José Faur

José Faur (Hebrew: יוסף פאור‎) is a Sephardi Hakham (rabbi), teacher and scholar. He was a Rabbi in the Syrian-Jewish community in Brooklyn for many years . He was also a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, and Bar Ilan University, and is currently Professor of Law at Netanya Academic College.[1]

Biography

José Faur was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and belonged to the Damascene Syrian Jewish community of that city. He was tutored in Jewish subjects by several Sepharadi Rabbis specially hired by his parents to this end.. Hakham Eliahu Freue, cited by Faur as his principal teacher, was the spiritual head of the Damascus community in Argentina and taught Faur the fundamentals of Talmud, Jewish law and rabbinics. Other teachers included hakhamim Eliahu Suli, Jamil Harari and Aharon Cohen.[2]

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 Shulhan Arukh and other basic Jewish texts."[2]

Education

In 1955, in his late teens, Faur was accepted to the Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey.[2] The institution was founded and run by the 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 interpretations 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."

Ahi Ezer, Brooklyn

This approach seemed to Faur to be at odds with the approach upon which he was reared in Argentina. It was here that Faur first met and befriended Shlomo Carlebach.

Faur left the yeshiva with a view to fortifying his knowledge of Tora with an academic background. With this in mind, he chose to study Semitic Philology accompanied by George Lasry. They were the first Jews to be accepted at the University of Barcelona since the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 during the Spanish Inquisition. They graduated in 1961, Faur with a degree in Semitic Philology and an M.A. in Semitic Languages; the title of his master's thesis was "La Espiritualidad Judia," a basic explanation of Jewish spirituality.[1] In 1963, Faur received his Semicha (contemporary rabbinic ordination) from hakham Suleiman Haggai Abadi, head of the Beth Din (Jewish court) of Jerusalem.[1] Meanwhile, Faur completed his doctorate in Semitic Languages (which he received in 1964), writing a thesis on "The Masorah to the Targum Onqelos."[1] Later that year he left Spain to participate in a three-year fellowship at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, under the supervision of the eminent professor of Talmud, Saul Lieberman.[1] In 1966, Faur was ordained as a dayyan (judge) in Family Law (Even Ha'ezer) by hakham Matloub Abadi, and was further ordained as a dayyan by hakham Suleiman Haggai Abadi in 1968, this time in Civil Law (Choshen Mishpat).[1]

Rabbinic career

Faur began teaching at the Sephardic Ahi Ezer Congregation and opened a Yeshiva in a house on Avenue P in Brooklyn NY. During this time, he brought many people back to halachic observance and created a renaissance in the learning of Tora in accordance with the Sephardic traditions. Ralph Betesh, later one of the leaders of the Jewish community, recounts how for the first time people heard of great Sephardic luminaries such as Don Isaac Abarbanel, R. Bachya ibn Pakuda and R. Moshe Hefez. Rabbi Faur's influence in bringing the younger generation back to the traditions of Halacha and Tora was very substantial and many of the community's lay and religious leaders were his students (or students of students), among them Dennis Dweck, Rabbi Moshe Shamah and Mickey Kairey.

In 1967, on the advice of hakhamim David de Sola Pool and Matloub Abadi (a leader of the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn, originally from Aleppo (Halab), Faur accepted a faculty position at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, where he developed a close relationship with Abraham Joshua Heschel, professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism. Faur left the school in 1985, when the Graduate Rabbinical School began admitting women. Rabbi Faur later sued for breach of contract, arguing that by admitting women in such a manner, the seminary was in effect forcing him to resign.

Rabbi Faur received the support of the chief rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, Jacob Kassin, who signed an open letter attesting to Rabbi Faur's religious standing.[3]

In the summer of 1987, the Sepharadi chief rabbi of Jerusalem, hakham Chalom Messas, convened a Beth Din which examined the allegations against Rabbi Faur and came to the conclusion that he was innocent of all charges. Chief Sepharadi Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu later affirmed the decision as well.[3] The Haredi weekly, Yated Neeman carried an ad on February 8, 1988, which protested appointing a Conservative rabbi to the Syrian Congregation Shaare Zion in New York. Aside from his involvement with the seminary, the ad accused Faur of "speaking improperly about great medieval Ashkenazic sages" and stated that his books "emit an odor of heresy." The declaration was signed by seventeen Rabbis. Eventually Rabbis Chalom Messas and Mordechai Eliyahu withdrew their support.[3]

In 1987, Faur took a position as the Ezra Sensibar Visiting Professor at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago, where he taught until 1993.[1] Faur went on to teach Talmud part-time at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, until 2003.[1] From 1996 until 2007, Faur also taught law at Netanya Academic College,[1] which was founded in 1994 by a team from Bar Ilan University in Netanya, Israel.

Published works

Faur has published eight books and over 100 essays and articles on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from linguistics to historiography to rabbinic law.

Books

Articles

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 José Faur CV, at Moreshet Sepharad
  2. 1 2 3 Papo, Joseph M., Sephardim in Twentieth Century America, Pele Yoetz books (1987)
  3. 1 2 3 Shapiro, Marc B., Saul Lieberman and the Orthodox, University of Scranton Press (2006)

External links

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