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Please note that other tributes to Rabbi Halivni, as well as video from his funeral are available in the UTJ Viewpoints section Remembering Rabbi Halivni Z”L.
With bowed head and broken heart the Union for Traditional Judaism mourns the loss of our founding leader, mentor and Reish Metivta (Rector), Rabbi Professor David Weiss Halivni, of blessed memory.
“Rav Halivni never wished to enter the religious political arena,” said Rabbi Ronald D. Price, Executive Vice President emeritus of the UTJ, “but he was not afraid to teach his Torah which sometimes went against the grain of mainstream thought.”
In 1990 Rav Halivni along with Rabbi Price, Rabbi Prof. David Novak and others, founded the Institute of Traditional Judaism, the rabbinical school of the UTJ where he served as Reish Metivta (Rector) for the following 20 years, even while teaching at Columbia University and his subsequent aliyah to Israel. “There is no better summary of Rav Halivni’s personality and scholarship than the motto he himself coined for the school and our organization: emunah tzerufah veyosher da’at, Genuine Faith with Intellectual Honesty. His faith was evident in all of his philosophical writing and Talmudic commentary, as was his fierce intellectual integrity,” said Rabbi Price.
Always haunted by the reality of the Holocaust in which he lost every member of his family and nearly his own life, the study of God’s Torah is what kept him spiritually alive.
A man of quiet demeanor and a warm and compassionate soul, Rav Halivni burned with a quest for truth. He understood that human beings, as the midrash says, are not equipped to constantly live truth, but he believed in a God given responsibility to always know the truth. He taught that it is through the honest study of Torah, both written and oral, that a Jew comes closer to God.
The Union for Traditional Judaism, its rabbis, scholars and lay community are torn by the loss of this giant of Torah and middot (sterling character). His mission, whether through his great scholarship or warmth of human kindness, to bring Torah and truth to Jews everywhere, now rests on our shoulders to continue.
May his memory be a blessing.
The UTJ sends prayers for comfort and healing to Rav Halivni’s sons Baruch, Rabbi Ephraim and Shaye and their families.
המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים
Rabbi Professor David Novak, President
Rabbi Gerald Sussman, Executive VP