Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. Photo by Meir Elipur.
by STEVE LINDE
JNS
What keeps the Jewish people going? Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the charismatic and eloquent Brooklyn, N.Y.-born educator who became a moderate voice of modern orthodoxy in Israel, provides an inspirational answer in his new book, Judaism: A Love Story.
In the introduction, Riskin explains his argument: “I firmly believe that Judaism is a love story, a romance between ourselves and God, ourselves and Torah, ourselves and our forebears, ourselves and our future generations, ourselves and every other Jew, ourselves and every other human on the earth.”
A Journey
The book was launched at an intimate gathering of colleagues, family and friends at Jerusalem’s Dan Panorama on April 21. The wheelchair-bound Riskin, 84, sat in the front row and listened as others—top rabbis and close relatives—paid tribute to him and praised his new book.
The emotional launch, hosted by the Ohr Torah Stone network of educational institutions that Riskin founded, was titled, “Leading with Love: An exploration of Rabbi Riskin’s unique rabbinical approach—in Israel, the USA and in empowering women within Orthodox Judaism.”
According to its Jerusalem-based publisher, Maggid, the book—Riskin’s 11th in English—takes readers “on a heartfelt journey into the enduring love story between the Jewish people and their compassionate God. Through vivid storytelling and profound insights, Rabbi Riskin reveals the spiritual connection that has sustained Jewish identity for millennia.”
Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the current president and rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone, opened by saying that the book’s title “perfectly encapsulates the profound relationship that Rabbi Riskin has fostered between Judaism and the hearts of individuals, families and communities over the past six decades.”
Riskin’s Contributions
Brander called Riskin, a student of the Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, “an unparalleled teacher, innovator, Torah scholar and transformational leader for global Jewry.”
The founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue, one of New York’s most innovative synagogues which he led for two decades, Riskin made aliyah with his family in 1983, became the founding chief rabbi of Efrat and established Ohr Torah Stone Institutions, a network of high schools, colleges and graduate programs in Israel and the United States. In 2018, he was awarded the Nefesh B’Nefesh Bonei Zion Prize for his contribution to education in Israel.
As an American Orthodox rabbi in Israel, Riskin built a reputation as a champion of religious tolerance, interfaith cooperation, women’s empowerment and meaningful service in the Israel Defense Forces.
Rabbi Benny Lau, the head of “929: Tanach B’yachad”— a project to study one chapter of the Bible five days a week—voiced gratitude to Riskin for the love for Judaism and humanity that he had gifted the Jewish people and Israel with his life work, reflected in his new book. “Rav Riskin, we all—all Israelis and Jews—want to say thanks for the simple Torah that you brought, for the love of the Torah that you brought, for your open heart,” Lau said.
Love Jewish Style
Rabbi Hershel Billet, the rabbi emeritus of Young Israel of Woodmere, N.Y., and a former president of the Rabbinical Council of America, said that Riskin and his wife, Vicky, by serving God through love, had “made a big difference—for everyone in this room, for the Jewish world in America and for the Jewish world in Israel.”
“Rabbi Riskin’s book and Rabbi Riskin’s life are all about love,” he added. “The Rav used to say, in his inimitable style, ‘You have to be crazy with love!’ And I would dare say—and I say this as a compliment—Rabbi Riskin is crazy with love. He’s always had a tremendous love of God, love of the Jewish people, and of course love of his family, which goes without saying.”
Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis, whom Riskin installed as the spiritual leader of the Shirat HaTamar synagogue in Efrat, the first woman to hold the position of sole spiritual leader of an Orthodox community in Israel, said the title of his new book was particularly fitting because it mirrors the rabbi’s own life’s work.
“The book isn’t merely a theoretical explanation of Judaism as a love story,” she said. “It’s a culmination of a life lived according to this very principle. Rabbi Riskin has constantly demonstrated that love can transform institutions and shift social norms.”
She thanked Riskin “for teaching us, through both word and deed, what it means to live Judaism through a love story.
Speakers
Rabba Batya Jacobs, Riskin’s daughter, said writing the book had been a central focus in her father’s life for the last few years. “You all know my father as a person who dreams big, is deeply motivated by a sense of purpose and vision, and has turned those dreams into reality,” she said.
Addressing her father directly, she said, “Your vision of a town on seven Judean hills grew into the flourishing city of Efrat, home to four generations.”
Now that it’s published, she said, the book is a blessing that allows all of us to continue to learn from the rabbi and be inspired by him.
“Even greater than your dreams, what for most would be lofty aspirations and daunting paths was for you a natural course,” she told her father, smiling. “You just followed your unwavering faith in God, who’s very present in history and in ourselves, empowering each of us to redeem our world.”
Rabbanit Vicky Riskin, to whom Riskin dedicated the book (“To my wonderful wife, the love of my life”), quipped that it had “a gestation time of nine years, not nine months.”
He wrote and rewrote with the help of his editors, Rabbis Edward Abramson and Shalom Berger, through his illness, COVID-19 and war.
Striving To Be Worthy
“This past Shabbat, we spoke about the book,” she said, “and the rabbi [Riskin] summed it up in one sentence, ‘God loves the Jewish people and we must strive to be worthy of His love.’”
Robbie Rothenberg, who said he was honored with his wife, Helene, to have sponsored the publication of the book, noted that he had been introduced to Riskin by evangelical Christians—particularly Bishop Robert Stearns, the founder and president of Eagles’ Wings—with whom the rabbi was the first to forge an alliance 25 years ago.
“This book is a poem, truly a poem, in which Rav Riskin describes the love story between God and his people,” said Rothenberg, noting that he had learned from the rabbi to study out of love, rather than coercion. “I pray that this approach to Torah becomes the future for our people and through us, the rest of the world.”
Riskin was asked in a tribute to him screened at the end of the evening: How do we restore love in the nation of Israel and the Jewish people?
“That’s still missing,” he conceded. “And that’s what we have to do.”
In the epilogue, Riskin writes that while he had laid out an optimistic—some would say, utopian—vision for the Jewish people’s relationship with God and with the world, he was “under no illusions about the difficulties that we must face as we endeavor to live lives full of holiness and love and spread those values and beliefs to the world.”
He concludes: “Even as we struggle through those setbacks and occasionally lose sight of God’s love for us, the belief and knowledge that that love is always there has given the Jewish people the power to survive through the ages and the support to believe in a future reconciliation with Him, even at times when His face appears to be hidden.”
