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{{Infobox Jewish leader
| honorific-prefix = Rabbi
| name = Moshe Meiselman<br>משה מיזלמן
| honorific-suffix = 
| title = 
| image = 
| caption = 
| yeshiva = [[Yeshiva Toras Moshe]]
| yeshivaposition = [[Rosh yeshiva]]
| began = 1982
| ended = 
| other_post = Founder and Dean of Academic Affairs, [[Yeshiva University of Los Angeles]]
| birth_name = Moshe Meiselman
| birth_date = March 14, 1942
| birth_place = [[Montgomery, Alabama]], U.S.{{dubious|date=March 2018}}
| death_date = 
| death_place = 
| yahrtzeit = 
| buried = 
| father = Harry Meiselman
| mother = Shulamit Soloveitchik
| spouse = Rivkah Leah Eichenstein
| alma_mater = [[Boston Latin]]<br/>[[Harvard University]]<br/>[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
}}

'''Moshe Meiselman''' ({{Langx|he|משה מיזלמן}}) is an American-born [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] rabbi and [[rosh yeshiva]] (dean) of [[Yeshiva Toras Moshe]] in [[Jerusalem]], which he established in 1982. He also founded and served as principal of [[Yeshiva University of Los Angeles]] (YULA) from 1977 to 1982. He is a descendant of the [[Lithuanian Jews|Lithuanian Jewish]] [[Brisk yeshivas|Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty]].<ref>{{cite web|author=ralph|url=http://matzav.com/rav-meiselman-yoatzot-to-poskot-maharat-and-rabbah-is-a-natural-progression|title=Rav Meiselman: Yo'atzot to Poskot, Maharat and Rabbah is a "Natural Progression"|website=Matzav.com|date=November 4, 2010|access-date=March 16, 2016}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Rabbi Meiselman was born to Harry Meiselman, a [[Dentist|dental surgeon]], and Shulamit Soloveitchik, a teacher and Jewish school principal who attended [[New York University]] and [[Radcliffe College]]. On his father's side, he is a descendent of the [[rebbe]] (hereditary leader of a [[hasidic dynasty]]) Baruch of Kossov.<ref name="mish">{{citation|url=http://www.mishpacha.com/Browse/Article/1613/Mosaic-Of-Truth|title=Mosaic of Truth|first=Eytan|last=Kobre|date=November 3, 2011|work=[[Mishpacha]]}}</ref>
On his mother's side, he is a descendant of the Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty. His maternal grandfather was Rabbi [[Moshe Soloveichik]] and his maternal great-grandfather was Rabbi [[Chaim Soloveitchik]], known as Reb Chaim Brisker.<ref name="mish"/> His mother, Shulamit, authored the book ''The Soloveitchik Heritage: A Daughter's Memoir'' (1995).<ref name="high">{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-20587247.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924190226/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-20587247.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 24, 2015|title=Shulamith Meiselman, 97; devoted to Jewish education|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=July 30, 2009|access-date=July 31, 2015|first=Gloria|last=Negri}}</ref> Rabbi Meiselman was a nephew of Rabbi Dr. [[Joseph B. Soloveitchik]], rosh yeshiva of [[Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary|R.I.E.T.S.]], with whom, according to Rabbi Meiselman, he had [[Chavruta|study sessions]] on a near daily basis from the time he was 18 until he was 29 years old.<ref name="matzav">{{cite web|url=http://matzav.com/rav-meiselman-yoatzot-to-poskot-maharat-and-rabbah-is-a-natural-progression|title=Rav Meiselman: Yo'atzot to Poskot, Maharat and Rabbah is a 'Natural Progression'|date=November 4, 2010|access-date=July 31, 2015|publisher=matzav.com}}</ref>

Rabbi Meiselman graduated from high school at the [[Boston Latin School]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classmates.com/people/MosheMeiselman/602387121|title=Moshe Meiselman, Class of 1959|publisher=classmates.com|year=2015}}</ref> and then went on to attend [[Harvard College]] (which all three of Soloveitchik's children and his American grandchildren attended) and the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] where he earned his doctorate in mathematics in 1967 with the thesis "The Operation [[Ring (mathematics)|Ring]] for Connective [[K-theory|K-Theory]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/html/id.phtml?id=67349|title=The Mathematics Genealogy Project–Moshe Meiselman|website=Genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu|access-date=March 16, 2016}}</ref>

==Career==
Rabbi Meiselman began his career teaching mathematics at City University of New York. After his marriage in 1971, he became a ''[[maggid shiur]]'' at Beis Medrash L'Torah in [[Skokie, Illinois|Skokie]]. Afterward, he taught at Yeshivas Brisk (Brisk Rabbinical College) in Chicago, headed for a time by his uncle, Rabbi [[Ahron Soloveichik]].<ref name=mish/> In 1977 he moved to the West Coast and founded the Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA), opening separate high school programs for boys and girls, a [[Yeshiva|yeshivah gedolah]], and a [[kolel]]. He also served as a [[posek]] (arbiter of Jewish law) for the local community.<ref name=mish/>

In 1982, having built up enrollment to nearly 400 male and female students in YULA's various divisions, Rabbi Meiselman moved to Israel to open a yeshiva for American students, together with co-rosh yeshiva Rabbi Doniel Lehrfield (Rabbi Lehrfield and several other faculty members subsequently left to start another yeshiva, [[Yeshivas Bais Yisroel|Bais Yisroel]]). He named the new school Toras Moshe after his grandfather, Moshe.<ref name=mish/><ref name=matzav/> He selected Rabbis Michel Shurkin and [[2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack|Moshe Twersky]], both close students of Rabbi  Soloveitchik, to head the teaching staff.<ref name=mish/> In 2011, Meiselman reported about his yeshiva that "We have 96 boys in the beis medrash and 44 in the kollel, and almost all of our kollel yungerleit are home-grown".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mishpacha.com/Browse/Article/1613/Mosaic-Of-Truth|title=Mishpacha Jewish Family Weekly|website=Mishpacha.com|date=November 30, 2011|access-date=March 16, 2016}}</ref>

Rabbi Meiselman is one of several grandchildren of Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik who have established yeshivas in Israel, perhaps the most famous being Rabbi [[Aharon Lichtenstein]], son-in-law of Rabbi  Joseph Soloveitchik, who established [[Yeshivat Har Etzion]] in the late 1960s. Yeshivat Reshit,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.reishit.org|title=Yeshivat Reishit|website=Reishit.org|access-date=March 16, 2016}}</ref> a popular yeshiva in Israel for American students in [[Beit Shemesh]], was established by the Rabbis Marcus, also descendants of Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik.

Rabbi Meiselman is the author of several books and numerous magazine articles. His ''Jewish Woman in Jewish Law'' (1978) sparked much discussion among authors and feminists for his traditional Jewish response to [[feminism]]. Additionally, Rabbi Meiselman has authored Tiferes Tzvi, a commentary to the Rambam, as well as numerous articles on Talmudic study and thought in Hebrew.

==Philosophies and controversies==

===''Torah, Chazal and Science''===
Rabbi Meiselman's 2013 book, ''Torah, Chazal and Science'', promotes the theory that all unqualified scientific statements of the Talmudic sages are sourced from the word of God, who can not be wrong, and are therefore immutable: "All of Chazal’s (the Talmudic sages') definitive statements are to be taken as absolute fact [even] outside the realm of [[halakhah]] (Jewish law)".<ref>''Torah, Chazal and Science'' (Lakewood: 2013), p. 634<!--ISSN/ISBN needed, if any--></ref> The flip side of this thesis, and another major theme of the book, is that modern science is transitory and unreliable compared to the divine wisdom of the sages. His book has been criticized by Rabbi Dr. [[Natan Slifkin]] and others.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2013/10/r-meiselman-all-rishonim-were-wrong.html|title=R. Meiselman: All The Rishonim Were Wrong, Again And Again And Again}}</ref>

===The Holocaust===
Following the opinion of some Haredi thinkers in the area of [[Holocaust theology]], Meiselman has argued that the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] was the result of Jewish cultural assimilation in Western Europe in the early twentieth century. He writes that "the turning away from the status of an ''am ha-nivhar'', a chosen people, and the frightening rush toward assimilation were, according to the rules that govern Jewish destiny, the real causes for the Holocaust."<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IzbAYgEACAAJ|title=Towards a Torah Understanding of the Holocaust|first=Moshe|last=Meiselman|journal=Oraisa: A Journal of Contemporary Jewish Issues|publisher=Yeshivas Toras Moshe|year=1989|volume=1|pages=19–20}}</ref>

===The State of Israel===
Rabbi Meiselman subscribes to Haredi views regarding the State of Israel and the [[Israel Defence Forces]]. He has stated that it is forbidden for a yeshiva student to join the Israeli army, and has criticized the [[Netzah Yehuda Battalion|Nachal Haredi]], stating in an interview that Nachal Haredi has "not been successful in maintaining commitment to Torah."<ref name="stake">{{cite web|url=https://yated.com/aeoethe-identity-of-the-israeli-people-is-at-stakeae%C2%9D-understanding-the-current-situation-in-eretz-yisroel|title='The Identity of the Israeli People is at Stake'|first=Rabbi Moshe|last=Boylan|work=[[Yated Ne'eman (United States)|Yated Ne'eman]]|date=May 8, 2013}}</ref>

In 2013, Rabbi Meiselman sat on the dais at a rally in NY against conscription of yeshiva students into the Israeli army. Both [[Satmar]] Rebbes were involved in the planning of, and also sat at the dais at, this rally.<ref>{{cite web|first=Natan|last=Slifkin|url=http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2013/06/an-enemy-worth-fighting-against.html|title=An Enemy Worth Fighting Against|publisher=Rationalist Judaism|date=June 11, 2013|access-date=March 16, 2016}}</ref>

===Modern Orthodoxy===
In commenting on [[Modern Orthodox Judaism|Modern Orthodox]] innovations with regard to women, Rabbi Meiselman has stated that "when it comes to the rabbis and the people who are at the forefront of pushing for these changes so that they can 'update' Orthodoxy to conform with today’s 'progressive' cultural norm ... [the] common denominator between nearly all of them is that they are largely ignorant of halacha and devoid of serious Torah scholarship. If your knowledge of Torah and halacha are limited, then you are not limited by halacha. One is never confined by things that one doesn't know and never learned!"<ref name=matzav/>

Some of Yeshiva Toras Moshe's faculty members dissuade students from enrolling at [[Yeshiva University]] when they leave Toras Moshe, while others are less opposed.<ref name="slifkinchallenge.blogspot.com">{{cite web|title=The Slifkin Challenge: Stop The Lies -- Part III (2 UPDATES)|url=http://slifkinchallenge.blogspot.com/2015/11/stop-lies-part-iii.html|access-date=November 15, 2015}}</ref>

==Personal==
Meiselman is married to Rivkah Leah Eichenstein.<ref name=mish/>

==Bibliography==

===Books===
*{{cite book|title=Torah, Chazal and Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kEYnwEACAAJ|publisher=Israel Bookshop Publications|year=2013|isbn=978-1-60091-243-6}}
*{{cite book|title=Jewish Woman in Jewish Law|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t3zQAoncEnwC|publisher=Ktav Publishing House|year=1978|isbn=0-87068-329-2}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-b7cHAAACAAJ|title=Esheth Hayil in Perspective: The Role of Women in Judaism|last1=Meiselman|first1=Moshe|year=1974}}

===Selected articles===
* {{cite journal|url=http://ou.org.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/ja/5766/fall66/CommtyCovenantMeiselman.pdf|title=Commitment: Reviewed by Moshe Meiselman|journal=Jewish Action|publisher=[[Orthodox Union]]|year=2005|pages=89–94}}
* {{cite journal|title=The Rav, Feminism and Public Policy: An Insider's Overview|journal=Tradition|volume=33|issue=1|pages=5–30}}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WinAGwAACAAJ|title=The Incomparable Gaon of Vilna|publisher=Orthodox Union|year=1997}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [http://www.sdjewishworld.com/2014/03/27/book-review-torah-chazal-science/ "Book Review: 'Torah, Chazal and Science'"], ''[[San Diego Jewish World]]'', March 27, 2014

{{Brisker family tree}}

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[[Category:Algebraists]]
[[Category:American Orthodox rabbis]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni]]
[[Category:Rosh yeshivas]]
[[Category:Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty]]
[[Category:Rabbis from Boston]]
[[Category:1942 births]]