Rav

Israel may not be ready to wash its dirty laundry in public, but a local day school has some ideas for cleaning up the wastewater.

With the level of the Sea of Galilee — Israel’s major freshwater source — steadily declining, a prestigious science competition there is this year asking for new ways to treat washing machines’ “gray water.” A greater supply of safely recycled water that is fit for drinking or watering crops means less demand on the Kinneret, as the Sea of Galilee is known in Israel.

The Jewish Week deserves our approbation for bringing readers a broad spectrum of opinion. Rabbi Shai Held’s Opinion piece, “Halacha and Innovation Not Mutually Exclusive” (May 28), caught my eye. I found it risible that Rabbi Held cited the Rav, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, to buttress his opinion against Rabbi Hershel Schachter. Rabbi Schachter is one of the Rav’s most distinguished disciples in addition to being a world-class posek (decisor) in his own right.

Rav Hershel Schachter, eminent Torah scholar and leading figure at Yeshiva University, recently issued fighting words. The ordination of women as rabbis is such a serious infraction of Jewish law, he insisted, that it technically falls under the rubric of “Yehareg Ve-al Ya’avor” — one should sooner be killed than violate the law.

This past week, Rav Hershel Schachter, eminent Torah scholar and leading figure at Yeshiva University, issued fighting words. The ordination of women as rabbis is such a serious infraction of Jewish Law, he insisted, that it technically falls under the rubric of “Yehareg Ve-al Ya’avor”—one should sooner be killed than violate the Law.