Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's Letters on Public Affairs

written corpus left by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik deals with ideas, as expressed in halakhic and philosophic writings and in public talks or lectures. Until recently, one might have thought that statement to be accurate and that no surviving writings reflected the Rav's private or public life. That remains the case for the most part when it comes to personal and biographical matters; except for his students' reminiscences, we still have only the occasional autobiographical fragment appearing in a eulogy or article. Such fragments can be found as well between the lines of his halakhic correspondence, most of it exchanged with his father, R. Moshe (published as Iggerot ha-Gerid HaLevi [Letters of the Gaon, Rabbi Joseph Dov), 5674-57011); they offer an occasional peek, subordinated to other matters, into his personality. As for the public sphere, we knew until now of only one article that dealt relatively broadly with inter-religious dialogue, and we could ascertain his positions on political and Zionist issues from his lectures. The publication in 2005 of Community, Covenant, and Commitment^ edited by R. Nathaniel Helfgot,2 has partly filled this gap, at least with respect to Rabbi Soloveitchik's public activities. We have here a collection