Abstract

_ Source: _Volume 26, Issue 2, pp 212 - 232 R. Joseph Soloveitchik’s profound engagement with _The Guide of the Perplexed_ is amply attested by Lawrence Kaplan’s recent publication of Soloveitchik’s lectures on this classic work of Jewish philosophy, delivered in 1950–1951 during a year-long course on the _Guide_. Soloveitchik’s reading is situated outside the boundaries of the _Guide_’s usual interpretations, and his lectures offer an entirely new view of the essence of the _Guide_. For Maimonides, _hesed_, or loving-kindness, is the foundation of the world. Soloveitchik’s lectures offer an elaborate working out of this fundamental insight.