“droshe”

Texts & Translation

מועתק בלשונו הק׳

In His Holy Idiom

R. Aaron of Karlin

Translation by Joshua Schwartz

Article

Yokhed ve-tsiber: Individual Expression and Communal Responsibility in a Yiddish Droshe by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

Ariel Evan Mayse

Scholarship on Soloveitchik’s teachings has tended to focus exclusively on his Hebrew or English works rather than his Yiddish writings, but the present essay traces Soloveitchik’s style and exploring the nuances of intellectual legacy through the lens of an important Yiddish homily, a little-studied but critical essay called “Yokhed ve-tsiber” (“The Individual and the Collective”), an undated work was first delivered as a droshe (sermon) on his father’s yortsayt.

Texts & Translation

מיקווה און מיצווה

Mikvah and Mitzvah: Melancholia and the Spiritual Life

R. Aaron of Karlin

Translation by Ariel Evan Mayse and Daniel Reiser

A Hasidic homily from the eighteenth century by R. Aaron of Karlin. The message is simple and speaks to the heart of Hasidic thought: sadness may have some limited utility, but depression is always a destructive force that inhibits spiritual growth.