Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Lectures of Rabbi Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik: The Relationship between Halakhah, Aggadah, and Kabbalah

 Microsoft Word - Zelcer (hakirah.org)

Driving Rav Soloveichik By Rabbi Ari Kahn

 A new generation or two have grown who “did not know Yosef.” They have certainly heard his name, or have heard about him. They have heard countless teachings in his name; they have been inspired by his students, or by his student’s students, or perhaps even by their students in turn – but they didn’t know him. Of course, I am referring to the towering, undisputed leader of twentieth-century centrist Orthodoxy, Rabbi Dr. Yosef Dov Soloveitchik – “The Rav.”


For the most part, the youngest students in the Rav’s last shiurim in the early 1980s are by now grandparents (including the writer of these lines).


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jewishpress.com article





Sunday, March 26, 2023

Rav Soloveitchik and the Lubavitcher Rebbe: An Unlikely Friendship by RABBI MENACHEM GENACK

At first glance, one would think that Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, widely known as “the Rav,” and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, better known as “the Rebbe,” would not have shared much in common. These two great men were representatives of two opposing schools within Judaism. The Rav was a seventh-generation descendant of Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner, the founder of the Volozhin Yeshiva, the template for all Lithuanian yeshivos. Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner was also the outstanding disciple of the Gaon of Vilna, the leader of the opposition to Chassidism. The Rav’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all leading rabbis in the Lithuanian mold, without an ounce of Chassidism between them. Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik (Reb Chaim Brisker), the Rav’s grandfather, was the innovator of the “Brisker derech,” a method of Talmudic study that seeks to uncover the concepts underlying the halachah, but which never ventures beyond halachah into the realm of mysticism or philosophy. The intellectual and sometimes austere Talmudism of the Rav’s forebears is depicted in his work Halakhic Man:

 

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Rav Soloveitchik and the Lubavitcher Rebbe: An Unlikely Friendship - Jewish Action

 

 

virtual videos

Introducing "virtual videos" featuring recordings of the Rav. Translation and subtitles by Arnold Lustiger.

 Mesoras Harav Videos (ohrpublishing.com)


Thursday, March 23, 2023

Drasha from Rav Soloveitchik on Pesach

 

 

 

 

Pesach: Writing a Story upon a People - חג הפסח: כתיבת סיפור על העם

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-G6R_sLjKo&t=1s

 

 

 

Presented in the 1950's.

 

To turn on subtitles, click on the gear icon in the bottom right

כדי לראות כתוביות בעברית, לחץ על איקון גלגל השיניים

 

0:00- 6:32: The etymology of the word sipur

6:33 - 9:55: The Sefer Yetzirah and the creation of writing

9:56 - 21:15: Closing the generation gap

21:15 - 26:29: The burden of the prophet

26:30 - 28:34: The burden of the parent

28:35 - 33:47: The theme of the seder in B'nei Brak

Saturday, March 18, 2023

linked post: notice of his passing: Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Leading Light of Orthodox Jewry, Mourned in Boston

Thousands of students and disciples gathered in Boston on Sunday to pay respect to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the central intellectual and religious figure behind American Orthodox Judaism.

Soloveitchik, 90, died of heart failure April 8, at the end of the third day of Passover.

A master of the worlds of Jewish law and Jewish thought, he was almost universally referred to as “the Rav,” the rabbi and teacher par excellence.

Continue:

Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Leading Light of Orthodox Jewry, Mourned in Boston - Jewish Telegraphic Agency (jta.org)

 

 

Dr. Atarah Twersky daughter of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik passes away at 90

The Rav's daughter Atarah passed away recently. I met her in Boston and corresponded with her a bit. She was very gracious to me. I was very impressed by her. She was a very intelligent and unpretentious woman.  Article from Arutz Sheva:

Dr. Atarah Twersky daughter of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik passes away at 90 | ערוץ 7 (israelnationalnews.com)

Dr. Atarah Twersky, the widow of Professor Isadore Twersky, daughter of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, passed away on Friday afternoon at 90.

Dr. Twersky was the sister of Dr. Tovah Lichtenstein, YU Professor of Jewish History Dr. Haym Soloveitchik, and mother of RIETS (Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary) Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Mayer Twersky, Tzipporah Rosenblatt, and Rabbi Moshe Twersky, who was murdered in his synagogue in Jerusalem by a Palestinian terrorist in 2014.

The funeral in the US will take place on Saturday evening at 8:15 PM at JFK Airport: EL AL Cargo,123 North Hangar Road Jamaica, New York.

The funeral in Israel will take place Sunday at the Jerusalem Municipal Funeral Parlor (Shamgar) 2 hours after the arrival of LY 008, scheduled to arrive at 5:10 PM.