路易·金斯贝格

路易·金斯贝格（英语：Louis Ginzberg，俄语：Леви Гинцберг，1873年11月28日—1953年11月11日）出生于俄罗斯帝国立陶宛的考纳斯，是一位犹太裔的拉比及塔木德学者，同时参与犹太百科全书的共同作者，属于犹太教保守派的领袖人物。

生平

他曾就读于柏林大学、史特拉斯堡大学和海德堡大学，并于1898年以哲学博士身份毕业。1899年从欧洲抵达美国，他的保守派路线，很快就在犹太教的人士当中受到欢迎，他在美国犹太教神学院教授传统犹太神学，所教导的妥拉和塔木德受到高度赞扬，甚至在美国禁酒令时期、以及美国宪法第十八修正案颁布之后，他对于犹太教的圣餐礼、安息日、犹太节日和犹太教割礼的用酒有所坚持，批判了禁酒法令对于犹太教的信仰是一种伤害。

Louis Ginzberg (Hebrew: לוי גינצבורג, Levy Gintzburg; Russian: Леви Гинцберг, Levy Ginzberg; November 28, 1873 – November 11, 1953) was a Russian-born American rabbi and Talmudic scholar of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, contributing editor to numerous articles of The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), and leading figure in the Conservative movement of Judaism during the early 20th century.

Early life

Ginzberg was born in Kaunas, Vilna Governorate (then called Kovno). His religious Lithuanian-Jewish family's piety and erudition were renowned, seeing that they traced their lineage back to the Gaon of Vilna's brother. Ginzberg received a traditional Jewish education, and later studied in German universities.

Career

Ginzberg first arrived in the United States in 1899. He began teaching the Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) from its reorganization in 1902 until his death in 1953. During this time, he trained two generations of future Conservative rabbis, influencing almost every rabbi of the Conservative movement in a personal way. Ginzberg was highly praised by his colleagues; JTS leader Louis Finkelstein described him as a "living symbol of love for Torah". Leading Israeli Conservative posek David Golinkin has written prolifically on Ginzberg and published a collection of his responsa.

Ginzberg's knowledge made him the expert to defend Judaism both in national and international affairs. In 1906, he defended the Jewish community against antisemitic accusations that Jews ritually slaughtered Gentiles. In 1913, Louis Marshall requested that Ginzberg refute the Beilis blood libel charge in Kiev. On account of his impressive scholarship in Jewish studies, Ginzberg was one of 66 scholars honored with a doctorate by Harvard University in celebration of its tercentenary in 1936.

Views

In his opening address to students, Ginzberg spoke of the need to keep Conservative Jewry under the rubric of Halakha.

The conception that in religious matters anyone, however ignorant, can judge for himself, is the direct denial of the old Jewish maxim, 'The ignorant cannot be pious' (Avot 2:5) ... The majority vote of a Board of Directors of a synagogue is, after all, a negligible quantity when it is in opposition to the vote of historical Judaism with its myriad of Saints and thousands of Sages ... The sorting, distributing, selecting, harmonizing and completing can only be done by experienced hands.

Ginzberg's initiative to make halakhic decisions with law committees of rabbis, rather than with laypeople, is the method the Conservative movement describes as its present approach to this day.

In 1918, at the Sixth Annual Convention, Ginzberg, as the acting president, declared that United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism stood for "historical Judaism" and thus elaborated:

Now let us understand the exact meaning of the expression historical Judaism ... Looking at Judaism from a historical point of view, we become convinced that there is no one aspect deep enough to exhaust the content of such a complex phenomenon as Judaism ... Accordingly, Torah-less Judaism ... would be an entirely new thing and not the continuation of something given ...

Ginzberg sought to emulate the Vilna Gaon's intermingling of "academic knowledge" in Torah studies under the label "historical Judaism"; for example, in his book Students, Scholars and Saints, Ginzberg quotes the Vilna Gaon's instruction, "Do not regard the views of the Shulchan Aruch as binding if you think that they are not in agreement with those of the Talmud."

In 1943, Ginzberg predicted that after the war, only two centers of Jewish culture would remain in the world: The United States and Palestine—with the latter depending upon the former for support. He foresaw problems for the Jews remaining in Europe due to their being perceived as those who caused Germany to lose the war.