Thursday Nights Questions & Answers with Rabbi Avigdor Miller Volume 3 [Hardcover]

Thursday Nights Questions & Answers with Rabbi Avigdor Miller Volume 3
Compiled by Bezalel Miller

Product Description
For thirty years, every Thursday evening at 8:30, Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt'l would deliver a lecture to the public on Jewish ideology, on an enormous gamut of subjects spanning Torah and Tanach, history, learning to live successfully, understanding the physical world, the World to Come, personal growth, and the ways of Hashem.

The lectures were initially hosted by gracious mosdos, and beginning in 1975, when the Rav's kehillah moved to Flatbush, were conducted in Rabbi Miller's own Bais Yisroel Torah Center on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. Many have remarked that after attending or listening to recordings of only perhaps ten or fifteen lectures, their perspective on life was forever changed. These remarks are attributed not only to baalei teshuva, but more frequently to frum men and women whose eyes were opened for the first time in their lives.

At the end of each lecture, questions were usually first accepted on the subject. Next, Rabbi Miller would, incredibly, accept questions on any subject. Excluded only were specific points of halacha. Few rabbis of stature have been so bold. But the Rav had so great a command and understanding of the great truths, and the need to share that understanding with those who anxiously wanted to know was so compelling, that he was willing to make this offer.

Questions were accepted from the floor, or, if you wished, you could anonymously write your question on a slip of paper and pass it up to the front. This option was also available to ladies seated in the Ezras Noshim.

The questions were far-ranging, and indicative of the thirst within the Jewish world to find Torah answers to perplexing issues of both daily life and broader matters of hashkofa. Remarkably, Rabbi Miller would answer each question without hesitation, providing a clear and incisive reponse which cleared away the confusion and enabled the questioner to understand matters from a Torah perspective.

In so doing, the Rav greatly enhanced the prestige of Torah, as he demonstrated that the Torah, and our great traditions, truly provide the only real way to understand this world and our role in it. Surely this was included in his purpose for providing this remarkable forum, and indeed that purpose was realized.

We have endeavored in this volume to provide a sampling of these question-and-answer sessions for the edification of those who were not privileged to attend, as well as for those who cherished these weekly opportunities and would like to relive them.

It was necessary to choose between reformatting the material, which was delivered spontaneously, into more formal and grammatically consistent exchanges, versus retaining the original language and flow to capture the flavor of the delivery, accepting an occasional redundancy or hanging participle. With minor revisions to meet the basic requirements of written English, we have opted for the latter approach.

The lecture number from which the questions were sourced is cited at the end of each response, in case the reader is interested in going back to the original shiur for more information.

The Rav often pointed out that according the Shmuel, the maaveh, mentioned in the first mishna in Tractate Bava Kamma, refers to man, because the word maavah denotes a seeker, which epitomizes the mission of man in this world.

We hope that this volume will find favor with HaKodosh Boruch Hu, and in the eyes of Jewish seekers everywhere.
Binding: Hardcover