Joseph B. Soloveitchik
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.
For Yosef Dov Soleveitchik (1820-1892), see Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (Beis Halevi)
Rabbi Dr.Joseph B. Soloveitchik
The Rav
February 27, 1903
12 Adar 5663
April 9, 1993 (aged 90)
Tonya Lewit, Ph.D. (1904-1967)
Moshe Soloveichik and Peshka Feinstein Soloveichik
18 Nissan 5753
Beth El Cemetery, West Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA
As a rosh yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva University in New York City, The Rav,[1] 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[edit]
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.
Other views and controversy[edit]
Departure from the traditional Brisker view of Zionism[edit]
Despite their religious disagreements, Soloveitchik was proud of his connections to the Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty, speaking fondly of his "uncle" Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik (the "Brisker Rov"). To his relatives and namesakes who now lived in Jerusalem, where they had established their own branch of the Brisk Yeshiva, he was respected for his genius in Talmudic scholarship which few could challenge or disparage, despite their very differing views on Zionism (the "Briskers" in Jerusalem being staunch anti-Zionists). See the paragraph on "Zionism" below for a discussion of Soloveitchik's Zionist viewpoint. Recent research published by Shlomo Pick indicates that his father Moshe Soloveitchik maintained a close relationship with Religious Zionist (Mizrachi) circles in Warsaw, prior to the father's departure for Yeshiva University and the son's departure for the University of Berlin in 1923.
Relations with Agudath Israel[edit]
After Soloveitchik left Agudath Israel, the organization's leadership was mostly quiet when it came to public statements involving Soloveitchik. Moshe Feinstein, who was Soloveitchik's cousin, maintained very warm and profoundly respectful relations with him. They corresponded and spoke (at least) on the eve of every Jewish holiday. Yitzchak Hutner referred to him as a "gadol" (a foremost Torah scholar of the time).[15] Aaron Kotler, whose public policy in relation to American Jewry was far more right-wing than Soloveitchik's, was introduced by Soloveitchik at a Chinuch Atzmai dinner,[16] and this later became famous as an instance of unity among the Orthodox leadership. Agudath Israel's mouthpiece, the "Jewish Observer," also mentioned Soloveitchik as one of the greatest rabbis of the generation when detailing a cable which was sent by various leading Rabbis to former Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol requesting the government to put a stop to Christian missionary activity in Israel. In May 1993, Nisson Wolpin penned an obituary for Soloveitchik in the Jewish Observer.[17] The article was criticized for being a mere page long as instead of the Jewish Observer's usually comparatively long obituaries, for the obituary not being mentioned in the table of contents, and portraying Soloveitchik as not clarifying his views enough. Moshe David Tendler, a son-in-law of Moshe Feinstein, wrote a scathing attack on Wolpin's piece, which was published both in The Community Synagogue of Monsey's newsletter and the Algemeiner Journal.[18]
Soloveitchik did not sign Feinstein's proposed ban on interfaith dialogue. Instead, he published a path-breaking essay expounding his views on the subject, entitled "Confrontation." He also did not sign the ban by America's foremost rabbis against participating in the Synagogue Council of America. It has been debated whether his refusal to sign was because he believed in participating in the SCA, or because he was not happy with the way the ban was instituted.[19]
Despite the Agudah's comparative silence on Soloveitchik and his stances, the Jewish Observer has often criticized the Rabbinical Council of America in which he served and his more modern students, including Rabbi Norman Lamm,[20] Shlomo Riskin[21] and Lawrence Kaplan.[22]
Relations with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson[edit]
Herschel Schacter, Sholem Kowalsky,[23][24] Julius Berman; Menachem Genack, and Fabian Schoenfeld[25] (all students of Soloveitchik) have asserted that Menachem Mendel Schneerson and Soloveitchik met for the first time while they both studied in Berlin. Soloveitchik told Kowalsky he "was a great admirer of the Rebbe."[26] Schoenfeld quoted Soloveitchik as having told him that when he was studying at the University of Berlin, "I can testify that [Schneerson] never missed going to the mikva one single day."[27]
In 1964, Soloveitchik paid a lengthy visit while Schneerson was mourning the death of his mother. Their conversation during this visit lasted approximately two hours. Soloveitchik later visited again following the death of Schneerson's mother-in-law.[28]
In 1980, accompanied by his student Herschel Schacter, Soloveitchik visited Schneerson at Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn on the occasion of a celebration marking the 30th anniversary of his leadership. The visit lasted close to two hours after which Soloveitchik told Schacter his opinion of Schneerson: "He is a gaon (genius), he is a great one, he is a leader of Israel."[29]
In the recently published Seventy Conversations in Transit, R' Aaron Adler recounts that "The Rav had hoped to write a running commentary on the Sefer Tanya. To which he felt his understanding of the text rivaled that of the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l."
Family and last years[edit]
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.[33]
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)[34] 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.[35][36][37][38]
As he got older he suffered several bouts of serious illness (Alzheimer's disease[39] preceded by Parkinson's disease).