The Pillar of Volozhin: Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin and the World of Nineteenth Century Lithuanian Torah Scholarship [Hardcover]

The work of Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, the Neziv, ranks amongst the most often read rabbinic literature of the nineteenth century. His breadth of learning, unabashed creativity, and penchant for walking against the stream of the rabbinic commentarial establishment has made his commentaries a favorite amongst rabbinic scholars and scholars of rabbinics alike. Yet, to date, there has been no comprehensive and systematic attempt to place his intellectual oeuvre into its historical contextuntil now. In the Pillar of Volozhin, Gil Perl traces the influences which helped mold and shape the Nezivs thinking while also opening new doors into the world of early nineteenth-century Lithuanian Torah scholarship, an area heretofore almost completely untouched by academic research.Gil Perl (PhD Harvard University) is the Dean of the Margolin Hebrew Academy/Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, a Prek-12 private school serving the Jewish community of Memphis. He has earned rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University and sits on the editorial board of Ha-Yedion, RAVSAKs journal of Jewish education, as well as the advisory council of the Institute for University-School Partnership at Yeshiva University.Perls work reflects an intimate knowledge of the broad range of books printed in the nineteenth century by the Lithuanian circle of rabbinic scholars, and shows how those works reflect new interests and emphases in traditional Torah study. Through careful precise nuanced textual analysis, coupled with familiarity with the broad canvas of early modern rabbinic creativity and Lithuanian Haskalah, Perl elucidates, in particular, the originality and significance of nineteenth century Lithuanian midrash commentary and provides very important correctives to the work of scholars who have previously written on this subject. It is a major contribution to the field.No serious biography of Netziv exists; but Gil S. Perls The Pillar of Volozhin, a revision of the authors Harvard doctoral lS.