The Rav: The World Of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

he Rav: The World of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik: Volumes 1 & 2 have become an essential source to the research and understanding of the foremost Torah thinker of the twentieth century.

The first volume offers the details of the lives of the Rav and his forebears, including his travels and the many disciplines he mastered. While remaining faithful to the great traditions of Volozhin and Brisk, the Rav was totally at home in the Western world and forged a harmonious existence between tradition and contemporary culture.

The insights culled from hundreds of audio recordings, lectures and publications of the Rav, have been arranged according to major topics, among them Lithuanian lore, Hasidism, the Volozhin Yeshiva, the Soloveitchik dynasty and many other Torah giants. These volumes are profusely illustrated with over 100 historic pictures of the Rav and his endeavors, many never previously published.

The second volume views the Rav’s world as he attains far-reaching recognition in the United States. The two momentous Jewish events of the twentieth century, the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel, are scrutinized through the Rav’s insight. The impact of the Rav upon American Jewry is viewed through his experiences and reactions to the Boston and New York communities. The oral tradition and the teacher/disciple relationship come to the fore as the bedrock of the Rav’s activities. The preeminence of Torah study, his relationship with Yeshiva University and the R.C.A., his vision compared to that of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, complete the portrait of the man and his achievements.