What Modern Orthodoxy Means to Me (or Rabbi Fox’s 2007 NYHS Commencement Address)

Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/9/26 titled: What Modern Orthodoxy Means to Me (or Rabbi Fox’s 2007 NYHS Commencement Address). Since NYHS’s annual fundraising campaign is in full swing, I figured this would be a good time to share the educational philosophy of the school, as articulated by former head of school R. Bernie Fox.

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This week’s Torah content is sponsored by Rabbi Dr. Ben Aaronson in honor of NYHS (Northwest Yeshiva High School), our alma mater. So many of our friends and classmates — and the two of us — owe our connection to Torah and Judaism to the outstanding education we received there.

NYHS is currently running its CauseMatch campaign, and every dollar you contribute will be quadrupled! If you’ve benefited from me, from past and present NYHS teachers (Rabbi Moskowitz zt”l, Rabbi Fox, and others), or simply want to support an exceptional institution with visionary leadership, please contribute today at causematch.com/nyhs26. Campaign runs until Monday 10:00pm PDT!

The Torah content this week is also sponsored by Avital and Yitzy Richter. May we be zocheh to see Hashem redeem Klal Yisrael and lead us from geulah to geulah!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hello, I'm Rabbi Matt Schneweiss, and this is the audio version of the two-page article I wrote and published on my Substack at Rabbeishneweiss.substack.com on March 9, 2026. And the article is titled What Modern Orthodoxy Means to Me, or Rabbi Fox's 2007 NYHS commencement address. Preface. Despite my aversion to labels, the denomination of Judaism I identify most strongly with is modern orthodoxy. Yet the meaning of modern orthodox was, is, and will likely always be a matter of disagreement, even or especially among those who identify as such. The many facets of modern orthodoxy have been articulated in different ways by great thinkers over the past century who have explicitly used that term, such as Rabbi Joseph B. Solovechik, Zatzal, Rabbi Aron Lichtenstein, Zatzal, and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sachs, Zatzal. But when modern Orthodoxy is cast as a spiritual successor to older approaches to Judaism, such as the Hirsian Torah im Derach Eretz, the various Maimonidean attempts to harmonize Torah with Greek philosophy, or even the earlier model pioneered by Philo of Alexandria, the scope of the debate becomes magnified exponentially. I do not claim to be able to clearly articulate what modern orthodoxy is or ought to be, at least not in terms of the general hashka, the culture, or what it means in practice to live as an Orthodox Jew. However, as a teacher of Torah, I can definitively state what to me is the essence of the modern Orthodox approach to Jewish education. And it's not my own formulation. I heard it from Rabbi Bernie Fox, my high school Gemara Rebbe and then head of school, as part of his 2007 Northwest Yeshiva High School commencement address to my brother's graduating class. Rabbi Fox has been part of the faculty of NYHS since 1980. He served as head of school from 1986 until 2017 and still teaches there today. In this excerpt, Rabbi Fox summarizes the educational philosophy of NYHS as contrasted with two other widespread approaches. Although I haven't run this by the current NYHS administration, I'm confident they would agree that it reflects the aims of the school today. Excerpt from Rabbi Bernie Fox's 2007 Northwest Yeshiva High School Commencement Address. On the secular college campus, religion is often characterized as a primitive, outlandish interpretation of reality. It is attacked both openly by instructors, professors, and peers, and more subtly by an environment that suggests that modern is best and traditional values are suspect and must be questioned. How have you been prepared to respond to these challenges? In general, day schools and Yishi vote have three options. Some schools seek to isolate their students from hostile influences. These schools concede they cannot prepare their students to confront an outside world antagonistic to Judaism. Consequently, they seek to limit their students' exposure to any elements of the outside environment that may pose temptations or lead its students to question the teachings of Torah. In a sense, these schools attempt to self-impose the restrictions formally forcibly imposed by the ghetto. Schools that adopt this perspective limit exposure to secular studies and carefully craft the presentation of secular subjects so as to avoid any conflict with Torah values. Rather than prepare their students for an encounter with the larger secular world, these schools seek to prevent this interaction. Graduates of such programs are not encouraged to attend college or even to enter the quote-unquote gentile workplace. These are viewed as environments antithetical to the students' spiritual safety. The second approach grants that the students that the school students will interact with the secular world. This realization compels these schools to prepare their students for this inevitable encounter by endowing their students with an intense religious fervor. This passionate commitment will provide their students with the fortitude to resist temptation. But these schools must also safeguard their students against doubts. To accomplish this, they elevate Torah above all criticism by presenting it as a meta-rational or an essentially mystical system. Students are taught that Torah need not respond to questions. Torah need not make sense in any conventional manner. Its wisdom is not our wisdom, and it is above our trivial questions. This completes the inoculation. The student confronts the external world endowed with an intense religiosity and faith in a set of unassailable beliefs. Ironically, these schools attempt to secure their students' loyalty to Judaism through misrepresenting and distorting the Torah they hope to protect. Our sages universally regard Torah as a source of knowledge and wisdom. No mitzvah is more important than the study of Torah. And what is Torah study if its goal is not understanding? To contend that Torah is entirely above human understanding is tantamount to presenting it as a system bereft of wisdom in any meaningful sense. This approach dismisses generations of sages who labor to provide us with insight and understanding of the Torah. At Northwest Yeshiva High School, we have adopted a third approach. We make two assumptions. First, we accept that you will face temptation and you will be confronted with questions you will not be able to answer. We do not assume that we can desensitize you to temptation or that we can provide you with a simplistic response that will dismiss all doubts. Instead, we strive to provide you with experiences, tools, and perspectives that will enable you to confront these issues and struggle through them. Second, we never misrepresent or distort the Torah. Over the past four years, we have striven to expose you to as much Torah as possible. We have seized every opportunity to impress upon you and demonstrate the profound wisdom of the Torah. We have shared with you the beauty and richness of Judaism and Torah life. We know that even if we have been successful, you will not be immune to temptation. But we have aspired to provide you with the fortitude to overcome temptation. We have toiled to develop your thinking and critical abilities. We have carefully nurtured your personal development and maturation. We know that these skills and your personal growth will not provide you with answers to all of the questions with which you will be confronted. But we hope you have learned that every honest person knows there are questions he or she cannot answer. These mysteries should not be a source of doubt. We should not quake in the face of the unknown. Instead, questions should inspire wonder. Mysteries should excite our imagination and provoke us to study further and think and search more deeply. Knowledge always begins with a question. If you were reading this before Monday at 10 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, there's still time to donate at causematch.comslash nyhs twenty six and have your contribution quadrupled. If you missed that deadline, you can donate at www.nyhs.orgslash giving.