Tradition Podcast

A Lecture Series by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Lecture 8: Delivered February 26, 1959 Jewish loneliness should be transformed into the kind of prophetic solitude that embraces the uniqueness of Jewish destiny. Jewish uniqueness is expressed by the covenant. Just as the prophets felt compelled to relay their message despite the burden involved, even to the degree that they would be harmed for doing so, we too must accept our covenant on that level of commitment, as something we are compelled to do and cannot cast off. What is the content of this covenant? God established two covenants. At the Exodus from Egypt, He calls the people an am, implying the togetherness and unity of peoplehood. At Sinai, with the giving of the Torah, He calls them a goy, referring to a political nation. These are the two covenants, but the focus of this lecture is the Egyptian covenant. Am refers to an existential community. Because it involves God, it commits the numinous side of man, compelling Man to draw himself out from his seclusion to join other people, even people he doesn’t like, in this community of I, thou, and He, i.e., God. In practical terms, the covenant of Egypt creates a community of shared history, but also of shared experiences on three levels: 1. shared interests, 2. shared feelings or emotions, and 3. shared responsibilities. 1. Shared interests mean that all Jews share the same fate and no one can escape it, and even assimilation does not help. 2. Shared emotional involvement means that we must feel compassion and co-suffering with others of the community, as well as joy with others of the community. 3. Shared responsibilities mean, first, that we are morally accountable to one another. We must answer for the conduct of our brother to a degree that no other nation must.  We share collective liability in the eyes of non-Jewish society, and also in the eyes of the Torah. The mitzvah of sanctifying God’s name and the prohibition of profaning God’s name are based on this community of collective responsibility and liability. So is the prohibition of squealing. Secondly, besides moral accountability for one another, shared responsibilities refer to a unique sense of justice, according to which we are accountable by law to support one another. This is the mitzvah and halakhah of tzedakah, which, unlike charity, can be compelled by authority. Tzedakah is not a moral but a juridic requirement. Tzedakah is the halakhic expression of the existential community of am. Jump to: 00:01:17 Prophecy and prophetic solitude as a burden 00:15:35 The two covenants, at the Exodus and at Sinai 00:25:15 The existential community 00:40:12 Community of shared interests 01:01:41 Community of shared emotional involvement 01:03:20 Community of shared responsibilities 01:30:37 Tzedakah as justice Access lecture summaries and course materials at www.TraditionOnline.org/JPM   The post A Jewish Philosophy of Man (E8): The Content of the Covenant of Egypt – The Jewish Existential Community appeared first on Tradition Online.

A Lecture Series by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Lecture 7: Delivered February 12, 1959 Different people experience loneliness and aloneness differently. Some people are so preoccupied with how they impress others, with their public persona, that they lack rootedness in their own, private world. When society loses interest in such people, the resulting loneliness becomes a kind of torture, infused with despair and defeat. On the other hand, there are other people who never forget their own, private, numinous world, even as they remain committed to and even sacrifice for the outside world. If rejected by the crowd, this person remains secure in his or her unique self, confident in the special, singular message that only he or she can bring to the world. This is not loneliness but the great experience of aloneness, or what may be called prophetic loneliness. Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and all prophets experienced this aloneness, when the crowd was unwilling to receive their unique message. While loneliness for the first kind of person is paralyzing, prophetic solitude drives creativity. The prophet does not withdraw from society, but all while engaging with and giving to society he paradoxically distances himself from society, remaining in a world for himself. This dichotomy is reflected in Abraham’s description of himself as a resident and a stranger. The two kinds of people, the lonely and the alone, are manifested in two aspects of our lives, fate and destiny. When man confronts a world unsympathetic to his quest for meaningfulness and accepts defeat, that is fate. When man, in the face of such adversity, refuses to yield and asserts his own creative vision, that is destiny. We all inevitably oscillate dialectically between the two. When one measures self-esteem by accomplishment and conquest, that is majesty, but if, facing defeat, one returns to live within oneself, then majesty turns into dignity. The solution to the problem of Jewish loneliness, of the alienation of the Jew from society, is to make this transition from loneliness to prophetic solitude. The modern Jewish State is not the solution to our loneliness. In fact, it increased the loneliness of the Jew. If the Jew would cultivate dignity instead of majesty, would stop craving praise and acceptance from others and embrace his own unique destiny, many of his problems would be solved. This means changing from ivri to Yisrael, from fate to destiny. How is this Jewish uniqueness characterized? We are a covenantal community, a community of the committed, bound by obligations taken on at the dawn of our history. Jump to: 00:01:16 Different kinds of people experiencing loneliness and aloneness differently 00:17:39 Prophetic loneliness 00:37:59 Fate and destiny 01:02:40 Majesty and dignity 01:12:18 The problem and solution of the alienation of the Jew from society Access lecture summaries and course materials at www.TraditionOnline.org/JPM The post A Jewish Philosophy of Man (e7): Prophetic Loneliness as the Solution to the Problem of Jewish Loneliness appeared first on Tradition Online.