The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament
The Bible, the Talmud,
and the New Testament
Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik’s Commentary to the Gospels
Edited, with an introduction and commentary, by Shaul Magid
Translated by Jordan Gayle Levy
Foreword by Peter Salovey
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
JEWISH CULTURE AND CONTEXTS
Published in association with the Herbert D. Katz Center
for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania
Series Editors: Shaul Magid, Francesca Trivellato, Steven Weitzman
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the Herbert D. Katz Publications Fund of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.
Copyright © 2019 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review
or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form
by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Solovaitsik, Eliyahu Tsevi, ha-Levi, author. | Magid, Shaul, 1958– editor, writer of added commentary. | Levy, Jordan Gayle, translator. | Salovey, Peter, writer of foreword. | Translation of: Solovaitsik, Eliyahu Tsevi, ha-Levi. Kol kore, o, ha-Talmud veha-Berit ha-hadashah. | Commentary on (work): Solovaitsik, Eliyahu Tsevi, ha-Levi. Kol kore, o, ha-Talmud veha-Berit ha-hadashah.
Title: The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament : Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik’s commentary to the Gospels / edited, with an introduction and commentary, by Shaul Magid ; translated by Jordan Gayle Levy ; foreword by Peter Salovey.
Other titles: Kol kore, o, ha-Talmud veha-Berit ha-hadashah. English | Commentary on (work): Bible. Matthew. | Commentary on (work): Bible. Mark. | Jewish culture and contexts.
Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019] | Series: Jewish culture and contexts | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018049427| ISBN 9780812250992 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 0812250990 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Matthew—Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish. | Bible. Mark—Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish. | Bible. New Testament—Relation to the Old Testament. | Rabbinical literature—Relation to the New Testament. | Judaism—Relations—Christianity. | Christianity and other religions—Judaism. | Solovaitsik, Eliyahu Tsevi, ha-Levi. Kol kore, o, ha-Talmud veha-Berit ha-hadashah.
Classification: LCC BS2575.53 .S6513 2019 | DDC 226/.206—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018049427
Frontispiece. Rabbi Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik. From Yahadut Lita: Temunot ve-Tsiyunim (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Kook, 1959). Courtesy of Menachem Butler.
To Annette
“There is always something limitless in desire.”
—Simone Weil
It is vain to think of the conversion of the Jews to Christianity before Christians themselves are converted to Judaism.
—Stanislaus Hoga
The emergence of Christianity belongs to the history of Judaism.
—Franz Delitzsch
Contents
Foreword, by Peter Salovey
Introduction: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik, the Jewish Jesus, Christianity, and the Jews
A Translator’s Foreword, by Jordan Gayle Levy
The Gospel According to Matthew, with Commentary
The Gospel According to Mark, with Commentary
Foreword
Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik’s maternal grandfather was Hayyim Volozhin, the disciple of the Vilna Gaon, who founded the great yeshiva in Volozhin. And his brother, Isaac Zev Soloveitchik, was the father of a rabbinical dynasty. That dynasty began with Isaac Zev’s son, Joseph Dov Soloveitchik (the Beit ha-Levi), who was the father of Hayyim Soloveitchik (the Brisker Rav), who was the father of the next Isaac Zev Soloveitchik (Velvele Brisker) and Moses Soloveitchik (a distinguished rabbi who emigrated from Volozhin to Khislavishi to Warsaw to New York, where he taught at Yeshiva University), who was the father of Joseph Dov Baer Soloveitchik (the Rav), late of Boston and New York, and one of the founding figures of what we now think of as Modern Orthodox Judaism. So that’s the side of the family that I think of as the “Volozhin-Brisk [Brest Litovsk] connection.”
But if we track Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik’s