Chumash Mesoras HaRav Sefer Shemos including Haftarah [Hardcover]

By: Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Arnold Lustiger
Product ID: 9780989124614
This item is part of Chumash Mesoras HaRav.
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Chumash Mesoras HaRav Sefer Shemos [Hardcover]
By: Arnold Lustiger

Product Description
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (the Rav) was the towering rabbinic thinker of the twentieth century. In addition to his wellspring of Torah knowledge, the Rav taught, wrote and lectured extensively on Chumash. The Rav, however, never wrote a systematic commentary on Chumash, and, until now, the only way to study his interpretation and analysis of Chumash was to search for pertinent material by wading through the Rav's published writings and hard-to-find audio tapes of his lectures and shiurim. Now, for the first time, the Rav's teachings on Chumash have been collected into a published commentary on Sefer Shemos (The Book of Exodus). Commentary by the Rav on the weekly Haftarah is included.



While studying Netziv, or R Shamshon Raphael Hirsch, or Meshech Chochmah, or Rav Kook, or Pachad Yitzchok can regularly elicit gasps of wonderment, more recent works don t seem to work the same way. They enlighten, they inspire and those are wonderful blessings. But we don t see too much that wows us for its unexpected conclusion. If you are nodding your head in agreement and regret, you will likely appreciate the newly-released Mesoras HaRav Chumash on Shemos, which will slake your thirst for the creative deep insight. R. Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik zt'l was a Brisker, which means that he was slow to release his words to the publisher. In the decades since his passing, a much larger body of his work has emerged than was available during his lifetime. Some of it comes directly from his pen; some from the notes of talmidim. Much of this literature is in the form of an address here and a lecture there. The average reader can t find what he/she may be looking for on a particular topic, because it just isn't organized that way. A number of years ago, loyal talmidim began to organize the treasure trove to make it more accessible. Machzorim for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur offered R. Soloveitchik s thought as it addressed not only the text, but the issue around the text. What I took away from those works in the last few years not only made sense out of what I had never understood about sections of the machzor, but contributed insights that animate my davening the rest of the year. Dr. Arnold Lustiger gets the credit for those works, and we are fortunate that he wouldn t think of resting on his laurels. His next project was a chumash, and the second volume has just been released. R. Soloveitchik addressed a wide range of audiences and housed various conflicting interests and leanings within his own personality, sometimes without resolving the tension between them. The citations in Mesoras HaRav are not cut of the same cloth. There are shorter pieces, and longer ones. Some are in the classic style of question-and-answer about anomalies in the text; others are biurim of a particular halachic position of the Rambam. Some are brief distillations of a take-away from an entire episode; others offer penetrating insights using the vocabulary of the philosophy student. Readers will find some profound and others less so, but aware that they all come from the colorful palette R. Soloveitchik held in his hand, applying the right colors and textures to the right place on the canvas. --Cross-Currents - A blog of thought and reflections, from an array of Orthodox Jewish writers.

For those seeking the unique form of intellectual and spiritual enlightenment that Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the Rav, represents, entry into the world of his teachings may seem to be a forbidding challenge. The existence of so many works containing the Rav s teachings attests to the great esteem in which he is held; however, this abundance can also be daunting. Chumash Mesoras HaRav: Sefer Shemos, The Neuwirth Edition, the second volume in this groundbreaking series compiled and edited by Dr. Arnold Lustiger, continues the project of making the Rav s Torah readily accessible. This Chumash is an anthology of the Rav s teachings drawn from dozens of published sources in Hebrew, English and Yiddish, as well as from many previously unpublished lectures, presented in elegant and concise English as a running commentary alongside the Chumash text. Significantly, the Chumash Mesoras HaRav presents the gamut of the Rav s teachings, including not only philosophical insights, but also homiletic interpretations and Talmudic analysis. The Rav's multi-dimensional character emerges from these pages. Collecting the Rav's teachings from their diverse array of sources makes them not only more accessible but transforms them into a timeless commentary. Take, for example, the following excerpt from a column the Rav wrote in 1954 for the Yiddish daily Tog Morgen about the interaction between Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis. In this Chumash, the Rav s words explain the verse And I will take you to Me as a people, and I will be a God to you (Exodus 6:7): The political-historical unity as a nation is based upon the conclusion of the covenant in Egypt, which occurred even prior to the giving of the Torah at Sinai. This covenant forced upon us all one uniform historical fate. The Hebrew word am, nation, is identical to the Hebrew word im, with. Our fate of unity manifests itself through a historical indispensable union . . . . The State of Israel did not ignore this unique fate; quite the contrary, it has given expression to it in a more concrete fashion. No Jew can renounce his part of the unity, which is based upon a fate of loneliness of the Jewish people as a nation. Religious Jews or irreligious Jews, all are included in one nation, which stands lonesome and in misery in a large and often antagonistic world. The sixty years that have passed since these words were written have done nothing to diminish the acuity of the Rav s perception. Yet if this example remains too depressingly true, let us also recall the Rav's comments on the verse For they were driven out of Egypt, and they could not tarry (Exodus 12:39): Genuine geulah, genuine redemption, always comes suddenly, unexpectedly, at a time when people are ready to give up hope. Sometimes historical situations keep deteriorating; people pray and cry, begging for mercy but there is no answer to their prayer, only silence. At that moment, when the crisis reaches its maximum and threatens the very existence of the community, when people begin to give up, the geulah suddenly comes and takes them out of the land of affliction. It comes in the middle of the night and knocks on the door when no one expects it, when everybody is skeptical about it, when everybody laughs off the possibility of redemption. The Chumash Mesoras HaRav: Sefer Shemos, The Neuwirth Edition, will no doubt become a classic companion to the book of exile and redemption.--Jewish Action -The Magazine of the Orthodox Union, Spring 2015

About the Author
Dr. Arnold Lustiger previously edited Chumash Mesoras Harav - Sefer Bereishis, Machzor Mesoras Harav on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Before Hashem You Shall Be Purified: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik on the Days of Awe, and Derashot Harav: selected lectures of Rabbbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

Series: Chumash Mesoras Harav
Hardcover: 455 pages
Publisher: OU Press and Ohr Publishing; First edition (December 15, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0989124614
ISBN-13: 978-0989124614
Package Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds

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