| Rabbi Nathan Tzvi Finkel (1849-1927), founder of the Slabodka Yeshiva in Lithuania, drew from the decades-old yeshiva and musar movements to create an institution that expressed the highest ideals of both traditions. Rabbi Finkel's pioneering moral and educational philosophy, Gadlut ha-adam, the greatness of humanity, sat at the core of this institution. To Rabbi Finkel, man's greatness is an objective, existential fact, predicated on his creation in God's image. He modeled this approach in his demeanor and conveyed it in his musar shmuessen (lectures) transcribed by his students. These shmuessen explore the implications of gadlut ha-adam for man's relationship with his fellow man, with God, and with himself, emphasizing such concepts as tolerance, repentance, kindness, joy, and failure.;Alumni of the Slabodka yeshiva significantly impacted twentieth-century Jewish culture and today Rabbi Finkel is recalled as a leader who molded students and subsequent educational institutions. In contrast and despite Rabbi Finkel's innovative educational philosophy, his lectures have not been widely studied. This dissertation explores Rabbi Finkel's teachings and presents large sections of his lectures in English for the first time. It also places the lectures in their philosophical context, exploring the antecedents of gadlut ha-adam as well as its contemporary expressions; in their literary context, by analyzing the rabbinic and medieval sources of the lectures; and in their historical context, by comparing Rabbi Finkel with both his immediate predecessors and his musar contemporaries. It also demonstrates how Rabbi Finkel's personal behavior, revealed in students' memoirs, conformed to the ideas he presented in his lectures. His use of traditional Jewish sources and formulation of gadlut ha-adam as an innovative philosophy created a unique yeshiva-student persona in its time and continues to affect the Jewish world today. |
