{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02639019792648445, 'fraction_numerical': 0.00942507068803016, 'mean_word_length': 5.207602339181286, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 1, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
"Rushing in Where Angels Fear to Tread": Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Rabbinical Council of America, Modern Orthodox Jewry and the Second Vatican Council

Writing in the September 1964 issue of The Jewish Horizon, the official literary organ of the Religious Zionists of America (Hapoel-Mizrachi), Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik published a letter expressing his thoughts and feelings on the developments that had transpired over the past three years between the Vatican and the Jews during the Second Vatican Council. ‘‘They should say chatanu (we have sinned) for rushing in where angels fear to tread,’’ he wrote in reference to those Jews who had participated in theological dialogue with the Church. The evocation of this provocative imagery served as his admonition of the actions of certain individuals and organizations that had served as ambassadors over the previous three years for the Jewish people to the Vatican. Between the years 1961–1965, at the Vatican Council, the Catholic Church began to reevaluate its stance towards the Jews. Ultimately, Nostra Aetate, In our Time, would be proclaimed by the Council as an attempt to radically alter the relationship between Christians and Jews. While Jews would definitely be affected by the pronouncement, would they have an influence on its proclamation? To whom did Rabbi Soloveitchik direct his passionate criticism in 1964? Why did he feel the need to employ such severe language? Scholarship has been sparse, and at times questionable, in the discussion and elaboration on Modern Orthodoxy’s view of, and participation in, the Second Vatican Council. Arthur Gilbert, in the first history written on the Vatican Council and the Jews, entitled, The Vatican Council and the Jews, written in 1968, makes no reference to Rabbi Soloveitchik’s or the Rabbinical Council of America’s (RCA) initial involvement or stance on Jewish participation in Vatican II. Rather, he writes only about their reactions to Council proceedings. Jonathan Sarna in American Judaism: A History, mentions Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel’s involvement as an advocate for the American Jewish