Controversy
Slifkin's books, which had "cautious references to evolutionary theory", led to a denunciation of his work by ultra-Orthodox authorities. One Rabbi who signed the ban, Elya Ber Wachtfogel, added that "even what is not heretical is expressed in a way only a heretic would speak". The ban led Slifkin's publisher to discontinue distribution of his books. Yashar Books, a smaller Jewish publisher, agreed to distribute them.
Moment magazine quoted an anonymous rabbi who said: "The Slifkin ban is a huge break. It's a kind of power struggle, and those who didn't sign the ban are outraged right now. I'm talking about rabbis with long white beards who are furious about it... He's saying out loud what a lot of people have been talking about quietly all along. To those people, he's a kind of figurehead."
Rabbis Aharon Feldman and Shlomo Miller wrote articles in defense of the ban, and Rabbi Moshe Meiselman gave three lectures on this topic at Toras Moshe. These defenses of the ban were themselves controversial, and Slifkin posted them all on his website, together with rebuttals written by various people. Meiselman requested that Slifkin remove the lectures from his website, but Slifkin did not. In 2013, Meiselman released a nearly 900-page book entitled "Torah, Chazal, and Science", which he stated "was in response to some recent controversies surrounding issues of Torah and science. A spate of books ... have attempted to introduce a radical new theology and proclaim it compatible with classic Jewish belief." Rabbi Chaim Malinowitz broke with his Haredi colleagues in not seeking a ban on Slifkin's books.
On 5 October 2008, Slifkin published an essay entitled, In Defense of My Opponents, in which he says that there is a reasonable basis for a ban on his books in certain communities.
