A Jewish Philosophy of Man

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s lectures on the nature of man and the human experience
Edited by Mark Smilowitz

What is the unique contribution of Judaism towards our understanding of the most enigmatic figure of all creation, man? How is this understanding reflected in Judaism’s code of behavior, the halakhah? How does this unique perspective impact our attitudes towards and our allocation of social services to the needy and the downtrodden, and what does it teach us about the relationship between Jews and the modern world?

These and other foundational questions are explored and answered in the audio lectures archived here. This course was presented by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l as part of a series of twelve talks he delivered from the Fall of 1958 to the Spring of 1959. According to memoranda preserved by the Toras HoRav Foundation, also archived here, the audience was made up of “the top executives in the field of Jewish social service in New York City,” and the lectures belonged to a larger program called the “Jewish Orientation and Training Seminar” (known as JOTS).

This series does much more than provide a Jewish perspective on the profession of social service. It is also relevant and important to anyone interested in Jewish philosophy, the philosophy of halakhah, and the thought of R. Soloveitchik. On their own, these lectures demonstrate his impressive oratorical abilities at the height of his career, interweaving a vast array of Jewish and secular sources while reflecting on current events, anecdotes, and personal feelings, resulting in a uniquely compelling and engaging discourse. In the context of the Rav’s other works, the lectures elaborate important themes and concepts central to some of his most important writings. Perhaps most significantly, lectures 4–6 develop his understanding of loneliness as a central Jewish concept in a manner that will provide new insights into the “The Lonely Man of Faith.” Indeed, these lectures constitute an earlier iteration of ideas that were later developed in that landmark essay. Furthermore, lectures 1, 2, and 4 echo ideas from The Halakhic Mind and Halakhic Man about religion as a cognitive endeavor, about the relationship between religious and scientific thinking, and about using the halakhah as the primary source for developing a Jewish philosophy. Lectures 6 and 7 develop the themes of fate and destiny familiar to readers of “Kol Dodi Dofek.” The intertwining of these various motifs and ideas into one, sustained lecture series will also provide a new appreciation for the unity of the Rav’s thought, pointing to connections between works that may have previously been considered unrelated to one another.

A version of these lectures has been available on the Internet for some time under the title “Religious Definitions of Man and His Social Institutions” (RDM). Those recordings, however, are fractured. The files do not correspond neatly to seven lectures, with one lecture ending and a new one beginning mid-file in a manner not always obvious to the listener. Large gaps with missing content occur, the most significant being the omission of two-and-a-half lectures between the first and second files. Additionally, some have noticed that files 3 and 4 are in the wrong order.

The project presented here, in these remastered and edited recordings now retitled “A Jewish Philosophy of Man,” remedies many of these problems. The Toras HoRav Foundation provided us with several versions of recordings of these lectures that, like RDM, have some gaps, are sometimes in the wrong order, and do not always clearly indicate where one lecture ends and the next begins. However, these recordings contain the last half of lecture 1 as well as lectures 2 and 3 which were missing from the RDM version and which have been unavailable to the public until now. I also discovered that omissions in one version are often covered by another, and I was able to reconstruct complete lectures only by combining sections from the various versions. I spliced and remastered the files so that each now contains one complete lecture from start to finish as originally delivered by the Rav, with almost no gaps (although lecture 7 is still missing the opening segment). Not only are these lectures complete and correctly ordered, but we now know the exact time, date, and place each was delivered due to the memoranda preserved in the Toras HoRav Foundation’s archives. To further enhance the listening experience, I used digital tools to clarify the speech and reduce background noise wherever possible.

The resulting files allow the listener to experience the lecture series as the Rav originally delivered it. Unfortunately, although the memoranda indicate a total of 12 lectures, at this time I have only been able to find and reconstruct the first 8 of those lectures. Any information about the final 4 lectures would be appreciated, as I hope that the entire series will eventually come to light.

For each lecture, I provide a summary page and a full transcript, linked below. The summary pages also suggest where each lecture intersects with other works of the Rav, and they give timestamps to help locate subtopics within each lecture. These summaries and transcripts are meant to help the listener organize and master the lectures’ ideas and to facilitate study and research.

I originally became interested in restoring these lectures when I noticed some overlap between the RDM recordings and ideas I discuss in my doctoral dissertation on the Rav’s philosophy, “Reconstruction of Religious Experience from the Halakhah as Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Method of Jewish Philosophy” (Hebrew University, 2023). It is my hope that these lectures will be given attention by scholars of the Rav’s work, and will be studied by researchers, writers, and students of his thought for the insights they provide. For an example of how these lectures might enhance our understanding of one of the Rav’s most well-known essays, see my article, “The Lonely Man of Faith as Halakhic Philosophy” (TRADITION, Spring 2023).

I want to thank various individuals who had a hand in this project: Reuven Ziegler of the Toras HoRav Foundation helped me investigate the connection between the JOTS lectures and the RDM recordings, and provided me with the recordings and memoranda preserved by the Foundation. Doron Friedlander drafted an earlier transcript of the lectures which I occasionally consulted. My havruta, Carl Hochhauser, and I listened through the lectures together; our discussions of the content deepened my understanding. My son, Yacov Smilowitz, a sound engineer, provided assistance in improving the sound quality of the recordings. Jeffrey Saks, editor of TRADITION, helped to bring this project to light. TRADITION is grateful to Dr. Tovah Lichtenstein for her permission to share these materials with our readers and listeners.

Rabbi Soloveitchik’s “A Jewish Philosophy of Man” – Enter the Archives

Rabbi Dr. Mark Smilowitz has taught Judaic studies in schools and seminaries in the United States and Israel for over twenty years. He earned his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University for his work explaining Rabbi Soloveitchik’s approach to the relationship between halakhah and philosophy.