Few living scholars have exercised as much influence on the study of medieval Judaism as Haym Soloveitchik, himself the scion of a distinguished rabbinic dynasty who chose not to pursue the rabbinate, even as he acquired a reputation for immense talmudic erudition. Reviewing the recently published third volume of Soloveitchik’s collected essays, Alan Jotkowitz comments on his knack for characterizing the approach and style of the great European rabbis of the Middle Ages, taking as an example his analysis of Rabbi Avraham ben David of Posquières (1125-1198). This rabbi, usually referred to by the acronym Ra’avad, is best known for his sharply critical glosses to Moses Maimonides’ halakhic magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah, but Soloveitchik argues that his other work deserves greater consideration:
Why then was Ra’avad known primarily as a Maimonidean critic? Soloveitchik suggests it is due to the ill fate of living at the same time as Rashi. . . . He writes, “[Ra’avad’s] works, as I have noted, did not attain that scope or total cohesion which was Rashi’s when he consummated the work of centuries, nor did they approach that wondrous felicity of presentation which again was Rashi’s alone. Indeed, Ra’avad’s commentaries are singularly lacking in literary grace.”
In the writings of Professor Soloveitchik, [these figures] come alive as people. You almost get the sense that he knew them personally. For example, “Ra’avad was a loner’s loner. Whether he had some commentarial tradition we shall never know, because he basically declined to use it. . . . Ra’avad explored new continents and illuminated dark places. Like most explorers of wild lands, he was a man who was wont to stride alone, and if someone collided with him on the way, he could get very irate.”
As for Rashi, “Many of the traits that we associate with Rashi—reticence, modesty, temperateness of expression—are common to the literature of the 11th century.” Where did Soloveitchik’s impression of Rashi come from? In a note, he comments that “close to a decade’s work in the literature of the 11th century has given me the sustained impression that Rashi is unique in the near total cohesion of his thought and in the lucidity of his presentation but hardly atypical in character and general bearing.”
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