José Faur

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José Faur (Hebrew: יוסף פאור) is a Rabbi and a scholar. He was professor at Jewish Theological Seminary and is currently Professor of Talmud at Bar Ilan University.

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[edit] Biography

Faur was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and belonged to the Damscene Syrian Jewish community of that city.

As a child, he attended Catholic school as there were no private Jewish schools available.

He was tutored in Jewish subjects by several Sephardic Rabbis specially hired by his parents to this end. Rabbi Eliahu Freue is cited by Faur as his principal teacher: the latter was the spiritual head of the Damascus community in Argentina and taught Faur the fundamentals of Talmud, Jewish law and Rabbinics. Other teachers included Rabbis Eliahu Suli, Jamil Harari and Aharon Cohen from whom he first received Semicha (Rabbinic ordination).

Faur credits these Rabbis for providing him with an outstanding Jewish education.

"They never assumed an arrogant attitude toward their students or anyone else. They were accessible to all and encouraged contrary views and free discussion. The truth was the result of a collective effort in which everyone had equal access and share, rather than being imposed by an individual of a superior mind. Following Sephardic educational tradition, the teaching was methodical and comprehensive. Before one began to study the Talmud, it was expected of him to have a solid knowledge of the scripture, Mishnayot, the famous anthology Eyn Yaaqov, the Shulchan Arukh and other basic Jewish texts".

In 1955 Faur-barely in his late teens- applied and was accepted to the most prestigious Rabbinic academy of the time, the Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. The institution was founded and run by the renowned Lithuanian Talmudist, Rabbi Aharon Kotler.

Faur reminisces about his time at the Yeshiva:

"The first lesson I heard by Rabbi Kotler sounded like a revelation. He spoke rapidly, in Yiddish, a language I didn't know but was able to understand because I knew German. He quoted a large number of sources from all over the Talmud, linking them in different arrangements and showing the various inerpretations and interconnection of later Rabbinic authorities. I was dazzled. Never before had I been exposed to such an array of sources and interconnections. Nevertheless there were some points that didn't jibe. I approached R' Kotler to discuss the lesson. He was surprised that I had been able to follow. When I presented my objections to him, he reflected for a moment and then replied that he would give a follow-up lesson where these difficulties would be examined. This gave me an instant reputation as some sort of genius (iluy), and after a short while, I was accepted into the inner elite group. My years in Lakewood were pleasurable and profitable.... At the same time the lessons of R' Kotler and my contacts with fellow students were making me aware of some basic methodological flaws in their approach. The desire to shortcut their way into the Talmud without a systematic and methodological knowledge of basic Jewish texts made their analysis skimpy and haphazard...The dialectics that were being applied to the study of Talmud were not only making shambles out of the text, but, what was more disturbing to me, they were also depriving the very concept of Jewish law, Halacha, of all meaning. Since everything could be "proven" and "disproven", there were no absolute categories of right and wrong. Accordingly, the only possibility of morality is for the faithful to surrender himself to an assigned superior authority; it is the faithful's duty to obey this authority simply because it is the authority and because he is faithful. More precisely, devotion is not to be measured by an objective halacha (it has been destroyed by dialectics) but by obedience. Within this system of morality there was no uniform duty. It was the privilege of the authority to make special dispensations and allowances (hetarim) to some of the faithful; conversely, the authority could impose some new obligation and duties on all or a part of the faithful. To me this was indistinguishable from Christianity".

Faur left the Yeshiva and enrolled at the University of Barcelona where he received a Ph.D. in 1964 in the section of Semitic philology (The first Jew to do so since the expulsion in 1492).

Shortly thereafter-on the advice of Rabbi David de Sola Pool and Rabbi Matloub Abadi (himself a Lakewood graduate)- Faur accepted a faculty position at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1967. He left the school in 1984 when the Rabbinical school began admitting women (Faur later sued for breach of contract, arguing that by admitting women, the seminary was in effect forcing him to resign).

He is currently a Professor of Talmud at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan.

[edit] Controversy

While teaching at JTS, Faur also offered Torah classes to members of the Syrian community in Brooklyn, New York. This aroused the opposition of certain circles of the right-wing Yeshiva world since they identified him with the Conservative movement (to which denomination the Jewish Theological Seminary did indeed belong).

Faur, however, received the support of the Chief Rabbi of the Syrian community, Rabbi Jacob Kassin who signed an open letter attesting to Faur's religious standing. Kassin explained that Faur did not agree with the Conservative movement at all and that he had only taught at the school in order to earn a living.

Lined up against him, however, were several high profile Haredi Rabbis from both the Sephardic and Ashkenazic communties, including Rabbis Moshe Feinstein, Ovadiah Yosef and Elazar Shach.

The pressure was such that Rabbi Kassin retracted his previous support and joined the campaign against Faur.

In the summer of 1987, Faur received support from an unexpected source. The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Chalom Messas convened a beit din which examined the allegations against Faur and came to the conclusion that he was innocent of all charges. Chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu later affirmed the decision as well. But the controversy did not abate. The Lithuanian Yeshiva world's weekly Yated Neeman of February 8, 1998 carried an ad which called for the prevention of the appointing of a Conservative Rabbi to the Syrian congregation Shaare Zion in New York. Aside from his involvement with the seminary, the ad accused him of "speaking improperly about great medieval Ashkenazic sages and this his books emit an odor of heresy". The declaration was signed by 17 Sephardic heads of Yeshivot. Again, under intense pressure, Rabbis Messas and Eliyahu withdrew their earlier support.

[edit] Published Works

Homo Mysticus: A Guide to Maimonides's Guide for the Perplexed, Syracuse University Press (April 1999).

In the Shadow of History: Jews and Conversos at the Dawn of Modernity, State University of New York Press (February 1992).

Golden Doves With Silver Dots: Semiotics and Textuality in Rabbinic Tradition (Jewish Literature and Culture), Indiana University Press (June 1986).

Studies in the Mishne Tora, Mossad Ha-Rav Kook (June 1978).

[edit] Links

[edit] Bibliography

  • Papo, Joseph M., Sephardim in Twentieth Century America, Pele Yoetz books, 1987.