The Maharal of Prague is a seminal figure in the world of Jewish thought, whose ideas have served as a springboard for many of the major currents of mussar, chassidus and machsheves Yisroel (Jewish thought). To this day, the Maharal’s teachings continue to play a role in our religious observances, the structure of our Torah and communal institutions -- even our thought processes -- in many overt as well as subtle ways.

In his writings the Maharal freely draws upon diverse aspects of Torah knowledge. The reader who concentrates on the unified thread of his presentation, as it traverses the Torah’s broad landscape to deftly establish a point, is afforded a rare glimpse at the potency of an all-encompassing mastery of Torah such as was possessed by the Maharal.

In Nesiv HaTorah, the first section of the Maharal’s classic work, Nesivos Olam, the Maharal, culling numerous sources in the Talmud and Midrash, deals with the profound relationship between the Jewish nation and the Torah, and elucidates the transcendental underpinnings of this relationship, as well as the obligations it imposes on each and every one of us as Jews.