Rabbi Adin Even-Israel (Steinsaltz) was born on the 3rd of Av, 5697 (1937) to Avraham Moshe Steinsaltz, a descendant of the first Rebbe of Slonim, and Rivka Leah (née Krakowicz), a descendant of Rabbi Yitzchak of Vorki. In his teenage years, he returned to religious observance, studying simultaneously at the Hebrew University and the Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva in Lod. At the age of 28, he began compiling his translation and commentary of the Babylonian Talmud. In 1965, he married Chaya Sarah, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Hillel Azimov, and the couple had a daughter and two sons. Rabbi Steinsaltz was a Chabad chasid and he met with the Lubavitcher Rebbe in private audiences even in his later years. He was also influenced by the Kotzk tradition and maintained a close relationship with the Gerrer Rebbes. He authored over 400 works, mainly commentaries on the Talmud and the Bible. In 2017, he suffered a severe stroke and lost his ability to speak but continued writing. He passed away on the 17th of Av, 5780 (2020), and was buried in the Chabad section of the Mount of Olives.
Yonadav Kaplun shared the following: Many years ago, at the beginning of my career in counseling, I asked Rabbi Adin for his opinion on two subjects that have fascinated me to this day: the world of astrological knowledge and the philosophy of classical homeopathy. He replied that in the wisdom of our sages, there are many significant references to various human attempts to decipher the mysteries of existence and that it would be worthwhile for me to start studying them at their source. He also noted that all these attempts are indeed very interesting. I was not satisfied and urged him to reveal to me: But what do you personally think about this?
Rabbi Steinsaltz replied: “Well, if you want my personal opinion, I will tell you frankly: I have so little faith, to be honest, that I prefer to reserve it for the important things.”
Our last meeting happened unexpectedly, one of the last times he still walked slowly, wrapped in his prayer shawl on a Shabbat morning, from his home in the German Colony to the Tzemach Tzedek synagogue in the Old City. There, on the winding path of Mount Zion, right in front of the Cinemateque bridge, he paused for a moment to rest, and of course, I opened my ears to listen to what he would say.
Rabbi Adin gazed happily at the beautiful vista of Jerusalem. All of Mishkenot Sha’ananim was before us, Moses Montefiore’s windmill, the King David Hotel, the YMCA building. “Understand something,” he told me. “I just read in the New York Times that the major factor responsible not only for all our physical and mental illnesses but also for most forms of behavior and automatic reactions, is rooted in our genetics. Ninety-five percent, no less, of who we are, is the cumulative sum of all the genetic loads we carry within us. Therefore, this is the less important part. The important part is the remaining five percent where you and I have free choice! So now look again, at how much beauty, how much Torah, how much science, how much culture, how much poetry and art we have managed to create here with just five percent! Make sure you know what lies ahead before you on your path through life.”
Chasidut is well known for its criticism of intellect and its strong preference for faith. The simple Jews whom the Ba’al Shem Tov loved, and also taught the wisdom of Torah according to their level, were characterized by tremendously strong and simple faith coupled with very little intellect. But the mixture Rabbi Steinsaltz speaks about contains a great deal of intellect and very little faith. How much Judaism can grow from such a connection?
Indeed, those who knew Rabbi Adin are aware that a great deal... explanations and interpretations, lessons and innovations, and a whole world of understanding that has opened and continues to develop. But how is this possible?
This question can be resolved if we remember one thing: true faith, even if it appears thin and minimal on the outside, contains within it the infinite light of devotion and self-sacrifice. Intellect, on the other hand, no matter how rich, colorful, and grand it may seem, holds nothing more than what is in it on a revealed level, and that is not much at all compared to the boundless Divine light.
“They are renewed every morning; great is Your faithfulness,” says the verse (Lamentations 3:23) on which the Modeh Ani is based. When a Jew rises from sleep, before he has had a chance to think and reflect, he expresses with a single sentence the abundant faith stored within him. But how does this faith integrate with his intellect? A well-known chasidic saying states that a mitnaged—someone opposed to Chasidut—can be defined as someone who has limits, alluding to the intellect; a chasid can be defined as someone without limits, alluding to faith; but a rebbe, to whose level we should all aspire, embodies the limitless enclothed within limits. A rebbe can bring the light of faith to illuminate each and every detail within the intellect.
Let us take an example from a slightly different field: In the words of the sages, there is a parable that “Torah without fear of Heaven is like wheat that has not been mixed with salty earth.” The salty earth may be small in proportion to the grain, but it preserves it from worms. Without it, all the stored food has no value. Similarly, faith is such a powerful essence that a small amount of it can preserve and nurture a vast and immense intellect. Indeed, this ‘little’ in its revealed form belongs specifically to the Jews, about whom it is said: “For you are few”—you are the ones to whom this ‘little’ belongs, and “there is no faith among the nations.” However, in a hidden way, every person has at least a distal surrounding aspect of faith, through which he or she can internalize the faith of Israel. A small amount of faith can sustain an abundance. An abundance of Torah-centered intellect, and abundance of worldly intellect, even the performance of countless commandments, and a boundless love for Israel.
However, faith is indeed too little to support various superstitions. If we continue the analogy between faith and fear of Heaven, we can recall the words of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s father to him: “Fear nothing but God.” Just as fear should be reserved only for God, so too should faith be reserved only for truly significant matters. This “smallness” of faith is intended to minimize all foreign and superstitious beliefs.
It is a good thing for a person to adopt an earnest stance when it comes to matter of faith in Torah and to his or her awe of Heaven. An earnest attitude will save us from being tormented by doubts our entire lives, trying to prove and verify every possible detail intellectually. But this attitude is positive only after one has recognized that only these matters of Torah and fear of Heaven are self-evidently true, and that all other “beliefs” are superstitions. This is the secret of the verse, “Jerusalem shall be inhabited like an unwalled city” (whose initials spell the word for “simpleton”). When Jerusalem—whose name literally means “perfect fear”—shines forth, one can feel complete security within holiness (as the literal sense of the verse describes God’s protection of the city and the lack of need for a wall), while skepticism stands guard outside to ensure that superstitions do not enter.
The same principle can be seen in Rabbi Adin’s words about heredity and choice. While the newspaper claimed that ninety-five percent of our actions are not free-willed, it is more likely that it is ninety-nine percent. Far more significant than genetics is knowledge of God and His providence, which constantly acts upon a person. Rabbi Akiva said, “Everything is foreseen, yet the choice is given.” From the perspective of Divine Knowledge, there is a unity of opposites here: complete knowledge and complete choice. But if we wish to quantify it, with human imagination, we can say that “everything is foreseen” accounts for the ninety-nine percent determined from above, and “the choice is given” represents one percent free choice.
But which is more important? A Jew must feel that “I am bound by a singular bind, with it I am connected, with it I am set aflame.” We cling to the One, which in this case manifests as the single percent of choice given to us from Heaven. Choosing to have choice is the right choice. To choose to have choice is to cleave to the small quantity that possesses infinite qualitative value. When viewed correctly, it becomes clear that this one percent is more significant and decisive than everything else. (Numerically “one percent choice” equals 10 times God’s essential Name Havayah, alluding to a perfection of Divine revelation in all 10 dimensions).
