Language:
English
Year of publication:
2019
Titel der Quelle:
In Geveb; a Journal of Yiddish Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2019) pp 25
Keywords:
Soloveitchik, Joseph Dov, Philosophy
;
Jewish sermons 20th century
;
Jewish sermons, Yiddish
;
God (Judaism) Philosophy
;
Yiddish language Terms and phrases
Abstract:
The legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993) casts a long shadow over twentieth-century Jewish thought. He is remembered as a scholar, a teacher, and a theological presence - an idealized role model as much as a practical influence. His disciples and interpreters characterize his intellectual project in a striking variety of ways, from a fiercely Orthodox leader to a modern intellectual; these conflicts were aspects of his persona that he himself cultivated. The present essay explores an ideational dialectic in Soloveitchik's work that offers a conceptual window into the author's fragmented and multi-layered thought: the tension between individual autonomy and communal responsibility. This theme, much discussed in his writings, is the central concern of a little-studied but critical essay called "Yokhed ve-tsiber" ("The Individual and the Collective"), an undated work was first delivered as a droshe (sermon) on his father's yortsayt. Scholarship on Soloveitchik's teachings has tended to focus exclusively on his Hebrew or English works rather than his Yiddish writings, but the present essay traces Soloveitchik's style and exploring the nuances of intellectual legacy through the lens of this important Yiddish homily. Close attention to Soloveitchik's droshe and its language reveals a mélange of textual and philosophical influences, as he weaves rabbinic and medieval sources together with modern thought and political philosophy. When Soloveitchik writes in Yiddish, as when he speaks or writes in English, it is not quite recognizable as the language of other speakers: it is deterritorialized by his erudition, his intellectual migrations, and perhaps also by his personal sense of isolation from other Yiddish (or English) speakers. In this sense, I argue that Soloveitchik's self-fashioning as the "lonely man of faith" is embodied in the particulars of his language as well as his specific philosophical teachings
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