2008 Woodie Awards
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Rav Soloveitchik Returns
Saturday Night Event Draws Large Crowd
Elliot Kaminetzky
Issue date: 2/12/07 Section: News
The film revealed a very human Rav Soloveitchik who fell in love with a fellow PhD Philosophy student, Tanya Levitt, without the consent of his father. He simply responded to his father's complaint with a Talmud that proved such consent was not necessary. After the death of his father, the Rav began teaching shiur at YU. On the 4th floor of Furst Hall Rav Soloveitchik began giving what was described as the most dynamic and frightening shiur YU had ever seen. "What kind of nonsense is that," he would respond to a half-witted answer. "A question," one student recalled, "meant putting your life at stake." Rav Schachter, barely able to contain himself when describing his rebbe's shiur, said, "when the Rav gave shiur it was like angels were descending from heaven. It came together like a symphony orchestra."
Weaved throughout the documentary was a theme of the Rav's loneliness, resulting from many factors. Intellectually, the Rav stood above all of those surrounding him, and he felt his students were unable to understand him. His staunch commitment to his centrist ideals, specifically those concerning secular education, put him at odds with the right-wing community. As America underwent rapid modernization, he felt religiosity was becoming a means of self-fulfillment.
Following the screening, a panel of the Rav's students unanimously rejected the interpretation of what the Rav had meant by his loneliness. Rav Schachter pointed out that many of the pictures in the film were of a smiling Rav Soloveitchik, a happy man, not a lonely one. Rav Twersky offered an interpretation of what the Rav had meant by his loneliness, limiting it to a philosophical and ontological one, and not an emotional one.
Another point that was addressed was the ambiguity of the Rav's halachic stances. The film had quoted someone as saying that two people sitting in the same class would understand the Rav differently. Rav Schachter denied that this was unique to the Rav, but rather represented the overall nature of Halachic responsa - different answers can be legitimately offered to the same question.
With regards to the panel's limiting the Rav's notion of loneliness to one existing simply on a philosophical/ontological plane, the filmmaker responded that, unlike the panel, he was not privileged to know the Rav personally, but based on his extensive research, he had reason to believe that the Rav's loneliness existed on the emotional plane. Isenberg sighted a proof from the Rav's work Kol Dodi Dofek in which he describes his loneliness as a type of depression.
This screening offered a complex and beautiful image of the man whose ideals still continue to shape Yeshiva University. These intricacies were ironed out by the panel, who wanted to share the ways in which the Rav remains in their own memories.
Memories were brought to life; Rav Charlop announced that, like Moses bringing up the bones of Yosef from Egypt, Ethan Isenberg brought up the life of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik for everyone to appreciate.
Weaved throughout the documentary was a theme of the Rav's loneliness, resulting from many factors. Intellectually, the Rav stood above all of those surrounding him, and he felt his students were unable to understand him. His staunch commitment to his centrist ideals, specifically those concerning secular education, put him at odds with the right-wing community. As America underwent rapid modernization, he felt religiosity was becoming a means of self-fulfillment.
Following the screening, a panel of the Rav's students unanimously rejected the interpretation of what the Rav had meant by his loneliness. Rav Schachter pointed out that many of the pictures in the film were of a smiling Rav Soloveitchik, a happy man, not a lonely one. Rav Twersky offered an interpretation of what the Rav had meant by his loneliness, limiting it to a philosophical and ontological one, and not an emotional one.
Another point that was addressed was the ambiguity of the Rav's halachic stances. The film had quoted someone as saying that two people sitting in the same class would understand the Rav differently. Rav Schachter denied that this was unique to the Rav, but rather represented the overall nature of Halachic responsa - different answers can be legitimately offered to the same question.
With regards to the panel's limiting the Rav's notion of loneliness to one existing simply on a philosophical/ontological plane, the filmmaker responded that, unlike the panel, he was not privileged to know the Rav personally, but based on his extensive research, he had reason to believe that the Rav's loneliness existed on the emotional plane. Isenberg sighted a proof from the Rav's work Kol Dodi Dofek in which he describes his loneliness as a type of depression.
This screening offered a complex and beautiful image of the man whose ideals still continue to shape Yeshiva University. These intricacies were ironed out by the panel, who wanted to share the ways in which the Rav remains in their own memories.
Memories were brought to life; Rav Charlop announced that, like Moses bringing up the bones of Yosef from Egypt, Ethan Isenberg brought up the life of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik for everyone to appreciate.
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