Festival of Freedom: Essays on Pesah And the Haggadah (MeOtzar HoRav, 6) - Hardcover

Wolowelsky, Joel B.; Ziegler, Reuven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0881259187 ISBN 13: 9780881259186

Publisher: Ktav Pub & Distributors Inc, 2006

Synopsis

Festival of Freedom, the sixth volume in the series MeOtzar HoRav, consists of ten essays on Passover and the Haggadah drawn from the treasure trove left by the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, widely known as the Rav. For Rabbi Soloveitchik, the Passover Seder is not simply a formal ritual or ceremonial catechism. Rather, the Seder night is endowed with a unique and fascinating quality, exalted in its holiness and shining with a dazzling beauty. It possesses profound experiential and intellectual dimensions, both of them woven into the fabric of halakhic performance. Its central mitzvah, recounting the exodus, is extraordinarily multifaceted, entailing study and teaching, storytelling and symbolic performance, thanksgiving and praise. In these essays, the Rav explains how the resonances of the Seder extend far beyond the confines of one night. As he sets forth, the Seder teaches us about the Jewish approach to the meal, Torah study, peoplehood, and the nature of freedom. Yetzi at Mitzrayim is not just the story of an event lying in the distant past. It is the doctrine of the Jewish people, the philosophy of our history.

About this title

About the Author:

Rabbi Soloveitchik (1903-1993) was not only one of the outstanding talmudists of the twentieth century, but also one of its most creative and seminal Jewish thinkers. Drawing from a vast reservoir of Jewish and general knowledge, "the Rav," as he is widely known, brought Jewish thought and law to bear on the interpretation and assessment of the modern experience. For over four decades, Rabbi Soloveitchik commuted weekly from his home in Brookline, Massachusetts to New York City, where he gave the senior shi'ur (class in Talmud) at Yeshiva University's affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), where he taught and inspired generations of students, among them many of the future leaders of the Orthodox and broader Jewish community. By his extensive personal teaching and influence, he contributed vitally to the dynamic resurgence of Orthodox Judaism in America.

From Booklist:

Pesah is the Hebrew word for Passover, the Jewish holiday observed for eight days in the Diaspora. The festival commemorates the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt. The Haggadah, literally the telling of the Passover story, is read at the seder on the first two nights of the holiday. Soloveitchik (1903-93) was one of the outstanding Talmudists of the twentieth century. In these 10 essays, he explains how the seder teaches us about the Jewish approach to the meal, Torah study, and the nature of freedom. In examining the various themes, Soloveitchik discusses nuances in the biblical and rabbinic texts associated with Passover and presents a philosophical analysis of the nature of the Jewish community and its religious experiences. The editors of this book selected material from Soloveitchik's manuscripts from surviving tapes of lectures given in Boston and New York. These essays give new meaning to a historic ritual. George Cohen
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About this edition

• Publisher: Ktav Pub & Distributors Inc
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0881259187
• ISBN 13: 9780881259186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 205
• Editor: Soloveitchik Joseph B.