VIDEO: Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveitchik speaks about Passover
Soloveitchik, called The Rav by his students, is considered one of the most influential leaders of Modern Orthodoxy in 20th century America.
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Forverts Staff March 31, 2023
A new video recording of the late renowned figure Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveitchik speaking about Passover has been uploaded onto YouTube. He gave the sermon some time in the 1950s.
The video, “Writing a Story Upon a People”, is in Yiddish with English subtitles and was posted by Ohr Publishing.
Rabbi Soloveitchik, called “The Rav” by his students, is considered one of the most influential leaders of Modern Orthodoxy in 20th century America. Born into an illustrious rabbinical family in 1903 in Pruzhan, Poland, he immigrated to the United States in 1932, later to become Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox community of Boston, where he established the Maimonides School, the first Jewish day school in New England and one of the first institutions in which girls studied Talmud.
Although Soloveitchik spoke English, he preferred giving his sermons in Yiddish.
Among the points that the Rabbi makes are the following:
0:00– 6:32: The etymology of the word sipur
6:33 – 9:55: The Sefer Yetzirah and the creation of writing
9:56 – 21:15: Closing the generation gap
21:15 – 26:29: The burden of the prophet
26:30 – 28:34: The burden of the parent
28:35 – 33:47: The theme of the seder in B’nei Brak
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
