«I have wandered from place to place»: Joseph Soloveitchik, nuovo Abramo errante e irrequieto?”

Different meanings of “wandering” were inextricably intertwined in the life and thought of Joseph Soloveitchik (Pružany, 1903-New York, 1993): the geographical, the cultural, and the existential. Soloveitchik bases his idea of “wandering” on the biblical figure of Abraham. Building on Maimonides’ Abraham, Soloveitchik adds to his character an existential-utopian dynamism. From an autobiographical standpoint, Abraham appears as a sort of alter ego, through whom Soloveitchik recalls his personal experience as a wanderer between Europe and the United States. Soloveitchik even goes further. Taking his cue from Maimonides’ and Buber’s prophetology, he depicts Abraham as the prototype of the skeptical believer and liberal educator fighting against the so-called “arrogant-tyrannical” society (by conveying new social ideals) and joining a «fluid, careless, roving nomad» humanity. Therefore, from an anthropological perspective, Abraham’s restless wandering is both a complaint about the existential crisis of American Jews and an ethical-political imperative to become a partner with God in the redemption of humankind.