Background
R" Rabinowitz was the son of the rabbi of Isoblin in the Grodno district of Lithiuania.
R" Rabinowitz was the son of the rabbi of Isoblin in the Grodno district of Lithiuania.
He studied under some of the foremost Haredi leaders of the time such as R" Elchonon Wasserman and R" Shimon Shkop.
R" Rabinowitz moved to Israel shortly before the World World War II (1937) settling in Tel Aviv. There he directed the Ohel Yaakov Talmud Torah, the first Hareidi Talmud Torah in that city. In the aftermath of the war, R" Rabinowitz was very active on behalf of the immigrants in the transit camps.
Rabinowitz"s magnum opus is Daat Sofrim, a commentary on all of the Hebrew Bible.
There are several distinguishing features to this work. The first is his courageous attempt to de-emphasize the negative aspects of ancient Jewish life that appear in the Bible.
R" Rabinowitz in his role of "Defender of Israel" emphasizes that seen within the correct context, and with a proper understanding of the historical background, the negative stories are scarcely as bad as they appear. (See for example his explanation defining the differences between the story of the Levite concubine at Giveah and the story of Sodom) A second interesting feature are his (possibly the only Haredi) attempts to resolve some of the issues raised by Biblical criticism.
Thus he identifies the second part of the book of Isaiah as possibly being written by a different author based on an Oral tradition from Isaiah.
Rabinowitz, in his volume on history, ("From Nechemiah Until the Present") emphasizes that the study of history in and of itself is a waste of time. One must focus to a large degree on the moral lessons inherent in the In line with this each chapter is divided into two sections. The first section is a brief overview of the period under discussion.
The second is an in depth discussion, in question and answer form, on the difficult aspects of history.
Foreign example, he questions what lead the Jews to leave a relatively peaceful life in Iraq for the more difficult, anti-semitic countries in Europe. At all opportunities Rabinowitz demonstrate what he sees as the "hand of G-d" directing the course of history.