Marc D. Angel
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903–1993) was the most infl uential rabbinic sage of Modern Orthodoxy during the 20th century. A renowned Talmudic scholar, he was also a profound philosopher, an eloquent orator, and an engaging teacher. For many years he was the towering rabbinic fi gure of Yeshiva University in New York, the Rabbinical Council of America, and the Religious Zionists of America (or Miz- rachi). He was the spiritual head of the Orthodox community in Boston, where he resided.
Soloveitchik was a preeminent Diaspora rabbinic sage, whose love of Israel was integral to his religious worldview. He was part of a family whose love of Israel was based on the age-old religious traditions of Judaism. He broke new ground, though, by identifying with the Zionist enterprise, even though many of its leaders were non-Orthodox. Although he believed Jews should be motivated by Torah ideals and
a sense of destiny, he recognized that many Jews were Jewish by fate; this latter group included nonreligious Jews who identifi ed with the Jewish nation and were prepared to defend it. Th e task of Mizrachi was to work with Zionist leadership so as to gain wider appreciation of Torah values and observances within Israel.
Soloveitchik’s attachment to the land and state of Israel was balanced by his commitment to the Jews in the Diaspora. Although he was the spiritual head of Miz- rachi, he only visited Israel once, in 1935. He remained a quintessential Diaspora Jew, with a religious longing for the Holy Land. In a sense, he was in self-imposed exile; he could have visited (or emigrated to) Israel but consciously chose to remain in the United States.
Soloveitchik was fully cognizant of the traditional religious view that Diaspora —that is, exile—is punishment for one’s sins. It is a temporary condition (however long it may endure), to be terminated by the arrival of the Messianic Era. At that time, Jews will return to the Land of Israel, and the teachings of Torah will be uni- versally accepted.
Yet for Soloveitchik, the real center of the Jewish people was not a land but the Torah. Th e land was a means to an end, a physical space for the spiritual fl owering of the Jewish people in the ways of Torah. Th ose in the Diaspora who lived according to Torah were thereby living a meaningful religious life. Th ose in the Land of Israel who did not do so were not being true to Judaism. Soloveitchik believed the urgency of confronting the reality of modern Zionism—joining in the rebuilding of a Jewish state—but his primary concern was to promote religious life in the new state.
Th e unity of the Jewish people depended on a mutual sense of kinship and des- tiny between Diaspora and Israeli Jews. “Th e Jews of America are forbidden to be quiet or to relax as long as the danger confronting the State of Israel persists. Nor can the inhabitants of the Holy Land prattle on about such nonsense as ‘the new type of Jew’ being created there who has nothing in common with the diaspora Jew” (Soloveitchik 2000, 69). Soloveitchik was particularly critical of those nonreli- gious/antireligious Israeli leaders who sought to divorce the Jewish state from its religious foundations.
He was also worried that the love of Israel would decline in the Diaspora as Jews continued to assimilate and move away from traditional religious patterns. “Th e Torah has engendered an everlasting bond between the Jew and the Land of Israel. Th e stress in Torah and tradition on the primacy of the Land of Israel must be the basis of Zionist education in the United States” (Soloveitchik 1999, 98).
Soloveitchik viewed the Jewish people as an ontological entity—Kenesset Israel, congregation of Israel.
Th e community is not just an assembly of people who work together for their mutual benefi t, but a metaphysical entity, an individuality; I might say, a living whole . . . We, for instance, lay claim to Eretz Israel. God granted the land to us as a gift. To whom did He pledge the land? Neither to an individual, nor to a partnership consisting of millions of people. He gave it to the Kenesset Israel, to the community as an indepen- dent unity, as a distinct juridic metaphysical person. . . . Th e owner of the Promised Land is the Kenesset Israel, which is a community persona. (Soloveitchik 1978, 9)
It is this overarching persona of Kenesset Israel that links individual Jews to their people.
Th e Jew who believes in Kenesset Israel is the Jew who lives with Kenesset Israel where she may be and is prepared to die for her, who hurts with her pain and rejoices in her joy, who fi ghts her wars, suff ers in her defeats, and celebrates her victories. Th e Jew who believes in Kenesset Israel is the Jew who joins himself as an indestructible link not only to the Jewish people of this generation but to Kenesset Israel of all genera- tions. How? Th rough Torah, which is and creates the continuity of all the generations of Israel for all time. (Soloveitchik 1974a, 98)
For Rabbi Soloveitchik, then, the essential unity of the Jewish people is attained through commitment to Torah. Over the generations, the Diaspora has produced magnifi cent Torah communities and outstanding Torah scholars. Although in the ideal world Judaism can fi nd its best expression in the Land of Israel, the world is not yet ideal. Meanwhile, the task is to ensure that Torah study and observance can thrive in Israel—and the Diaspora.
Selected Bibliography
Soloveitchik, Joseph B. 1974a. Al ha-Teshuvah, edited by Pinchas Peli. Jerusalem: Education Department of World Zionist Organization.
Soloveitchik, Joseph B. 1974b. Hamesh Derashot. Jerusalem: Machon Tal Orot. Soloveitchik, Joseph B. 1978. “Community.” Tradition 17 (2): 7–24.
Soloveitchik, Joseph B. 1999. Th e Rav: Th e World of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Vol. 2, edited by Aaron Rakeff et-Rothkoff . Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House.
Soloveitchik, Joseph B. 2000. Fate and Destiny [Kol Dodi Dofek]. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House.