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Product Details
Series: Meotzar Horav
Hardcover: 230 pages
Publisher: KTAV Publishing House (January 30, 2009)
This is the tenth volume published after Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's death (1903-1993). Most of these posthumous books are based on writings he did not publish; however this volume is an English translation of the rabbi's Hebrew 1978 classic "U-Vikkashtem Mi Sham." The authors of its introduction say that one cannot understand his worldview "without taking account and grappling with this rich and complex work."
The book has twenty chapters and is 150 pages long. It also has fifty pages of notes, some of which are small essays. It is not a psychological study of people, but a homiletical treatise, a series of sermons, expositions on biblical verses. If Jewish philosophy starts with certain ideas, such as the teachings of Aristotle, as Maimonides did, and then using biblical verses to support them, while theology begins with biblical verses and tries to deduce ideas from them, Rabbi Soloveitchik's books are theology.
He uses the Bible's Song of Songs to describe people's search for God. People retreat from God at the moment of a potential encounter. They experience a to-and-fro with God, sometimes almost feeling an encounter and then losing it. Thus "man" - and by man, the rabbi includes non-Jews throughout this book, except when he specifically speaks of Jews - cannot know God, only the world God created.
He agrees with Maimonides who taught that people have an obligation to "know God by knowing His works - the works of creation" (page 41). But he insists that this is not enough. Man must "fulfill God's will unconditionally."
People have two forms of knowledge, the "natural" and "revelation." They can find God through what they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel; this is the natural way. Revelation is the insight people gain when they understand nature.Read more ›
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This translation of Rabbi Soloveitchik's classic essays drafted in the 1940s as a companion to his earlier work is a pick for Judaic studies collections at the college/scholarly level. It contains his deep examination of religious consciousness and experience and considers religious practice and spiritual journeys alike, discusses differences between intellectual and experiential awareness, and offers extensive Torah references. Judaic studies collections will find it important.
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