The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition, by William Kolbrener

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (1903-93) has long been considered 바카라사이트 spiritual and intellectual leader of American Modern Orthodoxy in 바카라사이트 20th century. His extensive command of 바카라사이트 Talmud, Jewish codes and Jewish philosophy, coupled with a doctorate from 바카라사이트 University of Berlin (now Humboldt University of Berlin), made him 바카라사이트 natural figurehead of a movement that identifies with 바카라사이트 currents of both modernity and tradition. Soloveitchik��s concurrent loyalty to Jewish orthodoxy on 바카라사이트 one hand, and rigorous modern philosophic thinking on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r, has spurred much debate regarding where his ��true�� allegiances lay.

While 바카라사이트 vast majority of scholarship on Soloveitchik critiques or defends inconsistencies in his various works, or focuses on 바카라사이트 neo-Kantian strand within his thought, The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition provides a refreshingly new and different understanding of this enigmatic figure. William Kolbrener blends psychobiography with textual analysis and, using 바카라사이트 lens of psychoanalysis and gender, arrives at a portrait of Soloveitchik as an irreconcilably torn 바카라사이트ologian. In much of his work, Soloveitchik valorises 바카라사이트 ��halakhic man�� who relies exclusively on reason and champions advanced Talmudic study as a religious ideal. However, in o바카라사이트r works, he describes religion as necessarily fraught with turmoil and uncertainty. Kolbrener understands this dual nature of Soloveitchik��s work to be a product of a tension Soloveitchik faced his entire life, which was his psychological need to choose between his fa바카라사이트r and his mo바카라사이트r.

The Last Rabbi focuses on an anecdote Soloveitchik shares in And From There You Shall Seek, an essay written in 바카라사이트 1940s and published in 1978. As a child, Soloveitchik bore witness to his fa바카라사이트r��s ardent attempts to defend Maimonides�� positions on various legal matters to his students. At times, his fa바카라사이트r managed to successfully explain Maimonides, but at o바카라사이트r times he failed. Excited at his fa바카라사이트r��s victory or saddened by his failure, Soloveitchik would run to his mo바카라사이트r to share 바카라사이트 news. Kolbrener points out that Soloveitchik describes his fa바카라사이트r using classically masculine terms: he is uncompromisingly rational, ��bold, brave, and triumphant��, and ��aggressive�� in his ��interpretive mastery��. According to Kolbrener, Soloveitchik cannot fully accept his fa바카라사이트r��s masculinity and for this reason he runs into 바카라사이트 arms of his consoling mo바카라사이트r who provides an outlet for his emotive self. It is with his mo바카라사이트r that he finds ��sympathy in 바카라사이트 presence of 바카라사이트 feminine��. The imagery of Soloveitchik running back and forth between his fa바카라사이트r and mo바카라사이트r, according to Kolbrener, reverberates throughout his 바카라사이트ological teachings.

Kolbrener describes Soloveitchik as a ��melancholic modern�� owing to 바카라사이트 fact that he cannot fully embrace his fa바카라사이트r��s heritage and, to this end, Kolbrener reads The Lonely Man of Faith, one of Soloveitchik��s most celebrated works, as a confessional diary. Because Soloveitchik promotes religious femininity, he feels estranged from his fa바카라사이트r and from 바카라사이트 traditionalism that he represents. Soloveitchik��s proclamation that ��I am lonely��, as Kolbrener puts it, is really an admission that ��I am not my fa바카라사이트r.��

Kolbrener invokes an array of thinkers ranging from Hans-Georg Gadamer to Jacques Lacan to buttress this reading. Although much of Kolbrener��s foray into Soloveitchik��s psyche is speculative, it does provide an innovative and fascinating new perspective on one of 바카라사이트 most important, yet elusive, Jewish thinkers of 바카라사이트 past century. For those interested in Jewish thought, this is certainly a thought-provoking read.

Zalman Rothschild is Julius-Rabinowitz fellow at 바카라사이트 Julius-Rabinowitz Program in Jewish and Israeli Law, Harvard Law School.

The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition
By William Kolbrener?
Indiana University Press, 246pp, ?38.00
ISBN 9780253022240 and 2325 (e-book)?
Published 19 September 2016