Lectures

The Rav lectured prolifically throughout his lifetime. Many of his classes were recorded, others were redacted in books and articles, and others were retransmitted in classes by his students and scholars of his work.

Recordings

We recommend noise cancelling headphones to improve sound quality. Many of these recordings are decades old. Please first confer with your physician if you have health issues concerning your hearing. *Indicates better sound quality.

heartherav.com

TheTeffilin of Rabbeinu Tam*

Yarzeit Shiur March 2, 1975 at Yeshiva University. Sound enhanced recording and complete transcription from www.heartherav.com, length: approximately 2 hours.

Study Aids for the Heartherav Lecture on Tefillin 

613.org

www.613.org has over 20 hours of recordings of the Rav

AL HaNisim - Tape DD on Hanukah

Yosef and Chanukah - What's the Connection?

Haggadah

Uniting of Generations - Pidyon Haben*

Tsitsis Lavan and Tehalis

Purim and Megilas Esther

Bergen County Beis Medrash Program- BCBM.org

·         Gemara/Halacha

·         Parsha

·         Moadim

·         Yartzeit

·         Machshava/Other

approximately 50 recordings

Eric Levy Site

approximately 100 recordings 

The Rabbi Milton Nordlicht Tape Library

Rabbi Nordlicht has hundreds of tapes and offers prompt delivery.

Tape Catalog

Email - mattifr@aol.com
Phone - (718) 261-7770
Fax   - (718) 261-7774

Lectures on mp3

Torah Shiurim

Other

The Role of the Rabbi (The Yiddish Voice, 5/15/55) In Yiddish

Purim, the Rambam  (Kosher4Passover.com)

Purim and Megillas Esther  (Kosher4Passover.com)

Books

Derashot HaRav Shiurei HaRav On Repentance
Derashot HaRav, Arnold Lustiger Shiurei HaRav, Joseph Epstein On Repentance, Pinchas H. Peli
Reflections of the Rav Man of Faith in the Modern World Before Hashem You Shall Be Purified
Reflections of the Rav, Abraham Besdin Man of Faith in the Modern World, Abraham Besdin Before Hashem You Shall Be Purified, Arnold Lustiger
Gittin Gittin Shuirei HaRav Al Inyanei Aveilut veTisha B'av
Shuirei HaRav Yoseph Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik zt'l Mipi HaShamua L'Meseches Gittin, Chpaters 1-4, Rav Hershel Zvi Schachter, Torah Web Shuirei HaRav Yoseph Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik zt'l Mipi HaShamua L'Meseches Gittin, Hershel Zvi Schachter, Torah Web, Volumes available also on Kiddushin, Pesachim / Rosh Hashana / Yoma / Megillah, Krias haTorah, Tzitzis, Tefillin, and Shabbos ספר שיעורי הרב על עניני אבילות ותשעה באב  Mesorah Commission, OU, 11 Broadway, NY, NY
Moadei HaRav Rav Speaks  
Moadei HaRav, Shlomo Zev Pik, Machon Gavoha L'Torah The Rav Speaks  

Notes

Rabbi Nissan Shulman

SHIURIM OF RAV SOLOVEITCHIK ZT"L ON MASECHES BRACHOS
Notes from Sept. 1952 - Jan. 1954

613.org

Class Notes Vol I

Class Notes Vol III

Notes to Bible Classes 

Bikkurim (Hebrew) 

Adaptation

The First Jewish Grandfather 

Leadership (Torah.org, pdf.) or Leadership (Torah.org, html)Lecture given June 10, 1974

Parashat B'ha'alot'kha: Rav Soloveitchik's Lecture on Leadership - Torah.org

On the Love of Torah 

 

Translated and organized by Dr. Arnold Lustiger:

(Source for these links: Josh Cypess’s site on the Rav) 

Teshuva Lectures

The Avoda Recitation and Yom Kippur Tefillah (1992)

The Significance of the Various Appellations for Yom Kippur (1993)

The Teshuva Process During the Yamim Nora'im (1994) 

Other

Jewish Ethics and the Ten Commandments

Lecture Before Rabbinical Council of America (June 22, 1972)

Transcript

Talmud Torah and Kabalas Ol Malchus Shamayim (mail-jewish.org) 

 

If true prayer takes place in the heart one does not need a master of ceremonies to mediate between the congregation and the Creator. Judaism teaches  that every individual possesses a heart full of love - conscious or unconscious - for God; his heart is as near to the Gates of Heaven as that of the "clergyman," often more so. There is no need for the "rabbi" to stand  on a pulpit, adorned with the "priestly vestments, " to stage the prayers. He and the simple Jew have exactly the same status before God. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Shiurei HaRav, edited by Joseph Epstein ( Hoboken, New Jersey: Ktav, 1974), adapted translation by Shalom Carmywith Menachem Kasdan from Maayonot, Tefillah 5724, Department of Jewish Education for the Diaspora, p. 84.

...the study of the Torah is an ecstatic, metaphysical performance; the study of Torah is an act of surrender.  That is why chazal stress so many times the importance of humility, and that the proud person can never be a great scholar, only the humble person.  Why is humility necessary?  Because the study of Torah means meeting the Almighty, and if a finite being meets the infinite, the Almighty, the Maker of the world, of course this meeting must precipitate a mood of humility, and humility results in surrender.  Partial transcript of an address  to the RCA Convention, 1975, on the topic of gerut.   Transcribed by Eitan Fiorino   in http://mail-jewish.org/rav/talmud_torah.txt.

The purpose of every leader is to appeal to the good that is in man, to speak to the hidden person. There are two ways in which a leader may give reproof. He might be tempted to tell the people that they are wicked. Today, such reproof is as ineffective as it is inappropriate. Modern man would not repent through such harsh rebuke. Alternatively, one may use Moses' method, the method of nullification of vows. The sinner must be approached and told that he is not as bad as he thinks. For if a Jew perceives that he is totally corrupt, he will mistakenly think that he is too far removed for repentance. Often Jews wish to repent but believe that the road to return is blocked. In response, we must let them know that God "opens His Hand to sinners." We let the sinner know that there is no reason for low self-esteem. This ability is the true strength of the Jewish leader. Derashot Ha Rav, Arnold Lustiger, (Union City, NJ, Ohr Publishing: 2003), pp. 100-101.

The Halakha commands man to enjoy the splendor and beauty of creation to a degree no less than that of the sybarite. However, the pleasure of the man of Halakha is refined, bounded-in and purified... The Halakha never forbade man the pleasures of this world nor did it demand of him asceticism and self-torture... [But] the Halakha does despise the chaos of hedone ... Halakha distances man from madness and the hysteria of desire. Halakhic enjoyment lacks overintensity, overstimulation and drunkenness of the senses. However, it possesses the beauty of gentility and the aesthetic splendor of life. When man enjoys the world in accordance with the view of the Halakha, his enjoyment is modest and refined, lacking the mania of sexual desire and the frenzy of gluttony. (U-vikkashtem Mi-sham, pp. 207-208 in INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF RAV SOLOVEITCHIK)

[Many religious people today]"...act like children and experience religion like children. This is why they accept all types of fanaticism and superstition. Sometimes they are even ready to do things that border on the immoral. They lack the experiential component of religion, and simply substitute obscurantism for it....After all, I come from the ghetto. Yet I have never seen so much naïve and uncritical commitment to people and to ideas as I see in America....All extremism, fanaticism and obscurantism come from a lack of security. A person who is secure cannot be an extremist." A Reader's Companion to Ish Ha-Halakhah: Introductory Section, David Shatz, Yeshiva University, Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute in Wikipedia.org.

...to say that the halachah is not sensitive to problems, not responsive to the needs of the people, is an outright falsehood. The halachah is responsive to the needs of both the community and the individual. But the halachah has its own orbit, moves at its own certain definite speed, has its own pattern of responding to a challenge, its own criteria and principles. I come from a rabbinic house; it is called beis harav, the house into which I was born, and believe me, Rav Chaim used to try his best to be a meikil (lenient). However, there were limits even to Rav Chaim's skills. When you reach the boundary line, it is all you can say -- "I surrender to the will of the Almighty." (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 )