Observation ·
The Golden Age of American Jewry Hasn’t Ended. It May Have Just Begun
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikWhat Winston Churchill and Jerry Seinfeld can teach us about the challenges we face.
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Meir Soloveichik is the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel and the director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. His website, containing all of his media appearances, podcasts, and writing, can be found at meirsoloveichik.com.
Latest Content
Monthly Essay ·
Fear and Joy in Sepharad and Ashkenaz
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikWhat happens when an Ashkenazi rabbi leads a Sephardi synagogue during the Days of Awe? A profound encounter with new moods in Jewish life.
Observation ·
The Best Books of 2023, Part II
By Andrew Koss, Jonathan Silver, Rabbi Meir SoloveichikFeaturing fears, fates, burdens of power, memory wars, Sabbath days, Russian writers and timeless questions, years of upheaval, Japanese Jews, and more.
Observation ·
What the Right Still Has To Learn From Ronald Reagan
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikA new history of the American right seeks from the first page to alert the reader to what it is not about: the 40th president. But in the end conservatives can't escape Reagan—nor should they.
Observation ·
Rama Burshtein and Meir Soloveichik Talk “Fill the Void”
By Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Rama Burshtein, Jonathan SilverThe Israeli director and the American rabbi team up to discuss her groundbreaking film about marriage and Jewish life.
Observation ·
Was Menachem Begin a Founder of Israel?
By Martin Kramer, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Avi Shilon, Jonathan SilverIsrael's sixth prime minister was a leader of consequence and achievement. But how does he relate to Israel's origins?
Observation ·
Loss, Discovery, and a Lost Discovery in “Reading Ruth”
By Hillel Halkin, Rabbi Meir SoloveichikParent-child collaborations are rare enough in literary history. Grandparent-grandchild collaborations are unheard of, until the publication this spring of a new study of the book of Ruth.
Observation ·
Which Wines to Drink at the Seder This Year, and Why
By Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, David M. Weinberg, Joshua E. LondonMeir Soloveichik explains how the seder's four cups of wine elevate the holiday, while two enthusiasts recommend their favorite wines from the great regions of Jewish viticulture.
Observation ·
What Jonathan Sacks Gave
By Robert P. George, Rabbi Meir SoloveichikTwo friends, a leading Catholic thinker and a leading American rabbi, pay tribute to the late chief rabbi, and his legacy both here and in Europe.
Observation ·
Menachem Begin’s Covenantal Zionism
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikWhat Begin's 1972 elegy for the diaspora reveals about a worldview unique among Israel's founders.
Observation ·
A Tribute to Mosaic’s Founding Editor
By Eric Cohen, Dr. Ruth Wisse, Martin Kramer, Hillel Halkin, Rabbi Meir SoloveichikSome of Mosaic' s regular writers reflect on Neal Kozodoy and his accomplishments.
Observation ·
The Mysteries of the Sh’ma
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikIt's at once the most famous affirmation of Jewish belief—no other sentence in Judaism is more powerful—and the most misunderstood.
Observation ·
Rembrandt’s Very Human, Very Accurate, Very Jewish (and Very Unclassical) David
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikMichelangelo's universally admired depiction of one of history’s most famous Jews is not the least bit Jewish. Take, on the other hand, Rembrandt.
Observation ·
Rembrandt and What it Means to be Both a Stranger and a Neighbor in the World
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikIn his rendering of the banishment of Ishmael, the Torah reading for Rosh Hashanah, Rembrandt reminds us of the bond between Jews and humanity at large.
Observation ·
How Rembrandt Understood the Destruction of Jerusalem (and Poussin Didn’t)
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikA tale of two paintings and one city.
Observation ·
Rembrandt and the One Gentile Prophet in the Hebrew Bible
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikHow does the great painter render the tale of Balaam and the ass?
Observation ·
Rembrandt and the Dangers of Vision
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikTo perceive without seeing, and to utilize sight to sharpen rather than to detract from insight, is an essential Jewish task. This is the challenge that Rembrandt allows us to glimpse.
Observation ·
The Ultimate Portrayal of the Ultimate Example of the Unhappy Family
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikWhat Rembrandt's etching of Joseph and his family shows us about Judaism, and mankind.
Observation ·
Rembrandt’s Jewish Vision
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikIf Judaism’s idea of art is one that can truly represent our frail, fallible humanity, then Rembrandt, who captured faces "without any attempt to beautify them," is the artist for Jews.
Observation ·
“We Have Not Yet Appointed a Hebrew”
By Jonathan Sarna, Rabbi Meir SoloveichikA leading historian of American Judaism discusses Abraham Lincoln’s fascination with the Jews—and Jews’ fascination with Lincoln.
Observation ·
Rembrandt’s Great Jewish Painting
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikNot only strikingly beautiful, his painting of Moses holding the Ten Commandments also happens to be one of the most authentically Jewish works of art ever created.
Observation ·
Why Jews Used to Eat Dried Carob on Tu b’Shvat
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikBokser smells like Limburger cheese. It's also an embodiment of Jewish vitality and endurance.
Observation ·
Gil Marks and the Holy Stomach
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikAn acclaimed food writer and culinary historian knew that to understand Jewish food was to understand Judaism itself.
Observation ·
The Temple Mount: In Whose Hands?
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikThe reason Jews can't pray at Judaism's holiest site.
Observation ·
Locusts, Giraffes, and the Meaning of Kashrut
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikThe most famous Jewish practice is really about love and national loyalty.
