The Man of Faith and Religious Dialogue: Revisiting "Confrontation"

Abstract

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993) was the undisputed leader of Modern Orthodoxy for more than forty years. As the scion of an elite Lithuanian rabbinic family, he became the brilliant carrier of the analytic method of Talmud study pioneered by his grandfather, Hayyim of Brisk; and as a recipient of a doctorate in neo-Kantian epistemology from the University of Berlin, he developed a mastery of the classics, philosophy, and theology of Western literature. R. Soloveitchik's remarkable intellectual biography combined with his personal charisma enabled him to shape Modern Orthodoxy's ideology, religious philosophy, rabbinic education, law, and politics. He taught both Talmud and Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University, the intellectual center of the movement, where he is said to have ordained more rabbis than any person in Jewish history. For the Modern Orthodox community, he functioned as the master of both the philosophy of halakhah and its practical decisions. He left such a potent legacy of students and writings that more than a decade after his death he remains the unrivaled spiritual guide of Modern Orthodox Jews. No writing or oral discourse by R. Soloveitchik achieved more practical impact than his essay Confrontation, first delivered at the 1964 Mid-Winter Conference of the Rabbinical Council of America