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 new website, containing all of his media appearances, podcasts, and writing, can be found at meirsoloveichik.com.

The Best Books of 2023, Part II

Featuring fears, fates, burdens of power, memory wars, Sabbath days, Russian writers and timeless questions, years of upheaval, Japanese Jews, and more.

Dec. 21 2023 12:01AM

Podcast: Meir Soloveichik on What Jews Believe and Say about Martyrdom

A leading rabbi looks at the theological significance of the honorific given to a Jewish martyr, and explains how it differs from the typical honorific given to the Jewish dead.

Oct. 13 2023 12:01AM

Podcast: Meir Soloveichik on Ten Portraits of Jewish Statesmanship

The rabbi and podcast host stops by to talk about his new book, Providence and Power: Ten Portraits in Jewish Statesmanship.

July 14 2023 12:01AM

Podcast: Meir Soloveichik on Jerusalem's Enduring Symbols

The leading rabbi joins us to walk through the fascinating ways that Jews have related to Jerusalem, from the time of King David to today.

Sept. 9 2022 12:01AM

What the Right Still Has To Learn From Ronald Reagan

A 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.

July 18 2022 12:01AM

Rama Burshtein and Meir Soloveichik Talk "Fill the Void"

The Israeli director and the American rabbi team up to discuss her groundbreaking film about marriage and Jewish life.

Sept. 23 2021 1:02AM

Was Menachem Begin a Founder of Israel?

Israel’s sixth prime minister was a leader of consequence and achievement. But how does he relate to Israel’s origins?

July 22 2021 12:05AM

Loss, Discovery, and a Lost Discovery in "Reading Ruth"

Parent-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.

May 12 2021 12:01AM

Which Wines to Drink at the Seder This Year, and Why

Meir 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.

March 22 2021 12:01AM

What Jonathan Sacks Gave

Two 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.

Dec. 11 2020 2:01AM

Podcast: Reflections for the Days of Awe

This week, we dig through the archives to bring you excerpts from our best conversations on faith, mortality, tradition, obligation, and sin.

Sept. 25 2020 12:02AM

Podcast: Meir Soloveichik on the Genius of the Late Norman Lamm

A look at the legacy of the man who revitalized Modern Orthodoxy and who was perhaps “the greatest composer of sermons in the English-speaking rabbinic world.”

June 25 2020 12:02AM

Menachem Begin's Covenantal Zionism

What Begin’s 1972 elegy for the diaspora reveals about a worldview unique among Israel’s founders.

May 22 2020 12:01AM

A Tribute to Mosaic’s Founding Editor

Some of Mosaic’s regular writers reflect on Neal Kozodoy and his accomplishments.

April 7 2020 12:01AM

The Mysteries of the Sh'ma

It’s at once the most famous affirmation of Jewish belief—no other sentence in Judaism is more powerful—and the most misunderstood.

Feb. 11 2020 12:01AM

Podcast: Meir Soloveichik on the Purpose of Keeping Kosher (with Locusts)

The rabbi and public intellectual comes by our studio to discuss the meaning of kashrut, with the help of some unusual examples.

Sept. 5 2019 12:32AM

Rembrandt's Very Human, Very Accurate, Very Jewish (and Very Unclassical) David

Michelangelo’s universally admired depiction of one of history’s most famous Jews is not the least bit Jewish. Take, on the other hand, Rembrandt.

Dec. 20 2018 12:01AM

Rembrandt and What it Means to be Both a Stranger and a Neighbor in the World

In 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.

Sept. 7 2018 12:01AM

How Rembrandt Understood the Destruction of Jerusalem (and Poussin Didn't)

A tale of two paintings and one city.

July 12 2018 12:01AM

Rembrandt and the One Gentile Prophet in the Hebrew Bible

How does the great painter render the tale of Balaam and the ass?

June 28 2018 12:01AM

Rembrandt and the Dangers of Vision

To 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.

May 25 2018 12:01AM

The Ultimate Portrayal of the Ultimate Example of the Unhappy Family

What Rembrandt’s etching of Joseph and his family shows us about Judaism, and mankind.

Dec. 7 2017 12:01AM

Rembrandt's Jewish Vision

If 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.

Sept. 14 2017 12:01AM

"We Have Not Yet Appointed a Hebrew"

A leading historian of American Judaism discusses Abraham Lincoln’s fascination with the Jews—and Jews’ fascination with Lincoln.

July 7 2016 12:01AM

Rembrandt's Great Jewish Painting

Not 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.

June 10 2016 12:01AM

What's Missing from Jewish Conservatism?

The key to Jewish continuity lies in observance of Jewish law, a fact Jewish conservatives would do well to remember.

April 23 2015 12:01AM

Why Jews Used to Eat Dried Carob on Tu b'Shvat

Bokser smells like Limburger cheese. It’s also an embodiment of Jewish vitality and endurance.

Feb. 4 2015 12:01AM

Gil Marks and the Holy Stomach

An acclaimed food writer and culinary historian knew that to understand Jewish food was to understand Judaism itself.

Dec. 10 2014 12:01AM

The Temple Mount: In Whose Hands?

The reason Jews can’t pray at Judaism’s holiest site.

Nov. 12 2014 12:01AM

The Decalogue and the Identity of God

The Orthodox Jew discovers a fascinating intellectual anomaly: a non-rabbinic Jew who approaches the Bible with deep reverence.

June 19 2013 3:40PM

Locusts, Giraffes, and the Meaning of Kashrut

The most famous Jewish practice is really about love and national loyalty.

Jan. 15 2006 12:00AM