For thousands of years, philosophers have pondered the question what it means to be human. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, known universally as "the Rav" --the rabbi par excellence-- answers the question in The Emergence of Ethical Man, edited by Michael Berger. Relying on both scientific research and classical Jewish sources, Soloveitchik explains how a thoroughly naturalistic setting could give birth to human personality -- and to Judaism's expectation of moral character and self-transcendence. The resulting religious anthropology is a startlingly fresh reading of the early chapters of Genesis, and highlights Judaism's distinctive view among those of other religious traditions.