JOSEPH B. SOLOVEITCHIK was born in Russia in 1903 into a family of eminent Eastern European rabbis. Initially trained in the scholarship of the sacred texts of Judaism, he enrolled at twenty-two at the University of Berlin in order to study physics, mathematics, and philosophy. He wrote his dissertation on the philosopher Hermann Cohen. In 1932 he accepted the position of chief rabbi of Boston, where he has made his home since. In 1939 he founded the Maimonides School there. For years he commuted to New York City in order to teach at Yeshiva University, where his lectures gained renown for their probity and breadth. He has been regarded throughout the world as the leading authority on the meaning of the Jewish law and the leading intellectual figure in the effort to build bridges between Orthodox Judaism and the modern world.