Through­out the sweep of Jew­ish intel­lec­tu­al his­to­ry, we have been blessed by many giants of Torah schol­ar­ship and lead­er­ship. Every­one can name his/​her ​“top ten.” Yet, even among this illus­tri­ous group, only a hand­ful of names have been ele­vat­ed to a spe­cial place by his­to­ry and uni­ver­sal acclaim. Moses known as Moshe Rabbe­nu, Moses our teacher, Rab­bi Judah The Prince, known as Rebbe or Rabbe­nu HaKa­dosh, The Teacher par excel­lence or The Holy Teacher, Mai­monides, known as Rabbe­nu Moshe (to dis­tin­guish him from Moses), Rab­bi Eli­jah of Vil­na known as ​“The” Gaon, The Bril­liance, and Rab­bi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903−1993), known with great affec­tion and respect as ​‘The Rov”*, The Rabbi/​Teacher par excel­lence and sui gener­is of the 20th century. 

Self-described as a melamed, a sim­ple teacher, the Rov taught and shaped the think­ing of the lead­er­ship of mod­ern Ortho­doxy in Amer­i­ca. His influ­ence and tuto­r­i­al author­i­ty emerged from his reg­u­lar Tal­mud class­es at Yeshi­va Uni­ver­si­ty, his week­ly class­es at Con­gre­ga­tion Mori­ah in New York City, his Sat­ur­day evening ses­sions in Boston, his learned arti­cles in print, and his many lec­tures to the Rab­bini­cal Coun­cil of Amer­i­ca as well as his pub­lic lec­tures at Yeshi­va and else­where. His tow­er­ing bril­liance as a thinker, philoso­pher, halakhist, the­olo­gian, and fierce defend­er of Jew­ish tra­di­tion and clas­si­cal teach­ings was felt by any­one in his pres­ence, or by any­one who read any of his writings. 

What is not gen­er­al­ly known, or appre­ci­at­ed, is the Rov’s role behind the scenes as an inter­na­tion­al com­mu­nal leader, advi­sor, and pol­i­cy mak­er. These per­son­al let­ters and inter­views present us with anoth­er side of the Rov as he expressed him­self in the areas of pub­lic pol­i­cy, com­mu­ni­ty issues, Jew­ish edu­ca­tion, Ortho­doxy, reli­gious Zion­ism, inter-reli­gious affairs, and his per­son­al rumi­na­tions. Rab­bi Soloveitchik had com­mand of the entire cor­pus of Rab­binic lit­er­a­ture. Not just the con­tent, but the capac­i­ty to offer razor sharp analy­ses, con­cep­tu­al­iza­tions, and cat­e­go­riza­tions. He had also mas­tered gen­er­al and Jew­ish phi­los­o­phy, which enabled him to think in sophis­ti­cat­ed the­o­log­i­cal terms. His spo­ken lan­guage and writ­ing style in any of sev­er­al lan­guages was pel­lu­cid, crisp, and filled with numer­ous ref­er­ences to the gamut of resources avail­able to him. 

The Rov wrote about foundlings, inter­faith chapels on col­lege cam­pus­es, humane slaugh­ter, and Tal­mud study for girls. Even seem­ing­ly straight­for­ward ques­tions mer­it­ed the weight of a full and rig­or­ous Tal­mu­dic analy­sis and response. So, for exam­ple, when he was asked about draft­ing rab­bis as chap­lains, his answer runs to almost 40 pages. There are many instances when he staunch­ly defends the author­i­ty and sta­tus of the rab­binate. He offers this opin­ion as advice to his stu­dents on a wide range of com­mu­nal issues, but also as a deci­sive fac­tor in turn­ing down the offer to become Chief Rab­bi of Israel. His posi­tion vis-à-vis the Church and rela­tions with non-Ortho­dox move­ments is also spelled out in a num­ber of dif­fer­ent let­ters. The Rov was unal­ter­ably opposed to emp­ty cer­e­mo­ni­al­ism in place of gen­uine Jew­ish obser­vances and made this very clear on a num­ber of occa­sions when he was asked about cre­at­ing and/​or includ­ing new prayers or ceremonies. 

The Rov val­ued the clois­tered expe­ri­ence of exclu­sive Tal­mu­dic study dur­ing one’s train­ing for the rab­binate, but felt that rab­bis in the field had to become involved in the com­mu­ni­ty. He was opposed to those who with­drew into a sec­tar­i­an soci­ety, explained tra­di­tion­al Judaism to con­tem­po­rary soci­ety. ​“I have indomitable faith in the Halakhah as a Divine, eter­nal imper­a­tive and dis­ci­pline, in its all-embrac­ing phi­los­o­phy, agili­ty, facil­i­ty, and applic­a­bil­i­ty in dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments and cultures.” 

He was very firm in his beliefs. He was dis­ap­point­ed in many aspects in the Chief Rab­binate of Israel, espe­cial­ly in that they have no con­nec­tion to the insti­tu­tions of reli­gious edu­ca­tion, and that pol­i­tics is often insin­u­at­ed into reli­gious areas. Regard­ing pol­i­tics, he felt strong­ly that those who do not live in Israel should not express opin­ions about Israel’s inter­nal affairs. 

Vol­umes have been print­ed con­tain­ing the Rov’s lec­tures as well as his Tal­mud class­es. How­ev­er he was reluc­tant to com­ment pub­licly on many issues. Although he had ready access to ade­quate sources on the tip of his tongue, he pre­ferred to think and to ana­lyze before he spoke. This vol­ume is the clos­est that exists so far of his defin­i­tive rul­ings and opin­ions on a wide range of sub­jects. He was con­sult­ed by rab­bis, world lead­ers, gov­ern­ment offi­cials, stu­dents, and ordi­nary peo­ple. He answered every­one with civil­i­ty and respect, even when he dis­agreed. Of spe­cial inter­est are his cor­re­spon­dences with Israeli offi­cials, with the lead­ers of Amer­i­can sec­u­lar Jew­ish orga­ni­za­tions, and with Pro­fes­sor Saul Lieberman. 

The world at large has rec­og­nized many genius­es. How­ev­er, their genius is usu­al­ly lim­it­ed to one area of knowl­edge — math­e­mat­ics, the sci­ences, med­i­cine, lit­er­a­ture, phi­los­o­phy, Tal­mud, poet­ry, etc. Rarely has the world seen some­one like Rab­bi Soloveitchik who was the mas­ter of so many dis­ci­plines. It is unfor­tu­nate that he is known only to the cognoscen­ti of the Jew­ish intel­lec­tu­al world. This makes his pass­ing so much more dra­mat­ic of a loss. 

The Rov defined a ​“good” Jew as some­one who is con­cerned with the future of Judaism and wants to ensure its sur­vival for gen­er­a­tions to come, and who iden­ti­fies with the tra­vails of his peo­ple. He embod­ied this in his life and his lega­cy endures.

*Although in mod­ern Hebrew this is spelled and pro­nounced ​“Rav”, the more col­lo­qui­al ​“Rov” is used since this is how gen­er­a­tions of stu­dents referred to him.