Bernard Revel
Encyclopedia
Bernard Revel (September 17, 1885-1940) was an Orthodox
rabbi
and scholar. He served as the first President of Yeshiva College from 1915 until his death in 1940. The Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies
at Yeshiva University
, as well as the former Yeshiva Dov Revel of Forest Hills
, are named for him.
, a son of the community's Rabbi Nachum Shraga Revel. His father was his first teacher, and when Nachum Revel died in 1896 he was buried next to his close friend Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor
- indicative of his knowledge and stature.
He briefly studied in Telz yeshiva, attending the lectures of its Rosh yeshiva
Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch. He was also taught by the renowned Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer
and learned in the Kovno kollel
. Revel received semicha
at the age of 16, but it is not known from whom. Thereafter, the young scholar earned a Russian high school diploma, apparently through independent study. He also became involved in the Russian revolutionary movement, and following the unsuccessful revolution of 1905
, was arrested and imprisoned. Upon his release the following year, he emigrated to the United States.
in 1909. Around this time, one of America's senior rabbis and president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis
, Rabbi Bernard Levinthal of Philadelphia, visited the yeshiva and, after discussing Talmud
ic topics with the new student, invited him to come to Philadelphia as the rabbi's secretary and assistant. Revel accepted the post and began to familiarise himself with the alien milieu of American Jewry. At the same time, he began attending law school in Philadelphia, but eventually decided that the law was not his calling. In 1911, he earned a doctorate of philosophy from Dropsie College, the first graduate of that school; his thesis was entitled "The Karaite Halakhah and Its Relation to Sadducean, Samaritan, and Philonian Halakhah".
In November 1908, Revel was introduced to his future wife, Sarah Travis of Marietta
, Ohio
, whom he married in 1909. The members of the Travis family were wealthy Oklahoma
oil-men, and Rabbi Revel moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma
to join the family business after finishing his doctorate. However, even while serving as an assistant to his brother-in-law Solomon in the petroleum business, and amassing his own fortune, Rabbi Revel's primary occupation continued to be his Torah study.
, on the Board of Directors of the newly-merged RIETS, asked Revel to come back East and head the institution. In him, Mr Fischel saw a learned and forward thinking educator to lead the yeshiva on the path of becoming a college. Rabbi Revel took up the position and was appointed RIET's first president and Rosh yeshiva.
Besides for his research, Revel channeled his intellect towards strengthening the foundation of Jewish Orthodoxy in America. He was most concerned with problems of maintaining traditional observance in the modern setting. He sought to build up an educational system for American Jewry where they would not feel alienated. In his speeches, Revel rarely, if ever, used difficult Torah language. Instead, he used very simple terms that were readily understandable. At a speech for the Rabbinic Council of America (RCA) Revel praised “the light of human reason”, and declared “the ascending spirit of mankind will triumph.”
Revel consistently maintained that secular knowledge in Judaism was never separate from the study of Torah. He emphasized the importance of unifying Judaism and secular studies. Often speaking of the, “harmonious union of culture and spirituality,” he believed that knowledge of the liberal arts would broaden one’s understanding of Torah. However, Revel's dedication to Orthodox Jewry was undisputed. For instance, he forbade the use of a female vocalist in the 1926 Music Festival, as a female singer is a violation of Orthodox Jewish law. He did not allow Reform Jews to serve on Yeshiva College’s national board of directors. He was also staunchly opposed to mixed seating in synagogues.
He wrote: "Yeshiva aims at unity, at the creation of a synthesis between the Jewish conception of life, our spiritual and moral teaching and ideals, and the present-day humanities, the scientific conscience and spirit to help develop the complete harmonious Jewish personality, once again to enrich and bless our lives, to revitalize the true spirit and genius of historic Judaism."
One of Revel’s main reasons for founding RIETS and Yeshiva College was, “so that these men may not be lost to us [through assimilation].” Revel wanted Yeshiva to become a place where American Jews could feel comfortable, take pride in their religion, and not be restricted by anti-Semitic sentiments. Revel also added Bible, Hebrew, and Jewish History to the curriculum in Yeshiva College. He did this for several reasons, though interestingly one of them was to outdo JTS (Jewish Theological Seminary, a non-orthodox institution), which did not have Bible studies at the time. Although Revel viewed the liberal arts as a way to educate and integrate Jews with Torah values, he perceived the sciences as too “mechanistic” and “soulless” to be useful in integrating Judaism with secular culture.
Revel was Interested in the origin of Karaism, its causes and early development. He maintained that the question of the origin of Karaism is bound up with the problem of the origin of the Karaite halakha, which is of vital importance for understanding the history of Tradition. Revel essentially traced the individual Karaite laws to their respective sources.
in Philadelphia, but this was never published. He was an associate editor of Otzar Yisrael, the Hebrew Encyclopedia. In 1935 he became the first vice president of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 1986, he appeared on a $1 U.S.
Postage stamp
, as part of the Great Americans Series
. U.S. engraver Kenneth Kipperman, who designed the stamp, was suspended for including a tiny Star of David
, invisible to the naked eye, in Revel's beard.http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-15/news/mn-256_1_tiny-star Kipperman was later arrested by District of Columbia police and charged with threatening to blow up the site of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and scholar. He served as the first President of Yeshiva College from 1915 until his death in 1940. The Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies
Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies
The Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies was Yeshiva University’s first graduate school. Founded in 1937, it was named for Yeshiva University's first president, Bernard Revel...
at Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
, as well as the former Yeshiva Dov Revel of Forest Hills
Forest Hills, Queens
Forest Hills is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States.-Neighborhood:The neighborhood is home to upper-middle class residents, of whom the wealthier residents often live in the neighborhood's Forest Hills Gardens area...
, are named for him.
Early years
Revel was born in Pren, a neighboring town of Kovno (today: Kaunas) Lithuania, then part of RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, a son of the community's Rabbi Nachum Shraga Revel. His father was his first teacher, and when Nachum Revel died in 1896 he was buried next to his close friend Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor
Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor
Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor was a Russian rabbi, Posek and Talmudic sage of the 19th century.- Early struggles :...
- indicative of his knowledge and stature.
He briefly studied in Telz yeshiva, attending the lectures of its Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch. He was also taught by the renowned Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer
Mussar movement
The Musar movement is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Eastern Europe, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term Musar , is from the book of Proverbs 1:2 meaning instruction, discipline, or conduct...
and learned in the Kovno kollel
Kovno kollel
The Kovno Kollel also known as Kollel Perushim of Kovno or Kollel Knesses Beis Yitzchok, was a kollel located in Kaunas, Lithuania. It was founded in 1877 by Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin Salanter when he was 67....
. Revel received semicha
Semicha
, also , or is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism. In this sense it is the "transmission" of rabbinic authority to give advice or judgment in Jewish law...
at the age of 16, but it is not known from whom. Thereafter, the young scholar earned a Russian high school diploma, apparently through independent study. He also became involved in the Russian revolutionary movement, and following the unsuccessful revolution of 1905
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
, was arrested and imprisoned. Upon his release the following year, he emigrated to the United States.
United States
Immediately after his arrival, Revel enrolled in New York's RIETS yeshiva. He received a master of arts degree from New York UniversityNew York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1909. Around this time, one of America's senior rabbis and president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis
Union of Orthodox Rabbis
The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada also known as the Agudath Harabonim , and sometimes as the UOR, was established in 1901 in the United States and is among the oldest organizations of Orthodox rabbis which could be described as having a Haredi worldview...
, Rabbi Bernard Levinthal of Philadelphia, visited the yeshiva and, after discussing Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic topics with the new student, invited him to come to Philadelphia as the rabbi's secretary and assistant. Revel accepted the post and began to familiarise himself with the alien milieu of American Jewry. At the same time, he began attending law school in Philadelphia, but eventually decided that the law was not his calling. In 1911, he earned a doctorate of philosophy from Dropsie College, the first graduate of that school; his thesis was entitled "The Karaite Halakhah and Its Relation to Sadducean, Samaritan, and Philonian Halakhah".
In November 1908, Revel was introduced to his future wife, Sarah Travis of Marietta
Marietta, Ohio
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Ohio, United States. During 1788, pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory. Marietta is located in southeastern Ohio at the mouth...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, whom he married in 1909. The members of the Travis family were wealthy Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
oil-men, and Rabbi Revel moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
to join the family business after finishing his doctorate. However, even while serving as an assistant to his brother-in-law Solomon in the petroleum business, and amassing his own fortune, Rabbi Revel's primary occupation continued to be his Torah study.
RIETS and Yeshiva College
In 1915, Harry FischelHarry Fischel
Harry Fischel was an American businessman and philanthropist based in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.Fischel was one of the leading pioneers in the growth of American Judaism, in general, and in American Jewish Orthodoxy, in particular, particularly in the dynamic precedent-setting...
, on the Board of Directors of the newly-merged RIETS, asked Revel to come back East and head the institution. In him, Mr Fischel saw a learned and forward thinking educator to lead the yeshiva on the path of becoming a college. Rabbi Revel took up the position and was appointed RIET's first president and Rosh yeshiva.
Revel's Philosophy
Revel's writings and students were most important to him. However, Revel never abandoned the role of scholar to become solely an administrator, though he was known by his students as one. His research illustrates a unique usage of pilpulistic and Talmudic investigation. It was his new halakhic-historic approach, of quoting even non-rabbinic sources, such as Josephus and Philo, for context that set him apart.Besides for his research, Revel channeled his intellect towards strengthening the foundation of Jewish Orthodoxy in America. He was most concerned with problems of maintaining traditional observance in the modern setting. He sought to build up an educational system for American Jewry where they would not feel alienated. In his speeches, Revel rarely, if ever, used difficult Torah language. Instead, he used very simple terms that were readily understandable. At a speech for the Rabbinic Council of America (RCA) Revel praised “the light of human reason”, and declared “the ascending spirit of mankind will triumph.”
Revel consistently maintained that secular knowledge in Judaism was never separate from the study of Torah. He emphasized the importance of unifying Judaism and secular studies. Often speaking of the, “harmonious union of culture and spirituality,” he believed that knowledge of the liberal arts would broaden one’s understanding of Torah. However, Revel's dedication to Orthodox Jewry was undisputed. For instance, he forbade the use of a female vocalist in the 1926 Music Festival, as a female singer is a violation of Orthodox Jewish law. He did not allow Reform Jews to serve on Yeshiva College’s national board of directors. He was also staunchly opposed to mixed seating in synagogues.
He wrote: "Yeshiva aims at unity, at the creation of a synthesis between the Jewish conception of life, our spiritual and moral teaching and ideals, and the present-day humanities, the scientific conscience and spirit to help develop the complete harmonious Jewish personality, once again to enrich and bless our lives, to revitalize the true spirit and genius of historic Judaism."
One of Revel’s main reasons for founding RIETS and Yeshiva College was, “so that these men may not be lost to us [through assimilation].” Revel wanted Yeshiva to become a place where American Jews could feel comfortable, take pride in their religion, and not be restricted by anti-Semitic sentiments. Revel also added Bible, Hebrew, and Jewish History to the curriculum in Yeshiva College. He did this for several reasons, though interestingly one of them was to outdo JTS (Jewish Theological Seminary, a non-orthodox institution), which did not have Bible studies at the time. Although Revel viewed the liberal arts as a way to educate and integrate Jews with Torah values, he perceived the sciences as too “mechanistic” and “soulless” to be useful in integrating Judaism with secular culture.
Karaite Research
Revel's primary scientific scholarly interest was Karaism. His constant study and research in this area developed from his Dropsie College doctoral dissertation, The Karaite Halakhah and its Relation to Sadducean, Samaritan, and Philonian Halakhah (1912). Earlier scholars like Simha Pinksker had aimed to show that Karaites "were the source of all intellectual achievement of medieval Judaism." According to this school of thought, the Massorah, with its beginnings of grammatical and biblical exegesis, belongs to the Karaites; the Rabbanites were merely imitators. This notion was challenged by Revel.Revel was Interested in the origin of Karaism, its causes and early development. He maintained that the question of the origin of Karaism is bound up with the problem of the origin of the Karaite halakha, which is of vital importance for understanding the history of Tradition. Revel essentially traced the individual Karaite laws to their respective sources.
Other achievements
Revel was a presidium member of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis from 1924, later being appointed its honorary president, and authored many articles on Jewish subjects in various Hebrew periodicals such as the Jewish Quarterly Review, Yagdil Torah, Ha-Pardes, and various Yeshiva student publications. He started writing a commentary to the Jerusalem TalmudJerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud, talmud meaning "instruction", "learning", , is a collection of Rabbinic notes on the 2nd-century Mishnah which was compiled in the Land of Israel during the 4th-5th century. The voluminous text is also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud de-Eretz Yisrael...
in Philadelphia, but this was never published. He was an associate editor of Otzar Yisrael, the Hebrew Encyclopedia. In 1935 he became the first vice president of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 1986, he appeared on a $1 U.S.
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
Postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
, as part of the Great Americans Series
Great Americans series
The Great Americans series is a set of definitive stamps issued by the United States Postal Service, starting on December 27, 1980 with the 19¢ stamp depicting Sequoyah, and continuing through 2002, the final stamp being the 78¢ Alice Paul self-adhesive stamp. The series, noted for its simplicity...
. U.S. engraver Kenneth Kipperman, who designed the stamp, was suspended for including a tiny Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
, invisible to the naked eye, in Revel's beard.http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-15/news/mn-256_1_tiny-star Kipperman was later arrested by District of Columbia police and charged with threatening to blow up the site of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.