Rav Reuven Margolies’ Torah

Service Description

Rav Reuven Margolies (died 1971) was a brilliant talmid chacham who knew kol haTorah kulah. The 55 seforim he authored masterfully covered a breathtaking range of topics in Torah thought, philosophy, and halachah. Rav Margolies addressed and clarified some of the most difficult topics in Torah, and his seforim (— e.g., his peirush on Tractate Sanhedrin) are staples of any serious talmid chacham’s library. At the same time, he used his astonishing knowledge of Torah to compose works to defend the prestige and integrity of the Mesorah against the vicious attacks from the world of academia (— e.g., Bible criticism, which was at its most virulent and unrelenting in its attacks on the Torah, and which enjoyed unprecedented acceptance and popularity at the time he was writing). He seemed equally familiar with the style, jargon, and methodology of the Lithuanian Rosh Yeshivah and, l’havdil, the European university professor, and he marshaled every resource he possessed to affirm the Divine authorship of the Torah and the inviolate nature of the Mesorah. This course will introduce the student to Rav Margolies’ famous sefer, HaMikra v’haMesorah, in which he — in 24 essays — addresses some of the most famous, and vexing, questions regarding the transmission of the Written and Oral Torahs. In this work, Rav Margolies refutes some of the most famous claims of the Bible critics, reveals their methods to be flawed and subjective, and — in doing this — he also answers some of the most troubling questions about which every frum person has also wondered. Recordings will be available for this course. Dates (10 sessions): June 17, 24, July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, August 5, 12, 19