ABRAHAM'S JOURNEY: REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE OF THE FOUNDING PATRIARCH

Abraham’s Journey, the ninth in the series MeOtzar HoRav: Selected Writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, focuses on the life of Avraham Avinu, founding patriarch of the Jewish People. Abraham is not only the first Jew, but also a historical prototype, his experiences and actions foreshadowing critical patterns in the history of his people. In addition, Abraham serves as a spiritual and ethical model to his descendants. He is a teacher, a paragon of kindness, a lonely iconoclast, a master of sacrifice, and a knight of faith. Through careful exegesis of verses, illuminating analyses of character, and insightful readings of classical commentators, the essays in this book seek both the eternal and the contemporary messages of the Abraham story.




Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l

Rabbi Soloveitchik zt”l (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 sh‘iur (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 all areas of Jewish communal life. By his extensive personal teaching and influence, he contributed vitally to the dynamic resurgence of Orthodox Judaism in America.



The editors of Abraham’s Journey are David Shatz, Professor of Philosophy at Yeshiva University and Editor of the MeOtzar HoRav series; Joel B. Wolowelsky, Dean of the Faculty at the Yeshivah of Flatbush and Associate Editor of the MeOtzar HoRav series; and Reuven Ziegler, Editor-in-Chief of the Virtual Beit Midrash at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Director of Research at the Toras HoRav Foundation.