Now more than ever, the words of Rav Soloveitchik speak to us from across the threshold of time.Popularly known as the ?Hamesh Derashot,? The Rav Speaks consists of five speeches originally delivered by the Rav in the 1960?s. Then, as today, the eternal truth of his words spoke to the concerns and challenges we face as Jews in Israel and America.The essential principles of Judaism, and the eternal links between God, Torah, the Jewish people, and the Land of Israel are the themes that dominate this seminal work.
Now more than ever, the words of Rav Soloveitchik speak to us from across the threshold of time.Popularly known as the ?Hamesh Derashot,? The Rav Speaks consists of five speeches originally delivered by the Rav in the 1960?s. Then, as today, the eternal truth of his words spoke to the concerns and challenges we face as Jews in Israel and America.The essential principles of Judaism, and the eternal links between God, Torah, the Jewish people, and the Land of Israel are the themes that dominate this seminal work.
Rabbi Besdin's first volume of "reconstructions" of the thought of "the Rav," Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik, revered halakhic and spiritual mentor of centrist Orthodoxy, was widely acclaimed when first published and continues to be reprinted.
"This first volume recounts the details of the lives of the Rav and his forebears. This volume and the next constitute a scholarly attempt to detail the quests and ideas of one of the major personalities of modern American Jewish Orthodoxy". -- Jacket.
The Rav here explores the crucial interface between living religious experience and halakhic norms. He analyzes the Amidah, the Shema and other liturgical texts, and considers the tension between human dependence and exaltation.
"The present volume is a translation of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's classic essay, "U-Vikkashtem mi-Sham." Drafted in the 1940's as a companion to his earlier treatise Halakhic Man, this powerful and wide-ranging work was published in Hebrew only in 1978. Drawing its title from Deuteronomy 4:29 - "And from there you shall seek the Lord your God, and you shall find Him if you search for Him with all of your heart and all of your soul" - and framed by the evocative metaphors of the Song of Songs, the essay charts the individual's search for God, a quest which culminates in the stage of devekut, cleaving to Him." "The human being initially seeks God by examining the natural and spiritual worlds. But this search fails; hence God must reveal Himself and express His will. Rabbi Soloveitchik explicates the contrast between these two different modes of experiencing the divine: the natural consciousness, marked by freedom and creativity, and the revelational consciousness, marked by compulsion and discipline. The remainder of the work elaborates on this dialectic, exploring such themes as the imitation of God, devekut, mercy and justice, trust and fear, love and awe, the rule of intellect, elevation of the body, the perpetuity of God's word, and creation and revelation." "And From There You Shall Seek is Rabbi Soloveitchik's fullest and most elaborate examination of religious consciousness and the dynamics of religious experience. Its presentation of the challenging interplay between cultural creativity, religious practice, and spiritual quest is sure to enrich the contemporary reader." --Book Jacket.
For thousands of years, philosophers have pondered the question what it means to be human. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, known universally as the Rav--the rabbi par excellence--answers the question in The Emergence of Ethical Man, edited by Michael Berger. Relying on both scientific research and classical Jewish sources, Soloveitchik explains how a thoroughly naturalistic setting could give birth to human personality--and to Judaism's expectation of moral character and self-transcendence. The resulting religious anthropology is a startlingly fresh reading of the early chapters of Genesis, and highlights Judaism's distinctive view among those of other religious traditions.
