Some twenty years ago, the editors of Hamevaser, Yeshiva University's Torah student monthly, recognized the growing thirst for the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's teachings. In response, they published the original version of this conspectus, containing the first English version of the Rav's Hebrew and Yiddish discourses, with summaries of his shiurim and lectures. This volume substantially builds on that achievement, bringing together nineteen of the Rav's most illuminating works not published elsewhere. Subjects include "The Ten Commandments," "Adam and Eve," "The Unique Experience of Judaism," and "On the Love of Torah."

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik was not only one of the outstanding Talmudists and religious leaders of the 20th century, but also one of its most creative and seminal Jewish thinkers. This comprehensive study of Rabbi Soloveitchik's religious philosophy offers a broad perspective and balanced understanding of his work. By interpreting and analyzing both individual essays and overarching themes in an accessible and engaging manner, it uncovers the depth, majesty, and fascination of his thought.

"This first volume recounts the details of the lives of the Rav and his forebears. This volume and the next constitute a scholarly attempt to detail the quests and ideas of one of the major personalities of modern American Jewish Orthodoxy". -- Jacket.

An essential reference work for any thinking student of religion. Innovative and provocative, Evolving Halakhah affirms the system of traditional Jewish law, Halakhah, as a developing and moral structure, flexible enough to accommodate the changing realities of each generation. In this accessible analysis of Halakhah, Moshe Zemer issues a clarion call to follow the ancient and modern principles of evolving Halakhah, which demands ethical deeds, the discovery of holiness in the Commandments, a critical approach to the Tradition, and responsibility of the entire Community of Israel. These principles are viewed as the framework in which the other commandments are applied. To Jews who sometimes see no choices but those of fundamentalist rigidity on the one hand, or total rejection of tradition on the other, Zemer argues instead for awareness of the inherent flexibility of the halakhic system. Halakhah, he argues, has had many voices, and has changed to meet every generation’s needs. Equipped with this view, liberal Jews can reclaim their tradition from a conservative rabbinic establishment that all too often—especially in Israel—has seen the voice of strictness as more authentic than the voice of lovingkindness. The product of Zemer’s thirty-five years of work in the Israel Movement of Progressive Judaism, Evolving Halakhah includes chapters on matters ranging from personal status, especially marriage and conversion, through the “political” Halakhah of a response to the intifada. It shows that the traditional framework for understanding the Torah’s commandments can be the living heart of Jewish life for all Jews—including Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, and Modern Orthodox.

This collection is the first to offer a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue, a ten-film cycle of modern tales that touch on the ethical dilemmas of the Ten Commandments. The cycle’s deft handling of moral ambiguity and inventive technique established Kieślowski as a major international director. Kieślowski once said, “Both the deep believer and the habitual skeptic experience toothaches in exactly the same way.” Of Elephants and Toothaches takes seriously the range of thought, from theological to skeptical, condensed in the cycle’s quite human tales. Bringing together scholars of film, philosophy, literature, and several religions, the volume ranges from individual responsibility, to religion in modernity, to familial bonds, to human desire and material greed. It explores Kieślowski’s cycle as it relentlessly solicits an ethical response that stimulates both inner disquiet and interpersonal dialogue.