September 3, 2009
14th of Elul, 5769
This is an email announcement regarding the documentary film, Lonely Man of Faith: The Life and Legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
Welcome to everyone who joined this list since the last mailing.
There are two screenings coming up next month:
September 12 (24th night of Elul) at
9:15 PM:
Young Israel of Toco Hills, 2074 LaVista Rd. NE, Atlanta, GA. Rabbi Adam Starr will share some of Rabbi Soloveitcik's thoughts on
teshuvah (repentance) in preparation for the Selichot service, which will begin at midnight. $5 entry fee. For more information, contact
Eliana Leader at
yitocohills@gmail.com or 404-315-1417.
NOTE: The
September 12th
Denver Premiere at
BMH-BJ has been
postponed. I will let you know once they re-schedule for a later date.
I know many of you are eager to purchase the film on DVD and I continue to get regular requests both from individuals and organizations. I want to let you know that I'm working on finding a distributor as well as the more technical details. I hope to have an update for everyone fairly soon. In the meantime, I appreciate your continuing patience.
I'm sure many of you are aware that the Rav was
well known for an annual address he would give on the subject of
repentance and other related themes. With the High Holidays coming up, I wanted to again share some books featuring Rabbi Soloveitchik's teachings on this topics:
- First, there are the Machzorim (prayerbooks) for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, put out last year by the Orthodox Union. They are an excellent compedium of the Rav's writings on relevant themes, culled from a variety of sources. You can purchase the books from your local Judaica store or from Artscroll.com (here for Rosh Hashanah, here for Yom Kippur, and here for a two-volume set).
- The Rav's most famous work on the subject is On Repentance, edited by Pinchas Peli. That book covers most of the lectures delivered between 1962 - 1972.
- Before Hashem You Shall Be Purified, edited by Arnold Lustiger, is the sequel to On Repentance. It covers the lectures delivered between 1973 - 1980.
On July 26, there was a screening at
Congregation Shaaray Tefila.
Rabbi Rakeffet-Rothkoff, Senior Advisor on the film, spoke following the screening. The screening was well attended, with 250-300 people in attendance. Yussi Sonnenblick, who organized the evening wrote the following:
We filled up the shul and the people were spellbound (& totally quiet) for the
duration of the film (not an easy thing to accomplish in a shul!). Everyone found it fascinating, it was really very
well done, professional and very moving... Rabbi Rakeffet made a short intro and then
answered questions at the end (he was his usual fascinating and thoroughly entertaining self) and
overall it was a fabulous evening.
Last month, there was also a special screening for the staff and oldest campers at Camp Moshava Indian Orchard. Rabbi Binyamin Tabory spoke afterwards, sharing several anecdotes about the Rav, especially about his gemilut chesed (acts of loving-kindness).
Once again, I'd appreciate it if you could forward this email to anyone else who might be interested in this information. And here's a link to
the Facebook group for the film.
If you have an interesting experience or story connected to the film, please don't hesitate to share them with me. You can simply reply to this email (don't worry, it will only go to me).
Shanah Tovah U-Metukah (A Happy and Healthy New Year),
Ethan Isenberg