Introduction

Abstract

The intellectual and spiritual lives of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik contain a series of seeming paradoxes. He was a great Torah giant whose views on Zionism did not accord with those of others of his stature; he was the great leader of modern Orthodoxy who saw himself mainly as a teacher, a melammed; his Torah presence in Israel was such that he was offered the position of Chief Rabbi, but he visited there only once, before the founding of the State; he was a virtuoso of Jewish philosophy who wished to be known principally through his talmudic teachings; and he was a prolific writer who did not publish many of his writings, due to the rigorous demands that he placed upon hitnself. Rav Soloveitchik did not subscribe to the remonstration of Rabbenu Bahya ibn Paquda, "do not be overly cautious of the need for caution."