Natan Slifkin

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Natan Slifkin
Slifkin with a black-and-white ruffed lemur
Personal
Born (1975-06-25) 25 June 1975 (age 48)
Manchester, England
ReligionJudaism
DenominationModern Orthodox
Alma materBar-Ilan University
PositionDirector
OrganisationBiblical Museum of Natural History
SemikhahOhr Somayach

Natan Slifkin (also Nosson Slifkin) (

Manchester, England), popularly known as the "Zoo Rabbi," is a British-born Israeli Modern Orthodox community rabbi and the director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, Israel. Slifkin is best known for his interests in zoology, Judaism's relationship to evolution, Jewish and biblical history
, and his writing on these topics.

Biography

Slifkin was born and raised in Manchester,

Ramat Beit Shemesh, where he runs the Biblical Museum of Natural History. Slifkin has a master's degree in Judaic studies from the Lander Institute in Jerusalem and a doctorate in Jewish history from Bar-Ilan University
, completed in 2016. His dissertation was entitled: Rabbinic and Maskilic Encounters with Zoology in the Nineteenth Century.

Views and opinions

Slifkin explores traditional rabbinic perspectives in his books and discusses how they may relate to issues of interest to modern science. Slifkin is the author of numerous books dealing with the intersection of Torah, science and zoology.

In Slifkin's approach to the reconciliation of Genesis and modern scientific theory, traditional Judaism mandates neither a literalistic approach to biblical cosmology, nor a belief that the Talmud is always correct about scientific matters. Views similar to these were accepted by some as within the realm of Orthodox Judaism. A public debate triggered by Slifkin's books began regarding how literally Orthodox Judaism interprets the Torah and how much weight should be given to the scientific discussions of rabbinic sages.

Controversy

Slifkin's books, which had "cautious references to evolutionary theory," led to a denunciation of his work by ultra-Orthodox authorities.

Targum Press
, to discontinue distribution of his books. Yashar Books, a smaller Jewish publisher, agreed to distribute them.

Moment magazine quoted an anonymous rabbi who said: “The Slifkin ban is a huge break. It’s a kind of power struggle, and those who didn’t sign the ban are outraged right now. I’m talking about rabbis with long white beards who are furious about it... He’s saying out loud what a lot of people have been talking about quietly all along. To those people, he’s a kind of figurehead."[4]

Rabbis

Toras Moshe. These defenses of the ban were themselves controversial,[6] and Slifkin posted them all on his website, together with rebuttals written by various people. Meiselman requested that Slifkin remove the lectures from his website, but Slifkin did not.[7] In 2013, Meiselman released a nearly 900 page book entitled "Torah, Chazal, and Science", which he stated "was in response to some recent controversies surrounding issues of Torah and science. A spate of books... have attempted to introduce a radical new theology and proclaim it compatible with classic Jewish belief."[8] Chaim Malinowitz broke with his Haredi colleagues in not seeking a ban on Slifkin's books.[9]

On 5 October 2008 Slifkin published an essay entitled In Defense of My Opponents in which he says that there is a reasonable basis for a ban on his books in certain communities.[10]

Published works

Slifkin writes a blog called "Rationalist Judaism,"

e-books on many of his topics of interest.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ https://www.yasharbooks.com/Creatures.html
  2. ISBN 9780786471256
    .
  3. ^ "The Opinion of the Gedolai Hador Shlita". Zootorah.com. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  4. ^ Rothenberg, Jennie (October 2005). "The Heresy of Nosson Slifkin". Moment Magazine. Archived from the original on 2009-11-29.
  5. ^ Rabbi Aharon Feldman. "THE SLIFKIN AFFAIR – ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES" (Doc). Zootorah.org. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  6. ^ "Teanack, NJ — the Controversy of Rabbi Slifkin Zoo Books Banned by Haredim". 24 August 2007.
  7. ^ "Controversy". Zootorah.com. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  8. ISBN 978-1-60091-243-6
    .
  9. ^ Slifkin, Natan (25 November 2019). "Rav Chaim Malinowitz, z"l". Cross-Currents. Retrieved 16 December 2019. Rav Malinowitz was the one who explained to me exactly why I was not under the slightest obligation to obey the ban.
  10. ^ Slifkin, Natan (October 5, 2008). "In Defense of My Opponents" (PDF). Zootorah.com. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  11. ^ "Books". Zootorah.com. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  12. ^ "Rationalist Judaism". www.rationalistjudaism.com. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
  13. ^ "Books". Zootorah.com. Retrieved 2015-04-30.

External links

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