Joseph B. Soloveitchik facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Official photograph from Yeshiva University
Religion	Judaism
Denomination	Orthodox Judaism
Personal
Nationality	American
Born	February 27, 1903 12 Adar 5663 Pruzhany, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Belarus)
Died	April 9, 1993(1993-04-09) (aged 90) Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Spouse	Tonya Lewit, Ph.D. (1904-1967)
Parents	Moshe Soloveichik and Peshka Feinstein Soloveichik
Senior posting
Title	The Rav
Position	Rosh yeshiva
Yeshiva	R.I.E.T.S. Maimonides School
Yahrtzeit	18 Nissan 5753
Buried	Beth El Cemetery, West Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA
Dynasty	Soloveitchik dynasty

Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (Hebrew: יוסף דב הלוי סולובייצ׳יק Yosef Dov ha-Levi Soloveychik; February 27, 1903 – April 9, 1993) was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty.

As a rosh yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva University in New York City, The Rav, as he was known, ordained close to 2,000 rabbis over the course of almost half a century. Rabbinic literature sometimes refers to him as הגרי"ד, short for "The great Rabbi Yosef Dov".

He is regarded as a seminal figure by Modern Orthodox Judaism and served as a guide and role-model for tens of thousands of Jews, both as a Talmudic scholar and as a religious leader.

Heritage

Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was born on February 27, 1903, in Pruzhany, Imperial Russia (later Poland, now Belarus). He came from a rabbinical dynasty dating back some 200 years: His paternal grandfather was Chaim Soloveitchik, and his great-grandfather and namesake was Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, the Beis HaLevi. His great-great-grandfather was Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (The Netziv), and his great-great-great-great grandfather was Chaim Volozhin. His father, Moshe Soloveichik (note different spelling of last name), preceded him as head of the RIETS rabbinical school at Yeshiva University. On his maternal line, Soloveitchik was a grandson of Eliyahu Feinstein and his wife Guta Feinstein, née Davidovitch, who, in turn, was a descendant of a long line of Kapulyan rabbis, and of the Tosafot Yom Tov, the Shelah, the Maharshal, and Rashi. Rabbi Soloveitchik's mother, Pesha, was a first cousin of Rav Moshe Feinstein.

Early years, education, and immigration

Soloveitchik was educated in the traditional manner at a Talmud Torah, an elementary yeshiva, and by private tutors, as his parents realized his great mental prowess. According to a curriculum vitae written and signed in his own hand, in 1922, he graduated from the liberal arts "Gymnasium" in Dubno. In 1924, he entered the Free Polish University in Warsaw, where he spent three terms, studying political science. In 1926, he came to Berlin, Germany, and entered the Friedrich Wilhelm University. He passed the examination for supplementary subjects at the German Institute for Studies by Foreigners, and was then given full matriculation at the University. He took up studies in philosophy, economics, and Hebrew subjects, simultaneously maintaining a rigorous schedule of intensive Talmud study.

According to the CV, among his "highly honored" teachers in university, bearing the title "Geheimrat" (literally: Privy Counselor), were Professor Dr. Heinrich Maier (1867-1933) and Professor Dr. Max Dessoir, along with Professor Dr. Eugen Mittwoch and Professor Dr. Ludwig Bernhard. He studied the work of European philosophers, and was a life-long student of neo-Kantian thought.

He wrote his Ph.D. thesis on the epistemology and metaphysics of the German philosopher Hermann Cohen. Contrary to most biographies, which erroneously state that in 1931, he received his degree, he actually passed his oral doctor's examination on July 24, 1930, but graduated with a doctorate only on December 19, 1932, as he had requested an extension to allow him to expand his thesis. Documents exist to support this assertion, located by Marc B. Shapiro in the University of Berlin archives.

In 1931, he married Tonya Lewit (1904-1967), who had earned a Ph.D. in Education from Jena University. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski served as his mesader kiddushin in Vilna.

During his years in Berlin, Soloveitchik became a close disciple of Chaim Heller, who had established an institute for advanced Jewish Studies from an Orthodox perspective in the city. He also made the acquaintance of other young scholars pursuing a similar path to his own. One such figure was Yitzchak Hutner, who would become the rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, also in Brooklyn, New York. Both of them developed a system of thought that bridged the Eastern European way of traditional scholarship with the new forces of modernity in the Western World. Among the other personalities with whom he came into contact were the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Professor Alexander Altmann, Yehiel Yaakov Weinberg, Rector of the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary, and Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz.

Boston

In 1932, Soloveitchik emigrated to America and settled in Boston, where he referred to himself as "The Soloveitchik of Boston." In that year, he opened a yeshiva known as Heichal Rabbeinu Chaim HaLevi or the Boston Yeshivah. Initially it mainly served lay people and their children, but starting in 1939 it was augmented by advanced students and staff who had fled the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

Soloveitchik pioneered the Maimonides School, one of the first Hebrew day schools in Boston in 1937. When the school's high school was founded in the late 1940s, he instituted a number of innovations in the curriculum, including teaching Talmud to boys and girls studying in classes together. He involved himself in all manner of religious issues in the Boston area. He was at times both a rabbinical supervisor of kosher slaughtering - shechita - and an educator, gladly accepting invitations to lecture in Jewish and religious philosophy at prestigious New England colleges and universities. Rabbi Soloveitchik was also the head of Boston's Council of Orthodox Synagogues (also called the Vaad Ha'ir). His son-in-law, Isadore Twersky, was an internationally renowned expert on the writings of Maimonides, and succeeded Professor Harry Austryn Wolfson to the Nathan Littauer chair of Jewish History and Literature at Harvard University.

New York

Soloveitchik succeeded his father, Moses (Moshe) Soloveichik, as the head of the RIETS rabbinical school at Yeshiva University in 1941. He taught there until 1986, when illness kept him from continuing, and was considered the top Rosh Yeshiva (never, however, a formally recognized position at YU) from the time he began teaching there until his death in 1993. He was the first occupant of the Leib Merkin Distinguished Professorial Chair in Talmud and Jewish Philosophy at RIETS.

He ordained over 2,000 rabbis, many of whom are among the leaders of Orthodox Judaism and the Jewish people today. In addition, he gave public lectures that were attended by thousands from throughout the greater Jewish community, as well as regular classes at other New York institutions.

Soloveitchik advocated more intensive textual Torah study for Jewish women at the Stern College for Women, giving the first class in Talmud inaugurated at Stern College. He attracted and inspired many young men and women to become spiritual leaders and educators in Jewish communities worldwide. They, in turn, went out with the education of Yeshiva University to head synagogues, schools, and communities, where they continue to influence many Jews to remain - or become - committed to Orthodoxy and observance. Meir Kahane was highly influenced by his lectures.

Philosophy and major works

Torah Umadda synthesis

During his tenure at Yeshiva University, in addition to his Talmudic lectures, Soloveitchik deepened the system of "synthesis" whereby the best of religious Torah scholarship would be combined with the best secular scholarship in Western civilization. This later became known as the Torah Umadda - "Torah and secular wisdom" philosophy- the motto of Yeshiva University.

However, Rav Ahron Soloveichik disputes this claim, saying: "That the Rav had a positive attitude toward worldly wisdom is beyond question. The same positive attitude towards worldly wisdom was expressed by all the Gedolei Yisrael from Rav Saadia Gaon up to the Gaon of Vilna. A talmid of the G'ra says in the translation of the Euclidean geometry that the G'ra had said 'Ka'asher yechsar lo I'Adam yad achat b'Chochmat haolam kein yechseru lo meah yados baTorah.' If a person is deficient in worldly wisdom he will inescapably be deficient in one hundred measures in Torah wisdom. However, there is a great divergence between having a positive attitude towards worldly wisdom and being committed to mada. Being committed to mada implies a belief that mada is an ikar in life. My brother did not consider mada as an ikar in Yahadut. As a matter of fact my brother never in his lectures mentioned the expression Torah Umada; nor did he ever mention in his essays Ish Hahalacha and Ish Emunah. If anyone who has a positive attitude towards worldly wisdom tries to synthesize Torah with philosophy then Rav Saadiah Gaon, the Chovat Halevavot and the Rambam and the Gaon of Vilna were also attempting to synthesize the Torah with philosophy. Obviously such an allegation would reflect chutzpah and foolish nonsense." He argues that the Rav used his worldly knowledge to enhance his Torah and his teaching, but did not agree that Mada was Ikar that must be synthesized with Torah. (See below "Debate over world view" under "Other views and controversy" for more on this issue.)

Through public lectures, writings, and Soloveitchik's policy decisions for the Modern Orthodox world, he strengthened the intellectual and ideological framework of Modern Orthodoxy.

In his major non-Talmudic publications, which altered the landscape of Jewish philosophy and Jewish theology, Soloveitchik stresses the normative and intellectual centrality of the halakhic corpus. He authored a number of essays and books offering a unique synthesis of Neo-Kantian existentialism and Jewish thought, the most well-known being The Lonely Man of Faith which deals with issues such as the willingness to stand alone in the face of monumental challenges, and Halakhic Man. A less known essay, though not less important, is "The Halakhic Mind - An essay on Jewish tradition and modern thought," written in 1944 and published only 40 years later, without any change, as the author himself stresses.

The Lonely Man of Faith

4 books of Joseph B. Soloveitchik

In The Lonely Man of Faith, Soloveitchik reads the first two chapters of Genesis as a contrast in the nature of the human being and identifies two human types: Adam I, or "majestic man," who employs his creative faculties in order to master his environment; and Adam II, or "covenantal man," who surrenders himself in submission to his Master. Soloveitchik describes how the man of faith integrates both of these aspects.

In the first chapter, Adam I is created together with Eve, and they are given the mandate to subdue nature, master the cosmos, and transform the world "into a domain for their power and sovereignty." Adam I is majestic man who approaches the world and relationships—even with the divine—in functional, pragmatic terms. Adam I, created in the image of God, fulfills this apparently "secular" mandate by conquering the universe, imposing his knowledge, technology, and cultural institutions upon the world. The human community depicted in Genesis 1 is a utilitarian one, where man and woman join together, like the male and female of other animals, to further the ends of their species.

In chapter two of Genesis, Adam II, on the other hand represents the lonely man of faith - bringing a "redemptive interpretation to the meaning of existence." Adam II does not subdue the garden, but rather tills it and preserves it. This type of human being is introduced by the words, "It is not good for man to be alone" - and through his sacrifice (of a metaphoric rib), he gains companionship and the relief of his existential loneliness - this covenantal community requires the participation of the Divine.

Halakhic Man

In Halakhic Man, Soloveitchik propounds the centrality of halakha in Jewish thought. His theological outlook is distinguished by a consistent focus on halakha, i. e., the fulfillment and study of the divine law. He presents the halakha as the a priori basis for religious practice and for the theological foundation for Jewish thought. Soloveitchik emphasizes halakha's "this-worldly, here-and-now grounding," as opposed to religious approaches that focus on the nature of the transcendent realm. This work argues that Jewish piety does not, therefore, fit familiar models of Western religiosity, and presents a phenomenology of this religious type. Here, "Halakhic man," as a result of his study of Torah and his observance of the commandments, develops a set of coherent attitudes towards intellectual activity, asceticism, death, esotericism, mysticism, creativity, repentance, and providence. He also underscores the necessity for individual self-creation as the divinely assigned task of the human being.

Halakhic Man has become well read in the Orthodox Jewish community, but its psychology and model of Jewish law was rejected by most of non-Orthodox Judaism; one of the most prominent critiques is from Abraham Joshua Heschel, who wrote:

Ish Ha-halakhah? Lo haya velo nivra ela mashal haya! [Halakhic Man? Such a Jew has never existed!] Soloveitchik's study, though brilliant, is based on the false notion that Judaism is a cold, logical affair with no room for piety. After all, the Torah does say 'Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might'. No, there never was such a typology in Judaism as the halakhic man. There was - and is - an Ish Torah [Torah man] who combines halakhah and aggadah, but that is another matter altogether. When I came to Berlin I was shocked to hear my fellow students talking about the problem of halakha as a central issue. In Poland it had been a foreign expression to me. Halakhah is not an all-inclusive term, and to use it as such is to restrict Judaism. 'Torah' is the more comprehensive word.

Halakhic Mind

Halakhic Mind is a four-part analysis of the historical correlation between science and philosophy. Only in its fourth and last part does the author introduce the consequences on the Halakha of the analysis performed in the previous three parts.

Family and last years

During the 1950s and 1960s, until his wife's death in 1967, Soloveitchik and some of his students would spend summers near Cape Cod in Onset, Massachusetts, where they would pray at Congregation Beth Israel.

After the passing of his wife in 1967, Soloveitchik began giving additional lectures, open to the public, during the summer months in Boston.

Soloveitchik's daughters married prominent academics and Talmudic scholars: his daughter Tovah married Aharon Lichtenstein, former Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS who made Aliyah to become Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel; his daughter Atarah (died February 24, 2023) married Isadore Twersky, former head of the Jewish Studies department at Harvard University (who also served as the Talner Rebbe in Boston). His son Haym Soloveitchik is a University Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University. His siblings included Samuel Soloveichik (1909-1967), Ahron Soloveichik (1917-2001), Shulamith Meiselman (1912-2009), and Anne Gerber (1915-2011). His grandchildren have maintained his heritage and also hold distinguished scholarly positions, such as Mosheh Lichtenstein, Yitzchok Lichtenstein, Esti Rosenberg and Mayer Twersky.

As he got older he suffered several bouts of serious illness (Alzheimer's disease preceded by Parkinson's disease).

Family tree

Works

Works by Joseph Soloveitchik

• Halakhic Morality: Essays on Ethics and Mesorah Edited by Joel B. Wolowelsky and Reuven Ziegler. Maggid Books, 2016.
• Confrontation and Other Essays Edited by Reuven Ziegler, Maggid Books, 2016.
• Three letters by Soloveitchik on seating in the synagogue are contained with The Sanctity of the Synagogue, Ed. Baruch Litvin. The Spero Foundation, NY, 1959. An expanded third edition of this book is Edited by Jeanne Litvin. Ktav, Hoboken, NJ, 1987.
• Confrontation, Tradition 6:2 p5-9, 1964. Reprinted in "A Treasury of Tradition," Hebrew Publishing Co, NY, 1967.
• The Lonely Man of Faith, Tradition, vol. 7#2, p56, 1965. This essay was published as a book by Doubleday in 1992, reprinted by Jason Aronson in 1997, and reprinted in a revised edition by Koren Publishers Jerusalem in 2011.
• Sacred and Profane, Kodesh and Chol in World Perspective, Gesher, Vol. 3#1, p5-29, 1966. This article has been reprinted with expdanded notes in Jewish Thought, Volume 3 #1, p55-82, 1993
• The Community, p7-24;Majesty and Humility, p25-37; Catharsis, p. 38-54; Redemption, Prayer and Talmud Torah, p55-73; A Tribute to the Rebbetzin of Talne, p. 73-83 are all printed in Tradition 17:2, Spring, 1978.
• Several of Soloveitchik's responsa for the RCA Halakha commission are contained in Challenge and mission: the emergence of the English speaking Orthodox rabbinate, L. Bernstein, Shengold, NY, 1982.
• Halakhic Man Translated by L. Kaplan, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia PA,1983
• The Halakhic Mind Seth Press, New York NY, 1986
• Fate and Destiny: From Holocaust to the State of Israel Ktav Publishing, Hoboken NJ 1992 and 2000.
• The Voice of My Beloved Knocketh translation by Lawrence Kaplan in Theological and Halakhic Responses on the Holocaust, Eds. Bernhard H. Rosenberg and Fred Heuman. Ktav/RCA, Hoboken, NJ, 1993
• Family Redeemed: Essays on Family Relationships, Edited by David Shatz and Joel B. Wolowelsky. Ktav, Hoboken, NJ, 2004.
• Out of the Whirlwind: Essays on Mourning, Suffering and the Human Condition, Edited by David Shatz, Joel B. Wolowelsky and Reuven Ziegler. Ktav, Hoboken, NJ, 2004.
• Worship of the Heart: Essays on Jewish Prayer, Edited by Shalom Carmy, Ktav, Hoboken, NJ, 2004.
• Emergence of Ethical Man, Edited by Michael Berger, Ktav, Hoboken, NJ, 2005.
• Community, Covenant and Commitment - Selected Letters and Communications, Edited by Nathaniel Helfgot, Ktav, Hoboken, NJ 2005.
• Festival of Freedom: Essays on Pesah and the Haggadah, Edited by Joel B. Wolowelsky and Reuven Ziegler. Ktav, Hoboken, NJ 2006.
• Kol Dodi Dofek, Translated by David Z. Gordon. Edited by Jeffrey Woolf, New York: Yeshiva University and Hoboken, NJ: Ktav 2006.
• The Lord is Righteous in All His Ways: Reflections on the Tish'ah Be'Av Kinot, Edited by Jacob J. Schachter, Ktav, Hoboken, NJ 2006.
• Days of Deliverance: Essays on Purim and Hanukkah, Edited by Eli D. Clark, Joel B. Wolowelsky, and Reuven Ziegler. Ktav, Hoboken, NJ 2006.
• Abraham's Journey: Reflections on the Life of the Founding Patriarch, Edited by David Shatz, Joel B. Wolowelsky and Reuven Ziegler. Ktav, Hoboken, NJ 2007.
• Vision and Leadership: Reflections on Joseph and Moses, Edited by David Shatz, Joel B. Wolowelsky and Reuven Ziegler. Ktav, Hoboken, NJ 2012.
• And From There You Shall Seek (U-Vikkashtem mi-Sham), Translated by Naomi Goldblum. Ktav, Hoboken, NJ 2008.
• On Repentance (Hebrew "Al haTeshuva," Jerusalem 1979); the major points of Rabbi Soloveitchik's teachings on teshuvah (repentance), based on his annual series of lectures on this theme, as redacted by Prof. Pinchas Peli.

Adaptations

• Shiurei Harav—A Conspectus of the Public Lectures of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Ed. Joseph Epstein. Hamevaser, Yeshiva University, 1974.
• The Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot, Koren Publishers Jerusalem & the Orthodox Union, 2010.
• The Koren Mesorat HaRav Siddur, Koren Publishers Jerusalem & the Orthodox Union, 2011.

Legacy of his hashkafa (worldview)

• Rabbi Norman Lamm, A Eulogy for the Rav, Tradition 28.1 1993
• Rabbi Walter S. Wurzburger, Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik as Posek of Post-Modern Orthodoxy, Tradition Volume 29, 1994
• Joseph Soloveitchik, article in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Keter Publishing
• Seth Farber, Reproach, Recognition and Respect: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Orthodoxy's Mid-Century Attitude Toward Non-Orthodox Denominations American Jewish History, Vol. 89,#2 193–214, 2001.
• Zvi Kolitz Confrontation: The Existential Thought of Rabbi J.B. SoloveitchikKtav, Hoboken, NJ, 1992
• Simcha Krauss, The Rav on Zionism, Universalism and Feminism Tradition 34:2, 24–39, 2000
• Alan Todd Levenson, "Joseph B. Soloveitchik's 'The Halakhic Mind'; a liberal critique and appreciation," CCAR Journal 41,1 55–63, 1994
• Aharon Ziegler, Halakhic Positions of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Jason Aronson Inc., 1998.
• Aharon Ziegler Halakhic Positions of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Vol II Jason Aronson Inc., 2001
• Aviezer Ravitsky, Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik on Human Knowledge: Between Maimonidean and Neo-Kantian Philosophy, Modern Judaism 6:2 157–188, 1986.
• David Hartman, Love and Terror in the God Encounter: The Theological Legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Jewish Lights Publishing, 2001
• Ephraim Chamiel, Between religion and Reason - The Dialectical Position in Contemporary Jewish Thought, Academic Studies Press, Boston 2020, part I, pp. 16–55.
• Jeffrey R. Woolf, 'In Search of the Rav', BaDaD, 18 (2007) 5-28.
• Jeffrey R. Woolf, "Time Awareness as a Source of Spirituality in the Thought of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik," Modern Judaism, 32,1 (2012), 54–75.

Cooperation with non-Orthodox Jews

• Rabbi Norman Lamm, Seventy Faces, Moment Vol. II, No. 6 June 1986-Sivan 5746
• Rabbi Mayer E. Rabinowitz Comments to the Agunot Conference in Jerusalem, July 1998, and on the Learn@JTS website.
• Rabbi Louis Bernstein The Emergence of the English Speaking Orthodox Rabbinate, 1977, Yeshiva University
• Rabbi Emmanuel Rackman, letter in The Jewish Week May 8, 1997, page 28.
• Joseph Soloveitchik Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews in the United States: Second article in a series on Responsa of Orthodox Judaism in the United States, 1954
• Jack Wertheimer, Ed., Tradition Renewed: A History of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Vol. II, p. 450, 474, JTS, NY, 1997
• Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement 1927-1970, Vol. II, Ed. David Golinkin, The Rabbinical Assembly, 1997

Awards

• 1985: National Jewish Book Award in the Jewish Thought category for Halakhic Man
• 2010: National Jewish Book Award in the Modern Jewish Thought and Experiment for The Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot

See also

• Jewish existentialism
• Maimonides School, the school founded by Soloveitchik in Brookline

• Yeshiva University
• Berel Soloveitchik