Rabbi Soloveitchik

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

the price we are paying

"… if the State of Israel will become a secular kingdom without Torah, without sanctity, without the Sabbath, without Jewish education, without family purity, a State in which Jewish uniqueness will be erased, then the price we are paying for her in blood and tears is too heavy."

(The Rav Speaks, trans. from Yiddish addresses delivered by the Rav at Mizrachi Conventions, 1962-1967, p. 79, in. Insights of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, pp. 138-9).

Friday, April 28, 2017

Recording of Samuel Belkin

Recording from YUTorah.org

This is news to me. I had never heard his voice before. Pretty exciting. Excellent English.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition

R. Jeffrey Saks interviews Prof. William Kolbrener about his new book “The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition” (Indiana U. Press).

Listen

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Linked Post: Rav Soloveitchik threatens a herem on El Al (On the Main Line)

Read Article

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Linked Article: Who’s AK?: The Need for Open Dialogue (YU Commentator) By: Yehuda Greenfield

By: Yehuda Greenfield

“It’s funny how they called the rosh yeshiva ztz”l, the Rosh Yeshiva, while they called Reb Yoshe Ber, the Rav,” Rav Reuven Feinstein said in his much-imitated, wispy voice. “Really, it was the rosh yeshiva ztz”l who was the Rav, a poisek, and Reb Yoshe Ber was the Rosh Yeshiva.”

I was in eleventh grade, sitting in a chumash shiur given by my own rosh yeshiva, Rav Reuven Feinstein. He was saying a story about his father, Rav Moshe Feinstein, and a man unknown to me, Reb Yoshe Ber.

“Who’s Reb Yoshe Ber?” I asked my chavrusa later, during seder.

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(Source credit: R' Jeffrey Saks)

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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