On hearing and meeting Rabbi Yechiel Goldhaber

Thinking out loud. Thursday night I attended a fascinating lecture by Rabbi Yechiel Goldhaber at the home of Dr. Shlomo Sprecher (as advertised here, on the Seforim Blog). I think there were about 50 people there, a few had to stand. I've been an admirer of Rabbi Goldhaber's articles for some time, but to be honest, it was a pleasure to hear him speak and to meet him. Although doubtlessly many readers of this blog are already familiar with him, I would like to describe him as a special hybrid of a talmid chochom and an academic scholar. He is rigorous and critical and fascinating, and seemed to possess one of the finest qualities which I admire in a scholar: humbleness. 

The topic which he discussed - the Zohar's influence on halacha - drew all kinds of like-minded people out of the woodwork, scholars and dabblers alike, which was a pleasure to see. As someone told me, it was nice to see a room full of people who do not hold naive assumptions about the historical development of kabbalah. Rabbi Goldhaber commands his topic, is highly organized, and you can tell he is an original researcher, not merely an aggregator of scholarship (although clearly he is abreast of the scholarship as well).   In this case, while modestly disclaiming tons of knowledge of the Zohar per se, this is a man who knows Shulchan Aruch and, to be honest, he knows Zohar too. A nice moment for me was when he mentioned the National Library in Israel which, I guess, is a place he enjoys very much, and his face was positively glowing. 

After the lecture, I had a somewhat unique opportunity to meet a number of people who read this blog, and it was a pleasure to meet you (you're reading this, right?). The unanimous consensus was that I was taller than they thought, and my hair was redder. Or maybe not. 

Anyway... I'm not sure how long Rabbi Goldhaber is in the States, but the bottom line: get to know him if you can, if you see him advertised as speaking somewhere - go.

See here for how to buy or order his latest book, Konditon, in two parts - a lengthy research on the Titanic disaster, in all its Jewish angles, as well as an essay on the alleged herem of dwelling in Spain that offers much original research on a topic that was not put to rest by Cecil Roth or Marc B. Shapiro in their excellent essays on the same.

My thanks to Simcha S. for sending me this photo: