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Joseph Ber (Yosef Dov) Soloveitchik (1903-1993) was an Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist and modern Jewish philosopher.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik of Yeshiva University

Introduction

Over the course of almost half a century he ordained close to 2,000 rabbis who took positions in Orthodox synagogues across America; they were able to relate to their less traditional congregants, drawing them closer to traditional Jewish observance with quite a few becoming religiously observant. He served as an advisor, guide, mentor, and role-model for tens of thousands of Modern Orthodox Jews as their favorite Talmudical Scholar and religious leader.

In the following picture, Rabbi Soloveitchik can be seen at the extreme right, pointing up, giving a class in Talmud :

File:Rabbi Soloveitchik and class 3x2.jpg

Rabbi Soloveitchik inherited his father's, Rabbi Moses (Moshe), position as head of the RIETS rabbinical school at Yeshiva University in 1941 . Scion of the famous Soloveitchik Lithuanian rabbinical dynasty going back some 200 years. Grandson of the renowned rabbinical scholar Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik , and grandson as well as name-sake, of his great grand-father Rabbi Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik known for his work as the Bais HaLevi on Talmud .

Early Years

Rabbi Joseph Ber 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 powers. Soon after marriage to Tonya, he moved to Berlin in Germany where he remained for almost a decade studying at the University of Berlin obtaining a Ph.D. based on the philosophy of the great German philosopher Hermann Cohen , and simultaneously maintaining a rigorous schedule of intensive Talmud study. During his years in Berlin, he made the acquintance of two other young scholars pursuing similar paths to his own. One was Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson who was destined to command the Chabad Lubavitch movement centered in Brooklyn , New York and the other was Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner who would become the Dean of the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin also in Brooklyn , New York . Each developed a system of thought bthat bridged the Eastern European way of traditional scholarship with the new forces of modernity in the Western World .

Philosophy : Synthesis

During his tenure at Yeshiva University in addition to his Talmudic lectures, he deepened the system of "synthesis" whereby the best of religious Torah scholarship would be combined with the best secular scholarship in Western civilization. This has become known as the Torah Umada - "Torah and Science " philosophy unique to Yeshiva University. He authored a book on Jewish thought called "The Lonely Man of Faith" that has somehow been associated with his own stance on issues, the willingness to stand alone in the face of monumental challenges. Through public lectures, writings, and his policy decisions for the moderate Modern Orthodox world, he strengthened the intellectual and ideoligical framework of Modern Orthodoxy.

Organizations

In his early career in America he joined with the traditional movements such as Agudath Israel of America and the Agudat Harabanim - the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of North America. However as he became entrenched in the Modern Orthodox outlook, he removed himself from the former organizations, and instead joined with the Mizrachi Religious Zionists of America (RZA) and the centrist Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), where many of his students were to be found in leadership positions. Whilst he was bound scholastically and through family connections to the more Haredi Agudath Israel group, his world-view had placed itself at the center of Modern Orthodox Judaism , with its stress on excellence in secular studies,the professions, and active Zionism .

Controversy

He thus became a "lightning rod" of criticism from two directions: From the religious left" he was viewed as being too connected to the Old World of Europe, whilst for those to the religious right, he was seen as legitimizing those wanting to lower their religious standards in the attempt to modernize and Americanize.

Soloveitchik was staunchly proud of his connections to the Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty, speaking fondly of his "uncles" and chiding them from time to time in public. To his relatives and namesakes who now lived in Jerusalem where they had established their own branch of the staunchly anti-Zionist Brisk Yeshiva, he was respected for his genius in Talmudic scholarship which few could challenege, yet they saw him as their wayward cousin who had departed from the family Haredi "party line".

Soloveitchik accept Samson Rapahel Hirch's philosophy of Torah im Derech Eretz, the philosophical basis of Modern Orthodox Judaism. Since his death, new reinterpreations of Soloveitchik's beliefs have become an ongoing debate. Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and those on Modern Orthodox's right wing hold that Hirsch only wanted Jews to combine observant Jewish lifestyle with learning the surrounding gentile society's language, history, and science, so that a religious Jew could earn a living in the surrounding gentile society; they also hold that this is true of Soloveitchik. In this view, neither Hirsch or Soloveitchik wanted or approved of Jews learning gentile philosophy, music, art, literature or ethics. In this view, their philosophy existed solely to allow Jews to obtain a job.

In contrast, many historians of Judaism and most Modern Orthodox Jews say that this understanding of Soloveitchik's philosophy is misguided; they refer to this as improper historical revisionism. This issue has been discussed in many articles in Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought, published by the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA). In this view, both Hirsch and Soloveitchik wanted more than just the study of the surrounding gentile society's language, history, science. They also thought that it was permissible, and even productive, for Jews to learn gentile philosophy, music, art, literature and ethics for its own sake. Both Hirsch and Soloveitchik studied gentile philosophy, ethics and literature.

Lawrence Kaplan, a historian of Orthodox Judaism writes that there is a tendency for those on the right-wing of Orthodox to rewrite modern Orthodox thinkers, such as Hirsch and Soloveitchik, as not being modern Orthodox, but rather as being Haredi. For example

Shortly after the Rav's passing, Rabbi Norman Lamm, President of Yeshiva University, in a eulogy for the Rav delivered on April 25, 1993, urged his auditors to "guard...against any revisionism, any attempts to misinterpret the Ray's work in both worlds . The Ray was not a lamdan who happened to have and use a smattering of general culture, and he was certainly not a philosopher who happened to be a talmid hakham, a Torah scholar.... We must accept him on his terms, as a highly complicated, profound, and broad-minded personality.... Certain burgeoning revisionisms may well attempt to disguise and distort the Rav's uniqueness by trivializing one or the other aspect of his rich personality and work, but they must be confronted at once." (3)

Lawrence Kaplan Revisionism and the Rav: The Struggle for the Soul of Modern Orthodoxy, Judaism, Summer, 1999

Relations with non-Orthodox Jews

Soloveitchik did not approve of many of the beliefs and practice of Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism. He held that where these groups differed from Orthodox Judaism, the non-Orthodox groups were always in significant error. One of the major differences debated was the existence of a mechiza in the synagogue, a divider between the men's and women's section of a synagogue. In line with the traditional rabbinic understanding of this issue, Soloveitchik ruled that it was forbidden to pray in a synagogue without a mechitza; as such, he effectively forbade Orthodox Jews from praying in all Reform synagogues and in many (today, most) Conservative synagogues.

Soloveitchik believed that Reform and Conservative rabbis did not have proper training in halakha and Jewish theology, and that due to their decisions and actions could not be considered rabbis as Orthodox Jews normally understood the term. On the other hand, in practice he often granted non-Orthodox rabbis some level of validity (see the examples below.)

The reason that Soloveitchik could work with denominations of Judaism that he held to be greatly in error is due to his philosophy; he developed the idea that Jews have historically been linked together by two distinct covenants. One is the brit yiud, "covenant of destiny", which is the covenant by which Jews are bound together through their adherence to halakha. The second is the brit goral, "covenant of fate", the desire and willingness to be part of a people chosen by God to live a sacred mission in the world, and the fact that all those who live in this covenant share the same fate of persecution and oppression, even if they do not live by halakha. Soloveitchik holds that most non-Orthodox Jews are in violation of the covenant of destiny, but that the entire Jewish community is still bound together by the covenant of fate, and that this covenant includes both Reform and Conservative Judaism.

In the 1950s, in a significant display of cooperation with non-Orthodox Jews, Soloveitchik worked on behalf of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America in a series of secret negotiations with the leaders of Conservative Judaism's Rabbinical Assembly, especially with Rabbi Saul Lieberman; their goal was to create a joint Orthodox-Conservative bet din which would be the beginning of a national bet din for all Jews in America. This bet din would create communal standards of marriage and divorce. When word was leaked to the press, the project was met by a barrage of criticism from Haredi rabbis. The withering criticism killed off Orthodox support for the project, and it died a few scant weeks before the bet din was to have been formed.

In a separate attempt at cooperation with Conservative Judaism, Soloveitchik accepted the ideas of Rabbi Saul Liberman on ways to free agunah, women whose husbands were refusing to give them a get, a Jewish divorce. (In Jewish law it is the man who has to present the woman with a bill of divorce, called a 'get'. Without a get, the couple is still married in the eyes of Jewish law, whether or not a civil divorce is obtained or not.) Without a get, a Jewish women is forbidden to remarry and is therefore called an agunah (an anchored woman). Rabbi Lieberman worked on this issue for a number of years, and developed an addition to the Ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) that would, in such cases, allow the rabbis to unilaterally annul the marriage, thus freeing chained women; this addition became known as the "Lieberman clause."

According to a number of Modern Orthodox and Conservative sources who were workin with him on this effort (see the references section), Soloveitchik accepted that the Lieberman addition to the Ketubah was valid. A small number of other Orthodox rabbis at the time held similar views. However, no writings by him on this subject are extant. Many Orthodox rabbis today deny that Soloveitchik could possibly have had such a view.

His independence from other Orthodox rabbis became clear when in 1956, all the major Haredi rabbinical heads of the Yeshivot, including two from his own modern Orthodox Yeshiva University signed and issued a proclamation forbidding any rabbinical alumni of their yeshivot from joining with Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism rabbis in professional organizations. Rabbi Soloveitchik refused to sign it outright, miantaining that there were areas, particularly relating to problems that threaten all of Judaism, that required co-operation regardless of affiliation.

Zionism

Since he was accepted as the pre-eminent leader of politically conscious pro-Zionist modern Orthodox Judaism, out of respect for this, many leaders and politicians from Israel sought his advice and blessings in state affairs. He was reputedly offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel , such as by Prime Minister Menachem Begin , but he quietly and consistently refused this offer. Ironically, despite his open and passionate love for the modern State of Israel ,yet, he never visited the land.

The Rav

He unfailingly captured the adoration of his students. He was known as the "Rav", he became the greatest leader of Modern Orthodoxy in the twentieth century, often espousing relatively very liberal positions on educational, political, and social issues within the Orthodox world. His ordination of over 2000 Orthodox rabbis at Yeshiva University, during forty years at the helm, attests to his power and efficacy as well as his consistency and determination.

Boston

He would refer to himself as "The Soloveitchik of Boston".He pioneered one of the first Hebrew day schools in Boston in 1936 where he originally intended to settle and resided there when not teaching in New York. He involved himself in all manner of religious issues in the Boston area. He was at times both a rabbinical supervisor of kosher slaughtering - shchita- and gladly accepted invitations to lecture in Jewish and religious philosophy at prestigious New England colleges and universities. His own son-in-law was on the faculty of Harvard .

An Enlightened Outlook

Not satisfied that young Orthodox women were granted the opportunity to study at their own academic college (Stern College of Yeshiva University) ,he advocated more intensive textual Torah studies for Jewish women, giving the first class in Talmud inuagurated at Stern College, the women's division of Yeshiva College - University. With his enlightened outlook, he attracted and inspired many young men to become rabbis and educators, together with their wives coming with similar education and values .They in turn went out with the education of Yeshiva University to head synagogues, schools and communities, where they influenced many Jews to remain Orthodox.He attracted many others to the cause of Orthodoxy. Among his alumni are Rabbis Nachman Bulman, Shlomo Riskin, and Ephraim Buchwald and many others who became leaders of the Baal teshuva movement.

Family and last years

His children married prominent academics and Talmudic scholars, one to Rabbi Dr. Aaron Lichtenstein Dean of Gush Etziyon Yeshiva in Israel (with a PhD from Harvard University), another to the late Rabbi Dr. Isadore Twersky former head of the Jewish Studies department at Harvard University (also served as the Talner Rebbe in Boston ) , and his son Rabbi Dr. Haim Soloveitchik is a professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University.His granchildren have maintained his heritage and also hold high scholarly positions. As he got older he suffered several bouts of serious illness. Family members cared for his every need and distinguished people came to visit him in his last years in Boston, where in 1993 he was laid to rest at the age of ninety.

References

Cooperation with non-Orthodox Jews

Norman Lamm, Seventy Faces, Moment Vol. II, No. 6 June 1986-Sivan 5746

Jack Wertheimer, Ed., Tradition Renewed: A History of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Vol. II, p.450, 474 (JTS, NY, 1997

Mayer E. Rabinowitz Comments to the Agunot Conference in Jerusalem, July 1998, and on the Learn@JTS website.

Emmanuel Rackman, letter in 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

External links

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