e-TiM: Online Program
e-TiM: Rav Soloveitchik’s Portrayal of the Avot

Rav Soloveitchik’s Portrayal of the Avot

Yocheved Friedman 

The Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik captivated audiences with his penetrating lectures on Chumash, offering not just textual analysis but profoundly human portraits of biblical figures. While Adam and Eve serve as philosophical archetypes in his thought, beginning with Avraham, the Avot emerge as vivid, complex personalities—so alive that they seem to step off the page and enter our world. This series will explore how this lifelike depiction is not merely a result of the Rav’s poetic imagination, but is deeply rooted in his understanding of Jewish time, Masorah, and the covenantal community. For the Rav, the Avot are not distant historical figures but living participants in the ongoing drama of Jewish destiny.