Rabbi Soloveitchik: Walking with the Rav: In memory of Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Walking with the Rav: In memory of Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik - Artutz Sheva

To recognize a person means to affirm that he is irreplaceable. To hurt a person means to tell him that he is expendable, that there is no n

Dr. Itzhak David Goldberg

Apr 9, 2023, 12:21 AM (GMT+3)

Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik Dr. Itzhak David Goldberg

“...and they were walking and talking” - Elisha accompanying his mentor, the Prophet Elijah, on his last earthly walk (2 Kings 2:11 )

The walk from our home to the Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts should typically take 20 minutes. Often I wanted it to last for an eternity.

It is an early spring Shabbat afternoon at 109 Colbourne Crescent in Brookline. Noses pressed against the window panes, our young children Elisha, Irit and Shlomit are watching for a glimpse of the Rav, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveichik to appear. As he turns the corner into our street on his way from his Addington Road home to the Maimonidies School they shout, bouncing on the couch: “The Rav is coming, the Rav is coming”.

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Walking with the Rav: In memory of Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik | ערוץ 7 (israelnationalnews.com)

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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