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Halakhic Man
The best single introduction to Jewish religious thought in print. — Theology Today National Jewish Book Award Winner Halakhic Man is the classic work of modern Jewish and religious thought by the twentieth century’s preeminent Orthodox Jewish theologian and talmudic scholar. It is a profound excursion into religious psychology and phenomenology, a pioneering attempt at a philosophy of halakhah, and a stringent critique of mysticism and romantic religion.
164 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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About the author
Joseph B. Soloveitchik
62 books65 followersRabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903-1993)
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was born into a family already known for its great Torah learning. His grandfather and father, emphasized a thorough analysis of Talmud, and it is in this way that Rav Soloveitchik studied and taught his own students. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin, and then settled in Boston in the early 1930’s. He became Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva University, and gave weekly shiurim to senior students, while delivering philosophy lectures to graduate students. His accomplishments in both Halachic study and secular study made him a unique Torah personality to Torah scholars all over.
His limitless expertise in and appreciation of secular disciplines never lessened his total devotion to Torah study. Indeed Torah study was the central focus of his life and his teachings. His public historic shiurim in memory of his great father, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, and his public shiurim between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur organized by the Rabbinical Council of America known as Kinus T’Shuva, were attended by thousands of Torah students from all groupings in the Torah community. Thus he was one of the leaders of the generation.
He never engaged in pejorative or invectives when speaking of non-orthodox Jews. He was polite and respectful to others. Yet he was firm and inflexible in protecting and advocating the Mesorah of Torah tradition. His ruling, written by him, that one is not allowed to pray in a house of worship that violates Halachic standards even if it would result in not fulfilling the Mitzvah of Tekiath Shofar is an illustration of his strong stand on Torah and Mesorah.
This can also be seen from his opinion that while dialogue with non-Jewish faiths may be necessary, it may not deal with theological topics. This was a historic principle which guided his disciples in all their dealings with non-Jewish clergy, and continues to this very day.
His teachings and shiurim are responsible for literally thousands of men and women in the educational and academic community today.
F.S.
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was born into a family already known for its great Torah learning. His grandfather and father, emphasized a thorough analysis of Talmud, and it is in this way that Rav Soloveitchik studied and taught his own students. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin, and then settled in Boston in the early 1930’s. He became Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva University, and gave weekly shiurim to senior students, while delivering philosophy lectures to graduate students. His accomplishments in both Halachic study and secular study made him a unique Torah personality to Torah scholars all over.
His limitless expertise in and appreciation of secular disciplines never lessened his total devotion to Torah study. Indeed Torah study was the central focus of his life and his teachings. His public historic shiurim in memory of his great father, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, and his public shiurim between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur organized by the Rabbinical Council of America known as Kinus T’Shuva, were attended by thousands of Torah students from all groupings in the Torah community. Thus he was one of the leaders of the generation.
He never engaged in pejorative or invectives when speaking of non-orthodox Jews. He was polite and respectful to others. Yet he was firm and inflexible in protecting and advocating the Mesorah of Torah tradition. His ruling, written by him, that one is not allowed to pray in a house of worship that violates Halachic standards even if it would result in not fulfilling the Mitzvah of Tekiath Shofar is an illustration of his strong stand on Torah and Mesorah.
This can also be seen from his opinion that while dialogue with non-Jewish faiths may be necessary, it may not deal with theological topics. This was a historic principle which guided his disciples in all their dealings with non-Jewish clergy, and continues to this very day.
His teachings and shiurim are responsible for literally thousands of men and women in the educational and academic community today.
F.S.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 1, 2022
Is brevity, boldness and mass your “money or honey?” If you respond with yes, then Halakhic Man by R. Soloveitchik will not suffice. However; if brief, profound and erudition via a tutelary knight aka Rabbi Soloveitchik is your “geld oder honig” then consider this Halakhic Man the chartarium Messiah disguised as a little blue book.
Reading “Halakhic Man” in hand (paperback version) as it traveled with me was unto the familiar quotidian brush of a divine finger on my bare forearm---no bracing warranted. We are taken with the journey of homo religiosis and his substantive spiritual lacerations and trauma from knowing that a gnat or snail came before him.
“As a result of fluttering to and fro between these powerful opposing pulls, homo religiosus suffers from psychic torments and spiritual anguish. He undergoes terrible pains in the search for the enigma...”
---Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Sacrifice, solitude and humility are all vagrant accomplices to this read. Herein we ponder thought and thinking, possibility to entelechy and a ruminative life based on Lithuanian religiosity, the Talmud and the corpus of Jewish Law (the Halakhah). Buy, leech wisdom, and pass forth via lips/deeds to trapped “dunkelheit” souls.
Reading “Halakhic Man” in hand (paperback version) as it traveled with me was unto the familiar quotidian brush of a divine finger on my bare forearm---no bracing warranted. We are taken with the journey of homo religiosis and his substantive spiritual lacerations and trauma from knowing that a gnat or snail came before him.
“As a result of fluttering to and fro between these powerful opposing pulls, homo religiosus suffers from psychic torments and spiritual anguish. He undergoes terrible pains in the search for the enigma...”
---Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Sacrifice, solitude and humility are all vagrant accomplices to this read. Herein we ponder thought and thinking, possibility to entelechy and a ruminative life based on Lithuanian religiosity, the Talmud and the corpus of Jewish Law (the Halakhah). Buy, leech wisdom, and pass forth via lips/deeds to trapped “dunkelheit” souls.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 23, 2018
I really love a lot of the essays that Rav Soloveitchik wrote over the years, and so I read this book which is his most famous. Alas, I found myself identifying with the 'homo religiosus' who 'passes beyond the realm of concreteness and reality set within a frame of scientific experience and enters into a higher realm.' The book is a stringent critique of mysticism and romantic religion, and while I definitely get his point, I just am too Hasidish to identify viscerally. And, I don't think it's a bad thing. There is room for his way of thinking, and there is also room for mine. In truth, though, the Rav's vision is somewhere in the middle, living according to the letter and finding meaning in the groundedness of everyday. And with that, I cannot argue. The book is dense and requires previous knowledge of both classical and modern philosophy. Recommended, but for specific audience.
January 27, 2019
The idea here is that the Jewish religious scholar, a type called "halakhic man," has a personality and a method that blends elements of mystic spirituality and rational philosophy. This is explained in the introductory passage. Here's an excerpt from Part I, Section I (Lawrence Kaplan's translation from the Hebrew):
There's a riff on the Beast-or-Angel? theme:
Halakhic man, on R. Soloveitchik's interpretation, seems to have the inner resources to overcome his own chaos and evil; he doesn't seem to need to abase himself and turn to God. (On that subject, R. Soloveitchik even quotes the Talmudic story in which rabbis use religious reasoning to challenge God's own ruling on the purity of an oven, upon which God accepts their counterargument and happily acknowledges, "My children have defeated me!") Through scholarship and commitment to Jewish law, therefore, and not primarily through reliance on or deference to God, halakhic man becomes good.
Soloveitchik does not, however, discuss how to convince other people to be good or at least less evil. It seems to me that not everyone can be a halakhic man: not even all Jews, because not all have this personality type or level of scholarship, and by definition certainly not any non-Jews, because they aren't bound to follow Jewish law. This leaves us high and dry on the broader question of how to create a more ethical world that addresses all the types of wrongdoing and harm that may come from any direction. Yeshiva University's Talpiot journal first published his essay in 1944.
"Halakhic man is an anti-nomic type for a dual reason: (1) he bears within the deep recesses of his personality the soul of a homo religiosus, that soul which, as was stated above, suffers from the pangs of self-contradiction and self-negation; (2) at the same time halakhic man’s personality also embraces the soul of cognitive man, and this soul contradicts all of the desires and strivings of the religious soul. However, these opposing forces which struggle together in the religious consciousness of halakhic man are not of a destructive or disjunctive nature. Halakhic man is not some illegitimate, unstable hybrid. On the contrary, out of the contradictions and antinomies there emerges a radiant, holy personality whose soul has been purified in the furnace of struggle and opposition and redeemed in the fires of the torments of spiritual disharmony to a degree unmatched by the universal homo religiosus. The deep split of the soul prior to its being united may, at times, raise a man to a rank of perfection, which for sheer brilliance and beauty is unequaled by any level attained by the simple, whole personality who has never been tried by the pangs of spiritual discord. ‘In accordance with the suffering is the reward’ [Avot 5:23] and in accordance with the split the union! This spiritual fusion that characterizes halakhic man is distinguished by its consummate splendor, for did not the split touch the very depths, the innermost core, of his being? There is much truth to the fundamental contention…that there is a creative power embedded within antithesis; conflict enriches existence; the negation is constructive, and contradiction deepens and expands the ultimate destiny of both man and the world." (Part I, Section I)
There's a riff on the Beast-or-Angel? theme:
"But man himself symbolizes, on the one hand, the most perfect and complete type of existence, the image of God, and, on the other hand, the most terrible chaos and void to reign over creation. The contradiction that one finds in the macrocosm between ontic beauty and perfection and monstrous 'nothingness' also appears in the microcosm—in man— for the latter incorporates within himself the most perfect creation and the most unimaginable chaos and void, light and darkness, the abyss and the law, a coarse, turbid being and a clear, lucid existence, the beast and the image of God. All human thought has grappled with this strange dualism that is so pronounced in man and has sought to overcome it." (Part II, Section II)
Halakhic man, on R. Soloveitchik's interpretation, seems to have the inner resources to overcome his own chaos and evil; he doesn't seem to need to abase himself and turn to God. (On that subject, R. Soloveitchik even quotes the Talmudic story in which rabbis use religious reasoning to challenge God's own ruling on the purity of an oven, upon which God accepts their counterargument and happily acknowledges, "My children have defeated me!") Through scholarship and commitment to Jewish law, therefore, and not primarily through reliance on or deference to God, halakhic man becomes good.
Soloveitchik does not, however, discuss how to convince other people to be good or at least less evil. It seems to me that not everyone can be a halakhic man: not even all Jews, because not all have this personality type or level of scholarship, and by definition certainly not any non-Jews, because they aren't bound to follow Jewish law. This leaves us high and dry on the broader question of how to create a more ethical world that addresses all the types of wrongdoing and harm that may come from any direction. Yeshiva University's Talpiot journal first published his essay in 1944.
April 17, 2014
I have never read about Judaism. The argument that human is the co-creator with God is quite striking. But the author made perfect sense in his book. I like the way his analogize Halakhah with mathematics.
January 11, 2022
Imagine three friends who like to play chess. If they were evenly matched you would expect the outcome of their games to be roughly equal. If one of the three were a grand master, the results would be lopsided. Rabbi Soloveitchik's Halakhic Man is a grand master and his opponents--cognitive man and homo religiosus--are hopelessly outmatch. Watching a grand master checkmate his inferior opponent once with a few brilliant moves can be entertaining. Reading the tales of Halakhic Man pummeling his opponents time and time again...well, frankly, it gets a bit boring.
Many reviewers of this book highlight the comparison that the Rav makes between Halakhic Man and mathematicians. Prior to reading the book, that unexpected comparison sounded fascinating to me. Some less schooled readers even suggested that the comparison is a technically complex one. With visions of differential equations dancing through my head, I wondered if I'd be able to make heads or tails of it.
As it turns out, the argument, though conceptual, is not complex. Indeed it's a novel comparison and one that has at least a ring of persuasiveness. Unfortunately the comparison is neither extensive nor deep. This reader, for one, felt there were too many stones left unturned. For instance, does it make sense to think of Halakhic Man as being like the mathematician, the physicist, and the accountant, when all three of those professionals are so unlike the other? Don't get me wrong, I love the idea that Halakhic Man, like the mathematician, attempts to quantify quality and to turn religious subjectivity into objective phenomena that are standardized and measurable. But the actual comparison reads surprisingly thin. (The second of the two essays, smaller and less grounded than the first, says little to nothing on this particular comparison.)
Other reviewers point out that this book is a good defense of Yeshivish Judaism (non-Hasidic orthodoxy.) That's why I bought the book and read it, in fact. I've always appreciated the idea that the intellectual, and not just the romantic, has something valuable to add to religious life; I've always preferred the sage to the prophet. I don't think the point those reviewers make is wrong, but like with the above math comparisons, I feel as if the arguments against both Hasidic emotionalism and Musar piety were too implicit in the case of the former, and framed with an outdated (and somewhat obscure) debate in the case of the latter. (That said, I appreciated that such critiques were often leveled via personal stories passed down from the rabbi's august father and grandfathers.
Homo religiosus stands in as a straw man for Rabbi Soloveitchik to make an implicit critique of the Christian focus on spirit, and on their relative neglect of the importance of bodily existence. Of all the arguments advanced in the book, I enjoyed those related to this theme the best. The beautiful idea of divine "contraction" was new to me (who says Judaism doesn't have theology!), and is something I will take with me from the book. And I really appreciate the idea that Christians are always looking for offramps from the highway of reality while the Jews are busy creating onramps for HaShem to bring his lights and sirens to blaze a bath through the traffic that stands in the way of an improved world. As the Rav writes: "There is nothing so physically and spiritually destructive as diverting one's attention from this world." (C) Jeffrey L. Otto, January 10, 2022
Many reviewers of this book highlight the comparison that the Rav makes between Halakhic Man and mathematicians. Prior to reading the book, that unexpected comparison sounded fascinating to me. Some less schooled readers even suggested that the comparison is a technically complex one. With visions of differential equations dancing through my head, I wondered if I'd be able to make heads or tails of it.
As it turns out, the argument, though conceptual, is not complex. Indeed it's a novel comparison and one that has at least a ring of persuasiveness. Unfortunately the comparison is neither extensive nor deep. This reader, for one, felt there were too many stones left unturned. For instance, does it make sense to think of Halakhic Man as being like the mathematician, the physicist, and the accountant, when all three of those professionals are so unlike the other? Don't get me wrong, I love the idea that Halakhic Man, like the mathematician, attempts to quantify quality and to turn religious subjectivity into objective phenomena that are standardized and measurable. But the actual comparison reads surprisingly thin. (The second of the two essays, smaller and less grounded than the first, says little to nothing on this particular comparison.)
Other reviewers point out that this book is a good defense of Yeshivish Judaism (non-Hasidic orthodoxy.) That's why I bought the book and read it, in fact. I've always appreciated the idea that the intellectual, and not just the romantic, has something valuable to add to religious life; I've always preferred the sage to the prophet. I don't think the point those reviewers make is wrong, but like with the above math comparisons, I feel as if the arguments against both Hasidic emotionalism and Musar piety were too implicit in the case of the former, and framed with an outdated (and somewhat obscure) debate in the case of the latter. (That said, I appreciated that such critiques were often leveled via personal stories passed down from the rabbi's august father and grandfathers.
Homo religiosus stands in as a straw man for Rabbi Soloveitchik to make an implicit critique of the Christian focus on spirit, and on their relative neglect of the importance of bodily existence. Of all the arguments advanced in the book, I enjoyed those related to this theme the best. The beautiful idea of divine "contraction" was new to me (who says Judaism doesn't have theology!), and is something I will take with me from the book. And I really appreciate the idea that Christians are always looking for offramps from the highway of reality while the Jews are busy creating onramps for HaShem to bring his lights and sirens to blaze a bath through the traffic that stands in the way of an improved world. As the Rav writes: "There is nothing so physically and spiritually destructive as diverting one's attention from this world." (C) Jeffrey L. Otto, January 10, 2022
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December 28, 2007Throughout the book Rabbi Solevetchik uses archetypes to describe different approaches to life. He characterizes the Halachic Man, the person who chooses and engages to live according to Torah Law, as the superior choice. He contrasts the Halachic Man with other archetypes of philosophical outlooks.
Rabbi Solevetchik is very well read and manages to integrate a lot of Western philophy into his argument. The approach of using archetypal descriptions was helpful in its definitiveness, however, he does not ever acknowledge a more complicated being that mixes charcteristics. The only complicated and well-rounded being is the Halachic Man because he intergrates the best of each archetype... What about a nonHalachic Man who also integrates?
Also some aspects seem contridictory in that he praises scientific method in discerning an objective reality- but never addresses that the scientific method has led to developments in understanding that question and displace a Torah understanding.
I replaced his concept of Halacha with my own concept of living with some principles and found his vision of a Halachic Man could fit into anyone who has an external source for her/his principles.
Rabbi Solevetchik is very well read and manages to integrate a lot of Western philophy into his argument. The approach of using archetypal descriptions was helpful in its definitiveness, however, he does not ever acknowledge a more complicated being that mixes charcteristics. The only complicated and well-rounded being is the Halachic Man because he intergrates the best of each archetype... What about a nonHalachic Man who also integrates?
Also some aspects seem contridictory in that he praises scientific method in discerning an objective reality- but never addresses that the scientific method has led to developments in understanding that question and displace a Torah understanding.
I replaced his concept of Halacha with my own concept of living with some principles and found his vision of a Halachic Man could fit into anyone who has an external source for her/his principles.
November 30, 2016
Parts were really hard to understand - since I don't have the background in Philosophy.
But, the way he ties the study of Math and the study of Halakah spoke to me.
He makes a case for rigorous intellectual understanding of Halakah and contrasts it with the general "homo religious" (the garden variety feel-good, mystical/emotional religious practitioner).
But, the way he ties the study of Math and the study of Halakah spoke to me.
He makes a case for rigorous intellectual understanding of Halakah and contrasts it with the general "homo religious" (the garden variety feel-good, mystical/emotional religious practitioner).
February 24, 2024
very interesting read, got to further illuminate some concepts İ'd been superficially familiar with. after having read Heschel, Soloveitchik's been helping me determine my own position against a wider backdrop of thought
January 6, 2019
This book provocatively caught my attention; I really enjoyed this book both intellectually and spiritually. Rav Soloveitchik’s essay on Halachic Man in contrast with Cognitive Man and Homo Religiosus has challenged my Hashkafic views. However, in areas In which I did disagree, (which I won’t discuss here), Rav Soloveitchik was able to give me an insight into the world of Halacha with a set of lenses that makes Judaism bigger than I thought. A great book for lovers of philosophy and Orthodox Judaism.
May 30, 2017
Beautiful explication of the Mitnagdic position. Both humane, scholarly, just and life-affirming and yet constrained by the male-only, Torah-only view of the time.
April 21, 2022
Interesting, compelling work. Many thoughts, many things learned, but I think the turning point for me was when R' Soloveitchik made it clear that the book was, in part, a polemic against mysticism. I don't think it's wrong that there are countervailing impulses within, to put it in maybe a snarky way, mystical Torah and halakhic Torah. But they're both Torah. I feel like despite the commitment to some kind of materialism in the book's approach--which I appreciated--the book has a lot of talk about overcoming our species-being and overcoming the religious impulses within ourselves. To me, this reeks of blasphemy: I just can't stomach this notion that our inbuilt striving for knowledge of, for closeness to Hashem is antithetical to Halakhah.
R' Soloveitchik tries to set up halakhic man as a dialectical synthesis of cognitive and religious man, but this is ultimately where I think the book is not just disagreeable, but unsuccessful: halakhic man works as an antithesis to religious, or more accurately, kabbalistic man; but not as a synthesis of any sort.
R' Soloveitchik tries to set up halakhic man as a dialectical synthesis of cognitive and religious man, but this is ultimately where I think the book is not just disagreeable, but unsuccessful: halakhic man works as an antithesis to religious, or more accurately, kabbalistic man; but not as a synthesis of any sort.
October 13, 2023
Whoops forgot to rate this; BUT, essentially, Halakhic Man shines because of its straightforward prose. Barring some of the denser bits later in the book, it's honestly difficult to misinterpret what Soloveitchik is saying on any individual page . A significant issue for me (as a non-Jew, non-expert) was the curious and ongoing lack of interlocutory women in Soloveitchik's theory, which is further complicated by the book's gendered title, its consistent use of male pronouns to describe those enacting religious ways of life, and its general lack of female embodiments of halakhic life. While his theory is interesting, if it's to the exclusion of women, there's at least one significant reason to approach it with caution.
4/5 stars
4/5 stars
May 20, 2023
Read part 1 with Shabbat Book Club!
A lot I agree with and a lot I disagree with but very interesting nonetheless. Writing style is very verbose and repetitive, and Soloveitchik constantly ropes in comparisons to secular philosophers in a way that does not always feel necessary. However, the repetition at least does do a good job at reinforcing his ideas to some extent. His writing style also feels very Talmudic, which is fun. I’m curious to finally get around to finishing Lonely Man of Faith now that I’m more familiar with his style.
A lot I agree with and a lot I disagree with but very interesting nonetheless. Writing style is very verbose and repetitive, and Soloveitchik constantly ropes in comparisons to secular philosophers in a way that does not always feel necessary. However, the repetition at least does do a good job at reinforcing his ideas to some extent. His writing style also feels very Talmudic, which is fun. I’m curious to finally get around to finishing Lonely Man of Faith now that I’m more familiar with his style.
June 12, 2021
Brilliantly written, but I still love A lonely man.. more.
June 29, 2025
This book fundamentally changed my view of G-d, religion, and community. There aren’t enough stars in the sky to adequately rate this book positively enough.
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March 26, 2011Had a hard time understanding parts of the book, but contains many deep and beautiful ideas to think about. Not only to think about, but act as well, and that does seem to be a central purpose of the book. By thinking, one can only get so far- real progress beyond that point can only come by actions, even if one doesn't completely understand what to do and why to do it.
As an engineering undergraduate studying a lot of math, I can really understand Soloveitchik's attitude towards religion and Halakha by comparing it to the study of mathematics- you can only get so far by reading about math- the real comprehension starts with action. And when starting a difficult and complex subject in math, you need a lot of confidence and faith to believe you'll be able to understand it sufficiently.
I find it a powerful, although difficult idea to come to terms with and live by.
I'm not sure how to rate it because I surely can't appreciate the full depth of the work, but all then again reviews are personal and subjective anyway. If I rate it again, the rating would probably be higher.
As an engineering undergraduate studying a lot of math, I can really understand Soloveitchik's attitude towards religion and Halakha by comparing it to the study of mathematics- you can only get so far by reading about math- the real comprehension starts with action. And when starting a difficult and complex subject in math, you need a lot of confidence and faith to believe you'll be able to understand it sufficiently.
I find it a powerful, although difficult idea to come to terms with and live by.
I'm not sure how to rate it because I surely can't appreciate the full depth of the work, but all then again reviews are personal and subjective anyway. If I rate it again, the rating would probably be higher.
Read
March 19, 2011It is hard for me to review this books, since it is a few levels above me. I don't have the necessary background knowledge in philosophy. I did learn from it, though.
March 21, 2007
I just don't understand Soloveitchik but I try so hard!
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September 23, 2010Halakhic Man by Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1984)
April 29, 2017
Part of me really rebelled against this polemic, the part that sees all stringent talk of “The Law” as a dangerous, unbending justification for violence and oppression. An unyielding application of religious laws more often leads to a bloody, intolerance if not outright fundamentalism.
And parenthetically, there is a story in the book about a Rabbi using a bit of force to drive home the point that the Torah's burial rite is intractable and should not be subject to bribes. So maybe, violence is the inherent end of all Law enforcement.
BUT.
That part completely misunderstands the central argument of Soloveitchik. The Halakha is the entirety of Jewish Law – oral and written. The intensive study of it changes the world, according to Soloveitchik. First it transforms man into an individual, then into a prophet through who God manifests and completes Creation.
By approaching the Torah and all the Halakha like a mathematician, the Halakhic Man studies the laws, judgments, and proscripted rituals like a scientist studies numeric equations. With this intense operation, the Halakhic Man creates an ideal world out of God’s laws to better comprehend reality around him. And in that understanding, perfects God’s laws in the world.
For instance, at sunrise, the Halakhic Man thinks of the prayers and ritual commanded by God. Instead of falling into the blundering awe of transcendence, the Halakhic Man enacts God’s Law and by so doing celebrates God’s meaning of the sunrise.
Where this orthodoxy slips through radical fundamentalism of death comes with the argument of individuality through the study and understanding of the Halakha. Intensive study leads to understanding and knowledge of the Law which leads to being able to understand God's meaning and purpose better. And that understanding leads to one becoming a prophet of God. And becoming a prophet of God allows one to become an individual in conversation with God. And that conversation with God allows for creativity and creation. And that creativity and creation leads to joy and fulfillment.
Overall, this is an interesting argument for ultra-orthodoxy that is semi-friendly and embracing, even if I suspect in practice there is a whiff of tsk tsking of petulant corrective.
And parenthetically, there is a story in the book about a Rabbi using a bit of force to drive home the point that the Torah's burial rite is intractable and should not be subject to bribes. So maybe, violence is the inherent end of all Law enforcement.
BUT.
That part completely misunderstands the central argument of Soloveitchik. The Halakha is the entirety of Jewish Law – oral and written. The intensive study of it changes the world, according to Soloveitchik. First it transforms man into an individual, then into a prophet through who God manifests and completes Creation.
By approaching the Torah and all the Halakha like a mathematician, the Halakhic Man studies the laws, judgments, and proscripted rituals like a scientist studies numeric equations. With this intense operation, the Halakhic Man creates an ideal world out of God’s laws to better comprehend reality around him. And in that understanding, perfects God’s laws in the world.
For instance, at sunrise, the Halakhic Man thinks of the prayers and ritual commanded by God. Instead of falling into the blundering awe of transcendence, the Halakhic Man enacts God’s Law and by so doing celebrates God’s meaning of the sunrise.
Where this orthodoxy slips through radical fundamentalism of death comes with the argument of individuality through the study and understanding of the Halakha. Intensive study leads to understanding and knowledge of the Law which leads to being able to understand God's meaning and purpose better. And that understanding leads to one becoming a prophet of God. And becoming a prophet of God allows one to become an individual in conversation with God. And that conversation with God allows for creativity and creation. And that creativity and creation leads to joy and fulfillment.
Overall, this is an interesting argument for ultra-orthodoxy that is semi-friendly and embracing, even if I suspect in practice there is a whiff of tsk tsking of petulant corrective.
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