Meir Soloveichik

A coin minted by Vespasian brings us back to a lost aspect of Judea—one which has now been reborn. Supplemental Materials: Click here to read Menachem Begin’s speech upon being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.  Click here to see the ruins of the Roman Temple of Peace. Click here to see one of Vespasian’s Judea Capta coins. Click here to read more about the resurrection of the date palm in Israel. Click here to see the ancient Jewish coin bearing the words “Israel Liberata.”

In the story of Jerusalem’s fall, there is a villain who must not be forgotten. Supplemental Materials: Click here to read more about Tiberius Alexander.

In the “Year of Four Emperors,” a great sage receives an audience with Vespasian and serves as the link between destruction and redemption.

The unity implied by the coins of Jewish Jerusalem is belied by the fracturing inside the city.

Why did the Jews of Jerusalem attempt to overthrow the Roman yoke, and who supported the endeavor?

Ancient tablets testify to Jewish endurance after Jerusalem’s destruction. Supplemental Materials: Click here to see an image of one of the Al-Yahudu tablets. Click here to read an article about the “By the Rivers of Babylon” exhibit, which featured the Al-Yahudu tablets.

We can touch the remnants of Jeremiah’s Jerusalem today. Supplemental Materials: Click to here to watch Rabbi Soloveichik’s conversation with Rep. Ritchie Torres. Click here to watch the City of David video about the destruction of the First Temple and its archaeological remains.  Click here to watch the video about the large royal structure discovered in the “Givati Parking Lot.” Click here to read the article about the archaeomagnetic techniques used to analyze the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. 

The failures of Jerusalem’s last Davidic king leave us with great lessons about leadership. Supplemental Materials: Click here to read the text of Winston Churchill’s speech protesting the Munich Agreement. 

Why did the prophet fail to convince Jerusalem of the coming disaster? Supplemental Materials: Click here to view Rembrandt’s “Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem.” Click here to view Jan Lievens’s “Job.”

A free, 6-part audio course Traditionally studied each week between Passover and Shavuot, Avot may be the most beloved tractate in the rabbinic cannon; but its purpose and teachings may also be misunderstood. In this new audio course from the Tikvah Fund, Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik provides learned insight into the unique lives and worldviews of the rabbinic sages featured in the tractate. He thereby shows how to understand Avot as what it really is: an intellectual history of Jewish minds that were often in debate, and who offered solutions to challenges in a post-Temple world that was in many ways not unlike our own. Episode 6: The incredible story of the “Oven of Akhnai,” so rich in drama and meaning, sheds light on a jarring feature of Avot: Rabbi Eliezer’s critical comment against the sages. In his final lecture, Rabbi Soloveichik connects the dots, bringing together the themes of the previous lectures and highlighting Judaism’s “symposium of the generations.”