Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was a figure of historic proportions.

The Rav himself re­mained essentially a lonely figure, al­though he was surrounded by many loyal students and devoted associates.

His clefs were the pages of the Talmud. His quarter notes were the letters of the Torah. His melody was the Divine song embedded in the sheet music of Judaism.

My relation­ship with the Rav was also a dual one.

The heart of this bond between the revered scholar and his adopted city was a school.

I remember the first time I heard a shiur by the Rav. It was 1963 and the Rav was speaking on teshuvah. I was still only in high school, but I was completely enraptured and was determined to become his talmid.

It was not secular knowledge, encoun­tered in the University of Berlin, that caused Rav Soloveitchik such searing distress, but secular man, encountered in suburban–Jewish America.

What has the Rav bequeathed to Orthodox Jewish philosophy in the modern world? And what can Orthodox thinkers do to carry on his legacy?

The Rav passed through earth like a meteor, leaving us a radiant body of thought and life constituting a mighty demonstration of his faith in Orthodox Judaism and in the divinity of Torah.