Book review: Divrei Halev – Words From The Heart – Thoughts of Rabbi Professor David Weiss

Written by American theologian Jonathan Edwards in 1741, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a sermon that was the catalyst for the First Great Awakening. Like other works by Edwards, it combines vivid imagery of the sinner’s everlasting torment in the burning fires of hell. With an emphasis on Satan, damnation, and the torments of hell, it was an extremely stern sermon that left listeners petrified and in tears.

If there were an anti-Edwards, it would be the late, great Talmudist Rabbi Dr. David Weiss Halivni. Rather than leaving his audience petrified and in tears, his approach was closer to that kol demama daka, the still, small voice, literally “the sound of a slender silence” (I Melachim 19:9–12).

Rav Halivni was a once-in-a-generation scholar, best known for his magnum opus Mekorot u’Mesorot, in which he analyzed Talmudic manuscripts in search of the original and authentic rendition of the text.

In Divrei Halev: Words From The Heart – Thoughts of Rabbi Professor David Weiss Halivni (Gefen Publishing) on the Weekly Torah Portion, his close student, Rabbi Ronald Price, shows that Rav Halivni was not just a master of the Talmud, but also of the Chumash.

This fantastic book is the result of the multi-year learning session between Price and Rav Halivni. Price shows how Rav Halivni’s approach to textual analysis was not limited to just the Talmud; he also extended it to the Chumash.

Modern drashot are often based on aggadah and build upon that. Rav Halivni believed that the peshat of a statement is closer to the author of the text, whether it is a rabbinic text or a divine biblical verse.

With that, he does not layer interpretations onto other midrashim, but takes the lessons directly from the verse. Rav Halivni’s approach, which is manifest throughout the book, is to begin with the peshat, discover an incongruity in the verse, and interpret it to reach a moral lesson.

Rav Halivni writes in Parashat Tsav that the purpose of Judaism is to sensitize human beings to God’s presence. If you watch videos of Rav Halivni, you will see this sensitivity manifest in him. Watching and hearing him, one is in the presence of a man of God.

The book is filled with fascinating insights into the human condition and how that is observable in various stories. An interesting example is in the story of Yosef and Potiphar’s wife. The focus of Yosef’s response was that Potiphar is not greater in the household than Yosef. Rav Halivni writes that it appears that Yosef’s chief concern was the trust Potiphar had put in him and the maintenance of that trust.

Rav Halivni comments that such an approach is surely commendable, but to a woman overtly interested in betraying her husband, it would not be a convincing argument. Had Yosef instead stood up and said that such an act was against the Torah of his ancestors and against God, knowing Egyptian reverence for ancestors and their own gods, Potiphar’s wife might have been less furious. And Yosef might have avoided imprisonment.

The clouds of glory were a physical manifestation of God’s presence on earth and also served to guide the nation in the desert. Rav Halivni writes that the “clouds of glory” in the modern age is our tradition. That tradition, though, does not hold us back from new adventures. It allows us to have those experiences constructively and gives direction, depth, and value to our path.

Rabbi Price has done a fantastic job in putting Rav Halivni’s thoughts into the written word. In Divrei Halev, the reader is given insights into the depth of Rav Halivni’s worldview and his unique approach to how to read the Chumash.