NYC Gazette

On December 18, 2024, the Zahava and Moshael J. Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, in collaboration with the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Yeshiva College Honors Program, hosted Rabbi Dr. Yosie Levine to mark the launch of his new book, "Hakham Tsevi Ashkenazi and the Battlegrounds of the Early Modern Rabbinate." The book is a revised version of Levine's 2020 dissertation at YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. During the event, Levine, who is Rabbi of the Jewish Center, engaged in a discussion with Straus Center Deputy Director Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern.

The conversation delved into the historical significance of Hakham Tsevi Ashkenazi (1658—1718) and his well-known rabbinic responsa. Rabbi Levine explored the context of European Jewry after the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and examined Hakham Tsevi's life and legacy. Due to the destruction of Ashkenazi communities across Europe in that period, many prominent Ashkenazic rabbinic students turned to Sephardic institutions for study. This shift influenced Hakham Tsevi's perspective on minhag (customary traditions) in Jewish law.

Rabbi Levine also addressed Sabbateanism's impact on global Jewry, noting its role in generating opposition to Kabbalah among Ashkenazi Jews, including Hakham Tsevi himself. His stance was evident through his responsa.

Furthermore, Rabbi Levine discussed rabbinic contracts' importance during this era and highlighted how rabbis needed compensation for expenses such as dowries for children reaching adulthood. Notably, Hakham Tsevi had twelve out of fourteen children who reached adulthood.

The event concluded with a Q&A session where attendees posed questions about Hakham Tsevi's Sephardic influences on his responsa and his views on Passover traditions and Jewish holiday law. The lecture supported the Straus Center’s mission to train Yeshiva University students as intellectual leaders versed in both Torah and Western thought.