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Haym Soloveitchik

 

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Haym Soloveitchik



 
 
Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik (b. September 19, 1937) is the only son of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. A graduate of the Maimonides School
Maimonides School

Maimonides School is a coeducational, Modern Orthodox Judaism, Jewish day school located in Brookline, Massachusetts. The school was founded in 1937 by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and is named after Rabbi Maimonides....
, Soloveitchik received his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin language Artium Baccalaureus, is an Undergraduate education bachelor's degree awarded for either a course or a program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
 from Harvard College
Harvard College

Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature....
 in 1958, with a major in History
HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
. After two years of post-graduate study at Harvard, he moved to Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 and began his studies toward an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts is a Postgraduate education academic degree master degree awarded by University in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in English language, Fine Arts, History, Humanities, Philosophy, Social Sciences or Theology and can be either fully-taught, research-based, or a combination of the two....
 and PhD
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
, under the world-famous historian Professor Jacob Katz
Jacob Katz

Jacob Katz was a Jewish historian in Israel who established the history curriculum used in Israel's High Schools. In the year 1945 Jacob Katz presented to a conference of historians his article ?Marriage and Sexual Relations at the close of the Middle Ages? which was published that year in the periodical "Zion." Katz, who lived at that time in Tel...
. He wrote his Master's thesis on the Halakha
Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
 of gentile wine in medieval Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
.






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Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik (b. September 19, 1937) is the only son of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. A graduate of the Maimonides School
Maimonides School

Maimonides School is a coeducational, Modern Orthodox Judaism, Jewish day school located in Brookline, Massachusetts. The school was founded in 1937 by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and is named after Rabbi Maimonides....
, Soloveitchik received his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin language Artium Baccalaureus, is an Undergraduate education bachelor's degree awarded for either a course or a program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
 from Harvard College
Harvard College

Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature....
 in 1958, with a major in History
HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
. After two years of post-graduate study at Harvard, he moved to Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 and began his studies toward an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts is a Postgraduate education academic degree master degree awarded by University in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in English language, Fine Arts, History, Humanities, Philosophy, Social Sciences or Theology and can be either fully-taught, research-based, or a combination of the two....
 and PhD
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
, under the world-famous historian Professor Jacob Katz
Jacob Katz

Jacob Katz was a Jewish historian in Israel who established the history curriculum used in Israel's High Schools. In the year 1945 Jacob Katz presented to a conference of historians his article ?Marriage and Sexual Relations at the close of the Middle Ages? which was published that year in the periodical "Zion." Katz, who lived at that time in Tel...
. He wrote his Master's thesis on the Halakha
Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
 of gentile wine in medieval Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
. His doctorate, which he received in 1972, concentrated on laws of pawnbroking and usury
Usury

Usury originally meant the charging of interest on loans. This would have included charging a fee for the use of money, such as at a bureau de change....
.

Teaching

Soloveitchik taught at Hebrew University until 1984, and reached the rank of full Professor. During that period, he also taught at and served as Dean of the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a leading research institution, ranked 50th in the United States among national universities in 2008.....
 and served as a Rosh Yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the Dean of a Yeshiva . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh ? meaning head, and yeshiva ? a school of religious Jewish education....
 at its affiliate the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary

Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , or Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, is the most important yeshiva component of Yeshiva University and a preeminent seminary for the training of Orthodox Judaism rabbis....
. In the early 1980's, he left Hebrew University and began teaching at Yeshiva University on a full-time basis, serving as University Professor. He taught there until 2006, when he was appointed University Research Professor.

Known as a very demanding teacher, Soloveitchik has had relatively few personal students. Three scholars are seen as being among his leading students. Rabbi Michael Rosensweig
Michael Rosensweig

Michael Rosensweig is an Orthodox Judaism Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University....
, a Rosh Yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the Dean of a Yeshiva . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh ? meaning head, and yeshiva ? a school of religious Jewish education....
 at Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a leading research institution, ranked 50th in the United States among national universities in 2008.....
, wrote his doctorate under Soloveitchik's guidance at the Bernard Revel Graduate School at YU. Two others, studied under Soloveitchik, and both their doctorates and subsequent research was greatly influenced by his work and method. Ther first, Edward Fram, teaches in the History
HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
 Department at Ben Gurion University, wrote his doctorate under Yosef Haim Yerushalmi at Columbia University
Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York , is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights, Manhattan neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City....
. The second, Jeffrey Woolf, teaches in the Talmud Department at Bar Ilan University, completed his PhD under Isadore Twersky
Isadore Twersky

Isadore Twersky was the Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University, a chair previously held by Harry Austryn Wolfson....
 at Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
.

Scholarship

Haym Soloveitchik is acknowledged as the leading contemporary historian
Historian

A historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time....
 of Halakha
Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
. Much of his work focuses on the interaction of Halakha with changing economic realities. Specifically, he has produced major studies of usury and pawnbroking and the multiple ramifications of Jewish involvement in the manufacture and sale of wine. A major theme of his writing is the positing of an essential integrity to the Jewish Legal process in its interaction with contemporary challenges. In addition, his oft-cited essay 'Rupture and Reconstruction,' is viewed as a major statement on the state of contemporary Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
.

Published works


Books:

Halakha, Economy and Self-Image, Jerusalem 1985.

Responsa as an Historical Source, Jerusalem 1990.

Principles and Pressures: Jewish Trade in Gentile Wine in the Middle Ages. Am Oved (Tel Aviv, 2003).

Articles:

'Pawnbroking: A Study in "Ribbit" and of the Halakah in Exile,' PAAJR 38-39(1970-1971)203-268.

'Three Themes in Sefer Hassidim,' AJS Review 1 (1976), 311-358

'Can Halakhic Texts Talk History?" AJS Review 3 (1978), pp. 153-196

'Maimonides’"’Iggeret Ha-Shemad" - Law and Rhetoric,'Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume, New York 1980, 281-319.

'Rabad of Posquières: A Programmatic Essay,' Studies in the History of Jewish Society Presented to Jacob Katz, Jerusalem 1980, vii-xl.

'Religious Law and Change: The Medieval Ashkenazic Example,' AJS Review 12(1987), 205-221.

'History of Halakhah - Methodological Issues: A Review Essay of I. Twersky’s "Rabad of Posquières,"' Jewish History 5(1991), 75-124.

'Rupture and Reconstruction:The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy,' Tradition, 28(1994, 64-130.

'Catastrophe and Halakhic Creativity: Ashkenaz - 1096, 1242, 1306 and 1298,' Jewish History 12(1998), 71-85.

'[On] Yishaq (Eric) Zimmer, "Olam ke-Minhago Noheg"'AJS Review 23(1998), 223-234.

'Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy,'Tradition, 28(1994) 64-130.

'Responsa: Literary History and Basic Literacy,'AJS Review, 24(1999),343-357.

'Piety, Pietism and German Pietism : "Sefer Hasidim I" and the influence of "Hasidei Ashkenaz," Jewish Quarterly Review 92(2002), 455-493.

'Halakhah, Hermeneutics, and Martyrdom in Medieval Ashkenaz,' Jewish Quarterly Review 94,1 (2004) 77-108; 2: 278-299.

'The Midrash, "Sefer Hasidim" and the Changing Face of God,' Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought, New York 2005, 165-177.

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