Rabbi Soloveitchik: December 2025

Thursday, December 25, 2025

Rav Soloveitchik’s Portrayal of the Avot (Part 1) || Yocheved Friedman

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

The Secret of the Baal Teshuvah

https://outorah.org/p/170582/

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Rabbi Soloveitchik on Finding Your Purpose in Life, Shlichut

Listen to You have a purpose

Speaker:

Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

The Rav on Tefillah - new book

An Anthology of Teachings by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik on Jewish Prayer

The Levovitz Edition

Edited and annotated by Rabbi Dr. Jay Goldmintz

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik is known as “the Rav” because he was the teacher par excellence of his generation, but his contributions to our understanding and practice of Tefillah (Jewish prayer) are particularly noteworthy. The Rav approached Tefillah with great depth and intellectual rigor, exploring its philosophical and existential dimensions. His teachings have had a profound impact on the Jewish community; however, they are not always readily accessible. The vocabulary of the Rav’s philosophical writings sometimes acts as a barrier for the uninitiated, while many of the Rav’s shiurim are available only in Hebrew. In addition, these teachings are dispersed in a wide variety of publications as well as unpublished lecture notes, often making them difficult to obtain and locate.

To address these issues, veteran educator Rabbi Dr. Jay Goldmintz, a pioneer in the teaching of Jewish prayer, has compiled The Rav on Tefillah. Rabbi Goldmintz has collated teachings of the Rav which focus both on the macro and micro features of prayer, organizing them according to the sequence of the Siddur but without the space constraints of a Siddur commentary. Rabbi Goldmintz prefaces the Rav’s words with brief introductions which offer relevant context and background; notes contain sources, additional references, and alternative interpretations. In his Overview, Rabbi Goldmintz presents the central themes to which the Rav returns throughout in his approach to Tefillah. Rabbi Goldmintz’s work will help readers understand both the particulars of prayer and its overall structure so to achieve the goal of prayer, worship of the heart.

https://oupress.org/product/rav-tefillah/

I have it for one day and found great morsels, for example, the Torah has no specific mitzvah to have knowledge in Torah, but rather to teach others who need assistance and for this one requires knowledge.

Rav Soloveitchik on Prayer

Listen

Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Kevarim of the Rav and Rebbetzin

The kevarim of the Rav and Rebbetzin are to be found at Baker Street Jewish Cemeteries in West Roxbury (Boston), Massachusetts

Kohanim can see the tombstones from the road, the general area is shown in the square in the map below. It's around 100 meters East from this building, which is circled in the map below. If you stand at the entrance of this parking lot, where you can park, and are facing the cemetery, walk 100 meters, approx. to the left. If you are going to enter the cemetery, you do it here by this building and go left around 100 meters.

I don't remember exactly because it's been 20 years, but I believe you can view the tombstones from here:

Our interest in humanity

"There are religiously committed Jews who are indifferent to the concerns of the larger non-Jewish society. They are content to reside in isolated communities with unconcern, if not actual disdain, for the Gentile world and for the problems which afflict humanity. This introversion can be explained as a reaction to the centuries-old derision and persecution which have been the Jewish historical experience and to which they were subjected with particular ferocity in modern times. Nowadays, there are particular aspects of moral perversion afflicting the general society which are repellant to Jewish sensibilities. Nevertheless, this insularity cannot be vindicated as authentic Judaism even if it can be understood and justified in particular historical periods and situations." Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Man of Faith in the Modern World, p. 73.

The Beauty of Religion

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.

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

Ethical Values

…the religious person is given not only a duty to follow the halakha but also a value and vision. The person performing the duty seeks to realize this ideal or vision. Kant felt that the duty of consciousness expresses only a "must" without a value. He demanded a routine form of compliance, an "ought" without aiming at a value. As a soldier carries out his duty to the commanding officer, one may appreciate his service or just obey through discipline and orders. Kant's ethics are a "formal ethics", the goal is not important. For us it would be impossible to behave this way. An intelligent person must find comfort, warmth, and a sense of fulfillment in the law. We deal with ethical values, not ethical formalisms. A sense of pleasure must be gained by fulfilling a norm. The ethical act must have an end and purpose. We must become holy.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Mesorat HaRav Siddur, p. 112-3