Ibn Kaspi In The Eyes Of The Open-Minded

I sometimes read a description of a person and get a certain percept of that person, only to later find something that person wrote and be surprised because it does not fit my preconceived idea of that person. I have never read anything by Rav Shlomo Fisher of Jerusalem. But I’ve seen his words quoted by Dr. Marc Shapiro, who wrote on him that “R. Fisher is ... the only one of our gedolim who is an expert in Jewish philosophy.”, and that he is the rabbi of R. Betzalel Naor. And R. Natan Slifkin cites him often in support of different ideas that are leaning more to the rationalistic side (see for example here and here.) Therefore,  I was surprised to find the following letter by Rav Shlomo Fisher. This appeared in Tzfunot, 3^rd issue, 5749.

I was surprised. In an unpleasant way, that is. I was relieved to find that someone already made sure to voice what I thought when reading Rav Fisher’s words. Here is Rav Shmuel Ashkenazi's  response in the next volume of Tzfunot: