This episode of the Tradition Podcast opens with the voice of Rabbi Joseph B. Solovetichik, recorded in 1958, the very year our Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought was founded. The Rav was speaking as part of a series of lectures which TRADITION has recently presented in digitally remastered form as “A Jewish Philosophy of Man.” In this course R. Soloveitchik asks: What is the unique contribution of Judaism towards our understanding of the most enigmatic figure in all of creation, man? How is this understanding reflected in the halakha? What does this unique perspective teach us about the relationship between Jews and the modern world? We are grateful to Rabbi Dr. Mark Smilowitz — who joins us on the podcast to discuss his work in assembling this resource and its enduring importance for Jewish thought and life.

At TraditionOnline.org/JPM you too can “enroll” in this course and learn directly, as it were, from the Rav. Our website curates the recordings along with transcripts of the lectures, and summaries which help situate this material within the framework of the Rav’s other teachings and writings (very many of which appeared in the pages of TRADITION). A special digital 262-page companion volume containing all that accompanying written material is available for download online or as a print book at Amazon.com.

Mark Smilowitz is a veteran educator in the United States and in Israel and earned his doctorate from the Hebrew University for work explaining Rabbi Soloveitchik’s approach to the relationship between halakha and philosophy. Read his “The Lonely Man of Faith as Halakhic Philosophy” (TRADITION, Spring 2023).

The post Understanding a Jewish Philosophy of Man first appeared on Tradition Online.