From Brisk to Boston: The Sermons of Rabbi Soloveitchik

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From Brisk to BostonThe Sermons of Rabbi
Soloveitchik

A. Lustiger
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The Rav as Darshan

• Drush Taking a Biblical verse or verse
  fragment, often out of context, to derive a moral
  or contemporary message
• Rav has left a huge legacy in this area
• Messages on public policy or personal behavior
  usually imparted via drush

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Example Kol Dodi Dofek (Fate and Destiny)

• Cannot ask why there was a Holocaust
  (theodicy)
• Must ask what is the proper response to the
  Holocaust--gt teshuva
• EWY HNMMW BQEYL AYH HRC TE
• It is a time of travail for Jacob, and from it
  through it we will be saved

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The Ravs Approach to Drush

• Going beyond homiletic interpretation of Biblical
  verses, to homiletic interpretation of halacha
  itself.
• Very idea contrasts with Brisker tradition
• Halacha is normative, objective, ahistorical,
  apsychological...
• (Mistakel Beoraiso Uvara Olmo)
• Nothing more inscrutable than the reasons for
  individual mitzvot
• The question why fundamentally invalid as
  applied to mitzvot
• Why suggests what motivated him?
• Motivation suggests that the subject has an
  unrealized need

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The Oved Hashem (Parshas Chukas Lecture- 1973 RCA)

• The why question is invalid.
• The question, what does it mean to me? is both
  valid and necessary.
• The Oved Hashem
• ...not only discharges his duty, but enjoys,
  rejoices in and loves the mitzvah.
• If the mitzvah does not deliver any message to
  us, avodas Hashem is unattainable.
• We cannot experience the great bliss of
  fulfilling Divine commandments if the logos is
  shut out of that involvement.
• We have no right to explain mitzvot we have a
  duty to interpret mitzvot. What does the mitzvah
  mean to me, how can I assimilate the mitzvah in
  my total religious consciousness?
• Not only permissible but we are duty bound to
  raise this question.

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Example 1 Drasha on Purim (1956)

• Question Gemara asks Why no Hallel on Purim?
• Gemara answers Reading of Megillah
  constitutes Hallel
• The Rav asks If so, why doesnt reading of
  Haggadah constitute Hallel on Pesach night?
• Gemara Hallel is recited Pesach night due to
  Gezeiras Hakasuv
• (UKL YEY) GX DQTH LYLK OKL HYHY HZH RYH
• Ravs Reason
• Theme of Hallel is miraculous, supernatural (e.g.
  SWNYW HAR OYH)
• Hallel therefore not appropriate for Purim,
• Purim was a natural miracle.
• Only way to give praise for natural miracle is
  to retell the event ( i.e. by reading Megillah)

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Example 2 Drasha on Sukkot (1954)

• Question Why must the skhakh on a Sukkah be
  penetrable to rain?
• Ravs Reason
• Man must be able to see stars through skhakh, to
  see a vast universe beyond his small sukkah, to
  look beyond his limited surroundings towards God.
• Myopic man thinks that his immediate
  surroundings, his limited horizons are all that
  exist.
• When three strangers passed Abrahams tent, he
  thought they were nomads who worshipped the dust
  of their feet could not see beyond their
  immediate surroundings.
• Asked them to wash their feetand sit under the
  tree to consider the organic process of growth,
  and focus beyond the treetops to the heavens.

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Example 3 Eulogy for R. Chaim Ozer Grodzenski
(1941)

• Question Why did the Kohen Gadol wear both a
  headplate (tzitz) and a breastplate (choshen)?
• Ravs Reason
• The tzitz, placed on the Kohens forehead
  represents knowledge of Torah
• The choshen, which was consulted prior to Israel
  went to war, represents decisions of national and
  political importance
• The Kohen Gadol wore both because only one who
  has a vast knowledge of Torah is empowered to
  make decisions on public policy as well.
• It is impossible for the heart to absorb love of
  Israel without a head which is Kodesh Lashem
  there is no ahavat yisrael without kedushat
  yisrael.

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Example 4 Drasha on Yom Haatzmaut (1958)

• Question Why are we allowed to ascend Mount
  Sinai and not the Temple Mount?
• Gemara At Mount Sinai RHB WLEY HMH LBWYH
  VWMB -
• At Mount Moriah (ZZ HRYXBH TYB LH OBMR)
  DE YDE YTXWNM TAZ
• Ravs Reason
• Israel did not participate in the giving of the
  Torah they slept on the night of Shavuos the
  holiness was therefore transient
• At Mount Moriah Abraham and Isaac went through
  the Akeidah holiness is identical with
  sacrifice this holiness was permanent
• Man, not God, is almost always the active
  participant in the endowment of holiness
• E.g. OYNMZHW LARY DQM
• The reason the State of Israel has experienced
  suffering and sacrifice throughout its history is
  because the State of Israel similarly involves
  holiness.

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Example 5 Lavan and Techeilet

• Question Why must a Tallit have many white and
  blue threads.
• Ravs Reason
• The white threads represent clarity,
  rationality that which is self-evident
• The many threads of white urge us to use our
  minds for discoveries in technology, to explore
  and master nature.
• The blue thread, the likeness of the sea and
  the heaven represents the mysteries of the human
  experience which elude understanding
• The one thread of techeilet pertains to the
  spiritual realm, where man is humbled by the
  mystery of existence.
• In our personal lives
• We experience period that are rational, planned,
  and predictable (white)
• At other times, stark and harsh reality leaves us
  shocked and humbled (blue)
• In Jewish history
• The Jew must mainatain his identity and religious
  loyalty under conditions of both lavan and
  techeilet
• The durability of Jewish commitment through times
  of uncertainty is represented by the permanence
  of the techeilet dye.

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In the Ravs words...

• There is an educational-philosophical problem
  that has weighed heavily upon me. To contemporary
  Orthodox Jews the Torah is revealed in
  intellectual categories, in cold thought and
  logic. However, it has not merited being revealed
  in a living sensory mode, which causes both
  trembling and gladdening of the heart. They
  recognize the Torah as an idea, but they do not
  encounter it as an unmediated reality that one
  can taste, see and feel...
• I have not fulfilled my obligation as a guide and
  teacher in Israel. I am lacking the fortitude
  that as a teacher and a Rabbi they required...
• -Al Ahavat Hatorah Ugeulat Nefesh Hador

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