He once remarked to me something like this: "At each step of the way, I thought I was correct - meaning at the center between the right and the left."
In my lexicon [after all Noah Webster was my lantsman!] Centrist Orthodoxy does not mean the Center of the entire Spectrum of Judaism. It connotes an attitude of respect for both the Torah Learning and the p'sak of the Yeshiva World and also an engagement with [the best of] Secular Learning etc.
It may be termed Torah im Derech Eretz or Torah uMada [or uMadua!] :-)
Interestingly, some of my favorite "paradigms" of Torah uMada are not from YU, EG R Dr Avraham Twerski and Dr Lawrence Schiffman.
One teacher of mine suggested that the Kabblistic Sefirah of Tiferet actually indicates Harmony between Chessed and Gevurah, which lends an interesting p'shat for the Mishnah and Avot with regard to "Tif'eret".
«מסכת אבות פרק ב
ב,א רבי אומר, איזו היא דרך ישרה שיבור לו האדם--כל שהיא תפארת לעושיה, ותפארת לו מן האדם. »
I'll end on a Hashgachah note. Rav S Schwab Z"L once wrote an article on debugging vegetables. He suggested no compromise on removing bugs and ALSO no compromising by avoiding veggies, because they are part of a wholesome diet.
Shalom and Regards,
RRW
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