But of course I am paraphrasing Solveichik. I met the Rov and I spoke to people who knew him much better, even his early students. The man had the worst social skills that one would expect from an odd genius in the midst of a grand cross cultural mix up. Some of his students still nurse the hurtful ridicule, the mean disdain of his teaching style reminiscent of the notorious European melamdim (this is basically a quote). So back to the loneliness, the social handicapped naturally not to be confused with the universal existential feeling of “the last man on earth”. It’s shared by every person of a minimal depth. But side from that Solveichik was surrounded by the like-minded community, even if they were not his match, they cared and honored him and even rewarded him financially. More importantly the Rov could lean on the centuries of like-minded thinkers.
Enter the Jews on the fringe. Not only there is a disdain from the community, often the lack of family support, but there there is no “institutional memory”. To be sure there been thousands of people who broke with the doctrinal Judaism before but the culture did its best to eradicate their memory, their books and their thoughts. I am amazed by the fact that the rejects have to blaze their own lonely path over and over again, where the trail have been already walked by the thousands. Some of the new blogs that pop up today are oblivious even to the work that was done on the forums less than ten years ago! The glorious literally legacy of maskillim, etc, erased from the cultural history. In short Soloveichik got nothing on that true loneliness.