יום שלישי, ט״ו תמוז תשפ״וTuesday, June 30, 2026
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Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman is a rosh yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University. He also serves as the executive editor of RIETS Press. Rabbi Feldman has authored several books in English and Hebrew, including most recently “Letter and Spirit” (YU Press/Maggid Books). He is the rav of Ohr Saadya in Teaneck, N.J. Rabbi Feldman regularly writes at riets.substack.com, which is free to access.
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From a philosophical perspective, many Jewish thinkers have focused on the unique role of speech as a defining element of humanity. Speech, at least in its fully realized form, distinguishes Man from the animal; for humans, speech expresses thought, making this distinction especially profound.
Miss Thunberg, in the eyes of many, carries moral authority, without any need to actually articulate a moral argument. The mistaken assumption of gravitas and moral wisdom is very dangerous and has real-world consequences.
Any presumption that YU had abandoned a commitment to upholding the eternal values of the Torah, in letter or in spirit, in this matter, ignores the reality of the history.
Certainly there are some ordinary people in the world, mundane events, insignificant episodes? The answer is that greatness is in the eye of the beholder, and to be beheld by Rav Charlop was a tremendous gift.
While many of the laws of yichud are quite complex and detailed – and beyond the scope of this brief essay – the basic concept is intuitive, and has indeed been independently adopted by those unversed in Torah law, and unconnected to Judaism.
If one perceives that, rather than seeing his own decisions as determinative of his fate, Divine providence is guiding the result, then considering that there’s a halachic mandate to follow professional medical advice (see Taz, YD 336), the conclusion is most clearly in line with the dominant medical consensus.
Respect for basic human dignity is such a powerful concept that it overwhelms some areas of Jewish law.
By the time these words are printed, there will be only a few more days left before Shavuos. We hope that up until that point, we will still have been counting the days of Sefiras Ha’Omer with a bracha, but we also know that too often, despite our best efforts, we drop out of counting with a bracha some time before the count is complete.
June 26, 2026 
