Messia errante e homo absconditus, L’eredità di Abramo in Joseph Soloveitchik

The biblical figure of Abraham plays a central role in the existential hermeneutics of Joseph Soloveitchik (Pružany, 1903-New York, 1993). Faced with the paradoxical experience of faith and history, he «transports himself, with all his thoughts, belief and traits» into the biblical character, giving the patriarchal narrative a new philosophical twist. In the light of Maimonides, Soloveitchik describes Abraham as the prototype of the roving skeptical believer endowed with a redemptive mission and portrays his ongoing hagira as a collective project of religious, social, and historical-messianic wandering. Besides, building on Hermann’s Cohen ethical messianism, Soloveitchik internalizes the Messianic idea and turns it into a human potential continuously unfolding in history and the covenantal community. Traces of such a hidden redemptive strength are also in his portrayal of Abraham as a model of sheliaḥ ha-Shem, God’s emissary, with which anyone can identify.