On Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1991)

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During my visit today with Chief Rabbi Shapira, he told me the following story to which he was a personal witness.

When Rabbi Soloveitchik came to visit Israel, the one and only time during his life, in the 1930s, it was the last year of the life of Rabbi Kook, the Elder.

Rabbi Soloveitchik spoke in several places – at Mercaz Harav, at the Harry Fischel Institute, and at several other yeshivot. At every lecture that he gave, Rabbi Kook’s son, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, attended and listened attentively.

When Rabbi Shapira asked the younger Rav Kook why he was doing so, he answered as follows: His father had received Rabbi Soloveitchik and they “talked in learning.” When Rabbi Soloveitchik left, the elder Rav Kook told his son that the experience of speaking with Rabbi Soloveitchik reminded him of his earliest years, when he was a student at the Yeshiva of Volozhin, during the time that Rabbi Soloveitchik’s grandfather, Rabbi Hayyim Soloveitchik, first began to give shiurim. I believe, the elder Rav Kook said, that the power of genius of the grandfather now resides with the grandson – and therefore, he said to his son, you should not miss a single sheur by Rabbi Soloveitchik.

Introduction to The Commentator Volume on Rav Soloveitchik (2008)

"Is not My word like a fire? says the Lord; and like a hammer that breaks the rock into pieces?” The divine word, says Jeremiah, is layered or multi-dimensional. Like the many splinters of a rock split by a hammer, so the divine message lends itself to manifold situations and interpretations. Torah, like its Giver, is capable of many explications and applications, the same holds true for teachers of Torah: they are not monochromatic, and their teachings, like Torah itself arc multivalent; they can be understood at many levels, reveal many secret aspects of the Torah, and throw light on the most obscure passages.Such a person was our great teacher, the Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Solovietchik, of blessed memory. His essays give us a glimpse of the complexity of his personality as well as the universality of his legacy as perceived by his students. His genius, his probing intellect, his unassailable loyalty to the God of Israel, his incredible mastery of Halakha and Aggada, and the broad sweep of his knowledge of so many other disciplines - all made him resistant to easy classifications. He was a man who could never be bored and, equally, could never be boring. He was the Teacher par excellence, and we were honored to be allowed into his class.His complexity and coruscant creativity were such that he rarely repeated interpretations of a text when he came to it at a later date. Thus, when I was a student of his; we learned the tractate Shahhat. His sheurim were, of course, masterful. Several years later, I heard that he had given sheurim on the same tractate. I managed to obtain the notes of some of his very good students - ־ and there was hardly any relation between the interpretations he gave when I was in his class and the new ones! He simply approached the material with a fresh mind, and exercised those areas of his creative brain to yield insights that were new and different from what he had offered previously.Moreover, the range of his intellectual interest was extreme…

The Rabbinate

Letter to R. David Hartman about R. Soloveitchik's Article in HaDoar (1960)

Dear David: I suggest you read the article by Rabbi Soleveltchik in the latest issue of "Hadoar." It will explain a number of things that were disturbing you (and me), especially the "conversion.״ Regards. Cordially, Rabbi Norman Lamm

Miscellaneous

Letter to Bezalel Safran about His Notes on R. Soloveitchik's Lectures (1969)

Dear Bezalel: My very warmest thanks for letting me have the Rav's notes, which I xeroxed, and the originals of which I return to you herewith. I hope my request made to you last night, concerning his lectures for the very end of [omitted] will not prove to be an imposition upon you. Warmest personal regards. Cordially yours, Rabbi Norman Lamm

Miscellaneous