The Life of Rabbi Joseph Baer Soloveitchik

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Rabbi Joseph Baer Soloveitchik was born on February 27, 1903 (Judaica). He was born in Pruzhany, Poland. Poland was controlled by the Russian Empire during the time of Rav Soloveitchik (Wikipedia1). The rulers of Russia were the Czars. There was a lot of antisemitism in Russia at the time (Wikipedia1). From 1903-1906 there were many pogroms in Russia, 2000 were Jews killed and many more were wounded (Wikipedia1). There is evidence that the government actually stirred up these pogroms, and the police did nothing to stop them (Wikipedia1). Even though this was going on in certain cities in Russia, these pogroms did not affect the Soloveitchik family.
Soloveitchik came from rabbinical ancestry, dating back about 200 years (Judaica). His father, Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, was a descendant of a rabbinical family that traced back to Reb Chaim Volozhin, who was the leading disciple of the Vilna Gaon (Rothkoff). Reb Chaim Volozhin opened created the Ez Chaim Yeshiva in Volozhin in 1802 (Rothkoff). This school was the talmudic academy of the 19th century, until it was forced to be closed by the Russian government in 1892 (Rothkoff). This yeshiva is still a model for Lithuanian style yeshivas. Soloveitchik’s grandfather, Reb Chaim Soloveitchik was known as Reb Chaim Brisker because he was the rabbi of Brisk (Brest-Litovsk) (Rothkoff). He changed talmudic study with his introduction known as the “Brisker method” which emphasized on Rambam’s Mishneh Torah (Rothkoff). His great-grandfather was Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, otherwise known as the Beis HaLevi (Wikipedia2). Rabbi Soloveitchik’s mother, Pesia Feinstein, was the daughter of Rabbi Elijah Feinstein, who was the spiritual leader of Pruzhany and wrote “Halikhot Eliyahu” (Rothkoff). He was ...

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RakeffetRothkoff, Aaron, and Joseph Epstein. The Rav : the world of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Hoboken, N,J.: KTAV Publ. House, 1999. Print.
Golden and Sarna. "The American Jewish Experience in the Twentieth Century: Antisemitism and Assimilation, The Twentieth Century, Divining America: Religion in American History, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center." The American Jewish Experience in the Twentieth Century: Antisemitism and Assimilation, The Twentieth Century, Divining America: Religion in American History, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.

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