ר׳ יוסף דוב הלוי סולובייצ׳יק

ר׳ יוסף דוב הלוי סולובייצ׳יק (27 February 1903–9 April 1993), commonly called Joseph B. Soloveitchik, “the Rav,” or הגרי״ד, was a Talmudist, halakhic authority, religious philosopher and formative leader of American Modern Orthodoxy. Born in Pruzhany in the Russian Empire, he was taught the Brisker method by his father ר׳ משה סולובייצ׳יק and descended from ר׳ חיים הלוי סולובייצ׳יק and the בית הלוי. After study in Warsaw and Berlin, he completed a doctorate on Hermann Cohen and married Tonya Lewit. In 1932 they settled in Boston, where he led the Orthodox Vaad HaIr, opened a yeshivah and co-founded Maimonides School. From 1941 he succeeded his father at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, commuting from Boston and ordaining close to two thousand rabbis. He led the Rabbinical Council of America’s Halakhah Commission and became an influential Religious Zionist voice. His writings joined rigorous halakhic categories with modern philosophy and existential reflection. איש ההלכה, ובקשתם משם, קול דודי דופק, “The Lonely Man of Faith,” “Confrontation” and The Halakhic Mind address religious personality, covenant, suffering, Zionism, interfaith boundaries and the relation between revelation and modern thought. He retired from regular teaching as illness advanced in the mid-1980s, died in Boston and was buried in West Roxbury.