Rabbi Soloveitchik: Writings

"It was the practice in Kovno and Slobodka to spend the twilight hour when the Sabbath was drawing to a close in an atmosphere suffused with sadness and grief, an atmosphere in which man loses his spiritual shield, his sense of power, confidence, and strength and becomes utterly sensitive and responsive, and then begins to engage in a monologue about death and, the nihility of this world, its emptiness and ugliness. The halakhic men of Brisk and Volozhin sensed that this whole mood posed a profound contradiction to the halakhah and would undermine its very foundations. Halakhic man fears nothing. For he swims in the sea of Talmud, that life-giving sea to all the living. If a person has sinned, then the halakhah of repentance will come to his aid. One must not waste time on spiritual self-appraisal, on probing introspections, and on the picking away at the "sense" of sin. Such a psychic analysis brings man neither to fear not to love of God nor, most fundamental of all, to the knowledge of cognition of the Torah. The Torah cannot be acquired in a state of melancholia and depression." Halakhic Man [36], pp. 74-76 in The Rav, Rakeffet-Rothkoff, pp. 168-9.

The Toras HoRav Foundation Series

Available at KTAV and OU Books

Arnold Lustiger books

Machzor Mesoras HaRav - Rosh Hashana - OU Press

Machzor Mesoras HaRav - Yom Kippur - OU Press

Chumash Mesoras Harav (ohrpublishing.com)

Other

Bibliographies

Mekoros HaRav

Dr. Eli Turkel (continually updated)
Dr. Zanvel Klein, Torah Umadda Journal, vol. 4 (1993), Yeshiva University.
Virtual Beit Midrash
Mordechai Gafni in Da'at, vol. 31 (1993), Bar Ilan University

Articles

(Partial Listing)

We are pleased to offer to the wider public access to the special Spring-Summer 1964 article kamagra 1978 edition containing seminal essays of Rabbi Soloveitchik.

We thank Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., for permission to produce a flash version of mitsukoshiya.com and other booksellers.

The following "double issues" of Tradition are listed according to the first issue, as follows:

Volume 7:4 - 8:1 (Winter 1965 - Spring 1966) is listed as 7:4 (Winter 1965)
Volume 9:1 - 9:2 (Spring - Summer 1967) is listed as 9:1 (Spring 1967)
Volume 12:3 - 12:4 (Winter 1971 - Spring 1972) is listed as 12:3 (Winter 1971)
Volume 13:4 - 14:1 (Spring - Summer 1973) is listed as 13:4 (Spring 1973)
Volume 15:1 - 15:2 (Spring - Summer 1975) is listed as 15:1 (Spring 1975)

"Confrontation" (Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought, 1964: 6, #2) From Tradition 17:2 (Spring, 1978)
"The Community", p. 7-24
"Majesty and Humility", p. 25-37
"Catharsis", p. 38-54
"Redemption, Prayer and Talmud Torah", p. 55-73
"A Tribute to the Rebbetzin of Talne", p. 73-83
"U-bekashtem Misham", Hadarom 47:1-836, 1979
Hesped le Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky", HaPardes, Shana 14 Choveret 7, 1940.
"R' Chaim Heller Zt"l Shmuel haKatan shel Doreinu HaPardes, 32-33, 1962.
Letter to Editor, Cantorial Council of America Bulletin, Vol. 4#1, 1965.
On repetition of words by the cantor, translated by Rabbi Schonfeld.
"Sacred and Profane, Kodesh and Chol in World Perspective," Gesher, Vol. 3#1, p5-29, 1966.
"Cheto haKaved shel Dorenu" Hapardes, Shana 30 Choveret 1:24-27, 1955.
"U-bekashtem Misham", Hadarom 47:1-836, 1979.
"Iyunim be-nusach ha-kiddush shel shabbat" shana be-shana, 159-173, 1980
"Surrendering to the Almighty," Light 17, Kislev 5736-1976.

Excerpts from an address to the Rabbinical Council of America in 1975.Das reine Denken und die Seinskonstituierung bei Hermann Cohen by Josef Solowiejczyk, Berlin: Reuther and Reichard, 1932.

Quotes from the Rav On the Joys of Religious Experience

Prayer means sacrifice, unrestricted offering of the whole self, the returning to God of body and soul, everything one possesses and cherishes. There is an altar in heaven upon which the archangel Michael offers the souls of the righteous. Thrice daily we petition God to accept our prayers, as well as the fires - the self-sacrifices of Israel - on that altar ("ve-ishei Yisrael u-tefillatam be-ahava tekabbel be-ratzon"). Prayer is rooted in the idea that man belongs, not to himself, but that God claims man, and that His claim to man is not partial but total. God the Almighty sometimes wills man to place himself, like Isaac of old, on the altar, to light the fire and to be consumed as a burnt offering. “Redemption, Prayer, Talmud Torah”, Tradition 17:2 (Spring 1978), pp. 70-71

Alas, not always does creative man respond readily to the divine normative summons which forms the very core of his new existential status as a confronted being. All too often, the motivating force in creative man is not the divine mandate entrusted to him and which must be implemented in full at both levels, the cognitive and the normative, but a demonic urge for power. By fulfilling an incomplete task, modern creative man falls back to a non-confronted, natural existence to which normative pressure is alien. The reason for the failure of confronted man to play his role fully lies in the fact that, while the cognitive gesture gives man mastery and a sense of success, the normative gesture requires of man surrender. At this juncture, man of today commits the error which his ancestor, Adam of old, committed by lending an attentive ear to the demonic whisper "Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil."Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, "Confrontation," from Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought, 1964 volume 6, #2.

Abraham, the knight of faith, according to our tradition, sought and discovered God in the starlit heavens ofMesopotamia. Yet, he felt an intense loneliness and could not find solace in the silent companionship of God, whose image was reflected in the boundless stretches of the cosmos. Only when he met God on earth as Father, Brother, and Friend - not only along the uncharted astral routes - did he feel redeemed. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith, (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1995), p. 49.

One serves God and enters into an intimate relationship with Him by self-realization on the part of the moral will, by living a moral life, by walking humbly with people, be engaging in deeds of charity, by being just and merciful, generous and kind, by cultivating the truth, by helping others, by disciplining oneself, by taming one’s animal desires and impulses and by introducing axiological worth into the realm of a bodily existence.Joseph B. Soloveitchik,Worship of the Heart (Toras HaRav), pp. 9-10.

The slave lives in silence, if such a meaningless existence may be called life. He has no message to deliver. In contrast with the slave, the free man bears a message, has a good deal to tell, and is eager to convey his life story to anyone who cares to listen. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, “Redemption, Prayer, Talmud Torah”

"Serve the Lord with joy.” Man must worship his Creator not only out of a feeling of absolute decree and coercion but also out of spontaneous, variegated desire and aspiration which gladdens the heart. The Torah commands us to serve God with joy, with longing and yearning, out of enjoyment and happiness, unfettered pleasure and the soul's delight. When man does not see God and sense His presence at every turn; when he thinks of God only out of fear of punishment, with a cool intellect, without ecstasy, icy or enthusiasm, when his actions lack soul, inwardness and vitality, then ills religious life is flawed. At the same time, if man is not always aware of God, if he does not walk with God in all his ways and paths, if he does not sense God's touch on his stooped shoulders in times of distress and loneliness, imparting a certain comfort and encouragement, then his service is likewise incomplete. And From There You Shall Seek in Mesorat HaRav Siddur, p. 75-6

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

Rabbi Soloveitchik

Writings

The Toras HoRav Foundation Series

Chumash Mesoras Harav (ohrpublishing.com)

Other

Bibliographies

Articles

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Writings

The Toras HoRav Foundation Series

Chumash Mesoras Harav (ohrpublishing.com) Other Bibliographies

Articles

No comments:

Post a Comment

Chumash Mesoras Harav (ohrpublishing.com)

Other

Bibliographies