Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

 

The Rav (translation: The Rabbi), as he is generally called by his students, was one of the greatest Jewish leaders and Torah scholars of the 20th century. He possessed many qualities of special relevance to people of our era, including the following: 

 

1) He spent enormous energy attempting to show the meaning and relevance of Torah to a 20th century Western audience.

 

2) He was a master of Talmud, Halacha, Bible, and Jewish philosophy. In addition, the Rav had a broad secular education, having earned a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Berlin.

 

3) He was a highly eloquent pedagogue, a riveting speaker, and a brilliant writer.  Not every genius is a great communicator. The Rav could communicate myriad aspects of Torah from intricate Talmudic logic to subtle philosophical ideas. Moreover, he was fluent in English.

 

4) The Rav loved his audience and relished the act of teaching. 

 

This website is a clearinghouse of resources for study of the Rav’s life and teachings. You can find here books, articles, tapes, videos, photos, and links to works by the Rav, his students, and scholars of his work. The material is challenging and you may need a dictionary to get through it. But it is well worth the effort.

 

New Publications/Media*

 

Rosh Hashana Machzor	MENTOR OF GENERATIONS:REFLECTIONS ON RABBI JOSEPH B SOLOVEITCHIK

 

Mentor of Generations: Reflections on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (YU Commentator)

 

Recent/Upcoming Events  

  

Screenings of Lonely Man of Faith Throughout the US 

 

Screenings are being arranged in New York and Chicago, as well as elsewhere in North America, for March 2008

 

Screenings in Israel 

 

Tues, Feb 19 (14th night of Adar I) at 8 PM, in Petach Tikvah, at Beit Kenesset Mekor Hayim.  The screening is sponsored by the city together with the shul.  Contact the shul for more details.  

 

Sat night, Feb 23 (18th night of Adar I), at 8 PM, at the Neve Shaanan Cultural Center.  For more information, write to Moshe Bach.  

 

Thursday, March 13 (7th night of Adar II) at 6 PM, as part of the "Jewish Film Days" festival at the Kinar Hotel in Tiberias.  Rabbi David Stav will speak afterwards.

 

Nof Ayalon

Yad Binyamin

Ohel Shlomo Synagogue in Rechovot

 

 

*This website is non-commercial. Links to booksellers are for the convenience of site visitors. We do not receive any commission for books, tapes, or CDs listed here.

 

(1) (Partial transcript of an address  to the RCA Convention, 1975, on the topic of religious conversion. This is a preamble to the class.  Transcribed by Eitan Fiorino in mail-jewish.org, from mp3 Rav - Gerus & Mesorah (1) [5053].mp3 )

(2) Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, "Sacred and Profane", Gesher, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 7 in Besdin, A, Reflections of the Rav, p. 224)

(3) Ish Hahalakhah- Galui V'nistar, translated by Lawrence Kaplan, p. 80 in Besden, A. Reflections of the Rav, p. 221.

 

Photo on banner was taken by Irwin Albert. Posted with permission.

(Photo courtesy of Yeshiva University)

Teaching has a tremendous and very strange impact on me.  I simply feel that when I teach Torah, I feel the breath of  eternity on my face.(1)

The error of modern representatives of religion is that they promise their congregants the solution to all the problems of life − an expectation which religion does not fulfill. Religion, on the contrary, deepens the problems but never intends to solve them. The grandeur of religion lies in its mysterium tremendum, its magnitude and its ultimate incomprehensibility. To cite one example, we may adduce the problem of theodicy, the justification of evil in the world, that has tantalized the inquiring mind from time immemorial till this last tragic decade. The acuteness of this problem has grown for the religious person in essence and dimensions. When a minister, rabbi, or priest attempts to solve the ancient question of Job's suffering through as sermon or lecture, he does not promote religious ends, but, on the contrary, does them a disservice. The beauty of religion with its grandiose vistas reveals itself to men, not in solutions but in problems, not in harmony but in the constant conflict of diversified forces and trends. (2)


Once Rabbi Hayim was asked what was the function of a Rabbi. He replied: 'To redress the grievances of those who are abandoned and alone, to protect the dignity of the poor, and to save the oppressed from the bonds of the oppressor.'(3)