeshiva[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight - NEWS
  2. ^ Rabbi Eliahu Meir Bloch
  3. ^ JCN: Judaism's Apocalyptic Horsemen
  4. ^ Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight - NEWS
  5. ^ Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight - NEWS
  6. ^ Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight - NEWS
  7. ^ Keller, "Modern Orthodoxy: An Analysis and a Response." The Jewish Observer 6, no. 8 (1970): 3–14
  8. ^ Rabbi Keller's article: "God Centered or Rebbe/Messiah - Centered" in the June 1997 What is Normative Judaism? Note 1: "This article, as well as the quote from my previous article cited below, were reviewed, before they were published, by several widely respected Gedolei Torah - both Chassidic and non-Chassidic - who urged their publication." See Chabad messianism: After Schneerson's death Rabbi Keller's explanation about the centrality of 770 to messianist thought: "Since one of Maimonides preconditions that a true messiah must fulfill to become 'Moshiach Vadai' - 'certain messiah' is to rebuild the temple, the messianist must view 770 Eastern Parkway as the temple to justify their beliefs, since otherwise he failed one of the conditions and thus cannot be the messiah. Similarly, another of Maimonides conditions was that 'all Israel' be returned to the Holy Land - messianists argue that Chabad adherents constitute 'all Israel'. The messiah must have 'fought the Lord's wars' - Schneerson's predictions of the collapse of the USSR in the 1980s fulfill this criterion in messianist thinking." "God Centered or Rebbe/Messiah - Centered" The Jewish Observer, June 1997
  9. ^ Emes Ve-Emunah: December 2005
  10. ^ j. - Yeshiva battle over gay club strikes at university's heart
  11. ^ [1]
  12. ^ When the Sun Set at Midday