1 A Brief Biographical Sketch of Rav Ahron Halevi Soloveichik By Ben Zion Lazovsky June 2011 Rav Ahron Halevi

Soloveichik was born in Khaslavochy, Poland on May 1, 1917. His father, Rav Moshe Soloveichik was the son of Rav Chaim, known as Rav Chaim Brisker, a descendent of Rav Chayim Volozhiner. Rav Ahrons mother was Rebbetzin Pesha, daughter of Rav Eliyahu Feinstein, Rav of Pruzhin, and brother-in-law of Rav Dovid Feinstein, the father of Rav Moshe Feinstein. Rav Ahron was the youngest of five siblings who included his brothers Yosef Dov (Yoshe Ber in Yiddish) and Shmuel, and sisters Shulamith (Meiselman) and Anna (Gerber). When Rav Ahron was very young, his family moved to Warsaw, where his father gave shiurim at Tachkemoni school. When Rav Ahron was five years old, he was tested on his knowledge of the Shalsheles Hakaballah, the 40 generations through which the Torah was transmitted from Moshe Rabbeinu until the completion of the Gemara, as listed by the Rambam in his introduction to Mishna Torah. The Bochen was Rav Chayim Ozer Grodzenski, the Rav of Vilna. Rav Chayim Ozer was very impressed by the youngsters knowledge. By the age of 10, Rav Ahron wrote a chiddush Torah (which was posthumously published in Igros Hagrid). It was a letter to his brother Rav Yoshe Ber, who was studying at the University of Berlin, about Moshe Rabbeinu saving his fellow Jew by killing his mitzri attacker with the shem hameforash. (Just as Moshe Rabbeinu was concerned about this unknown Jew being attacked by the Egyptian, Rav Ahron throughout his entire life, had a very pronounced and apparent sensitivity to anyone in need Jew or non-Jew.) When Rav Ahron was 12 years old, his father went to America to assume the position of Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan (YRYE) in New York City. His parents hired Rav Yitzchak Hutner, 10 years Rav Ahrons senior, to learn with Rav Ahron. His payment was a room with a desk. (Rav Ahron and Rav Hutner would maintain an interesting relationship until the latters petirah. When Rav Hutner he was on a plane hijacked by terrorists in 1970, Rav Ahron worked feverishly to obtain Rav Hutners release.) Rav Ahron composed a chiddush torah for his bar mitzvah, which he celebrated while his father was in New York. Rav Hutner was so impressed with the chiddush that he told every person in the room that Rav Ahron wrote it himself, knowing that most people would assume that such an outstanding chiddush could not be composed by a bar mitzvah boy. A few months later, when Rav Ahrons family was about to travel to America to reunite with their father, his mother Rebbetzin Pesha took him to many cities in Europe to visit relatives. When they were visited Brisk, Rav Ahrons uncle Rav Velvel cancelled shiur for the day to talk with his 13-year-old nephew. When Rav Ahron told him his chiddush Torah from his Bar Mitzvah, Rav Velvel sad that his father Rav Chayim gave the same explanation in a shiur at Volozhin. Vayigdal Ahron, he already was forging his own link onto the chain of the Mesorah. In 1930, at the age of 13, Rav Ahron entered his father's shiur at YRYE. He learned English from Rav Avigdor Miller, who taught English in the high school at that time. He obtained a college degree and attended law school at NYU. Rav Ahron never worked as a lawyer and he never used his law degree.

2 Later in life he recommended to his sons not to major in philosophy or to go to law school, so why did he himself go to law school? Apparently, Rav Ahron attended law school at the suggestion of his greatgreat uncle, Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan, the youngest son of the Netziv. Even though he was generationally several generations older than Rav Ahron, he was in fact the age of an elderly uncle to his nephew. Rav Bar-Ilan was, at the time, the leading religious leader involved politically in the creation of a Jewish state in British-controlled Palestine. He had a goal to found an institute whose purpose would be to study halacha and civil law, which would assist in shaping Israeli law to be conformant with halacha. He wanted his nephew to head this institution, and for this reason Rav Ahron attended law school. Rav Ahron received Semicha from his cousin Rav Moshe Feinstein during the Aseres Yemay Teshuva 5703 (1942). Rav Moshe Feinstein appointed Rav Ahron to give the shiur directly under his at Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim. When Rav Ahron left Tiferes Yerushalayim a few years later, Rav Moshe cried and said No one can explain a Rambam Like Rav Ahron! That was how the great Gaon and posek Rav Moshe Feinstein described his thirty-year-old cousin. Rav Ahron and Rebbetzin Ella were married in 1948. Rav Chayim Heller, an outstanding talmid chacham and scholar (his expertise in Arabic allowed him to re-translate the Rambams Sefer Hamitzvos) was the mesader kiddushin. Instead of giving a dvar Torah at the chossons tish before the chuppa, in those days the dvar torah was given after the seudah. Rav Ahron gave a shiur about kedushas Eretz Yisrael. The shiur went on so long that the workers tried to stack the chairs to get Rav Ahron to end! Ella Shurins family came to New York via Palestine, originally from Ritiva, Lithuania. Her father, Rav Moshe Shurin, went to New York in the late 1920s to be a Rosh Yeshiva, and his family remained in Ritiva. When he returned to Lithuania after a couple of years in America, he saw that the anti-Semitism was worse than ever. He tried to convince the townspeople that they had to leave because their lives were in danger. They didn't listen to him. But his family left Ritiva and went to Eretz Yisrael, to Petach Tikva. (Rav Moshes sons went around Eretz Yisrael to the great Torah luminaries at the time, including Rav Yitzchak Issac Herzog, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, and others and received semicha from them). Eventually the Shurin family moved to New York. Rav Ahron left Tiferes Yerushalyim in 1947 because Rav Hutner asked him to give shiur at Yeshivas Chayim Berlin, where Rav Hutner was Rosh HaYeshiva. At that time, Chayim Berlin was the premier yeshiva in the United States. A significant number of American-born talmidei chachamim and prominent public figures were talmidim of Rav Ahron at Chayim Berlin. When Rav Ahron first came to Chayim Berlin, Rav Hutner led Rav Ahron to his own seat in the Beis Midrash, and said This is your Beis Midrash. He put Rav Ahron in charge and gave him the top shiur. Rav Ahron's hasmadah was legendary. He used to learn on the subway on his way to Chayim Berlin, and was frequently missing his stop. To remedy this, his students would go to the subway stop to make sure he got off at the proper stop. The students at Chayim Berlin also said that Rav Ahron knew the entire Shita Mekubetzes by heart. As a test, each day a talmid would look over the Shita Mekubetzes on a particular sugya and then would ask him about it. Rav Ahron always knew all the shitos in the Shita Mekubetzes. The Talmidim said that Rav Ahron would just sit and learn the entire day without moving; that was the level of his concentration. Years later in Skokie, Rabbi Meyer Juzint, a Holocaust survivor who had learned in Slaboka before the war and later was a Rebbi at HTC, mentioned that he watched Rav Ahron the entire Shavuos night, and he only moved once. Other than that, Rav Ahron was in completely engrossed in his learning.

In 1960 Rav Ahron's brother Rav Yoshe Ber fell ill. Rav Ahron went to YRYE to be a Rosh Yeshiva and take over his brothers shiur. After Rav Yoshe Ber recovered, Rav Ahron continued to give shiur at YRYE. While there, he began giving Thursday afternoon Hashkafa shiurim. At a Hashkafa shiur, Rav Ahron would transmit the fire of Har Sinai: the lessons and attitudes of the Torah. Sometimes a Hashkafa shiur would begin with a discussion of the the Parsha and from there Rav Ahron would discuss current events, their moral implications in his own opinions about them. Rav Ahron was such a popular teacher, that he was the first Rebbi to receive an award given to an outstanding faculty member. This award had always been given to a teacher of secular studies. Also in the 1960s, Rav Ahron succeeded his brother as Rav of the Moriya shul in Manhattan. At the same time that Rav Ahron was so successfully transmitting the Mesorah of the Torah of Brisk, he was successfully transmitting the Mesorah of Chesed of Brisk personified by his legendary zaide Rav Chayim: he was without peer in the care and regard he showed everyone. There are many stories when Rav Ahron showed unbelievable humility and did mundane tasks for students even though he could have easily delegated them to someone else. For example, one day he brought a lunch to a boy. The boy's mother was concerned that her son forgot his lunch and Rav Ahron walked several blocks to that boys classroom to give him his lunch. Another boy, now a Rosh Yeshiva, noticed the young Rebbi with a short red beard learning in the library every morning and decided to ask him to watch his briefcase while he played basketball. Rav Ahron accepted upon himself all the responsibilities of a Shomer Chinam, including teaching the boy all about the laws of shomrim. This continued for a few days until Rav Dovid Lifschitz yelled at the boy for making Rav Ahron his slave. Decades later in Chicago, early one Shabbos morning Rav Ahron saw a special needs child wandering around the neighborhood alone. Rav Ahron recognized the boy and walked him home, where he found the door unlocked, and played with the boy. When the boys parents woke up and found that Rav Ahron was playing with their son instead of davening at the yeshiva. It never dawned on Rav Ahron to send a talmid from the Yeshiva to take this boy home. He always did it himself. Also in Chicago there was a talmid who was having trouble understanding the shiur. Rav Ahron had the talmid come to his home in the afternoon when no one was around and tutored him privately to help him understand the shiur. Rav Ahron's family never knew about this until that talmid told one of Rav Ahrons sons about it after Rav Ahron's petira. Neither was Rav Ahron's kindness and generosity limited to his students or people he knew. Rav Ahron's life might be distilled into this one idea: living al Kiddush Hashem. When the Rambam discusses in Hilchos Yesoday HaTorah the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem, he says that if one is confronted with an ultimatum to commit an aveirah or be killed, he should commit the aveirah. Only if the aveirah is avoda zara, arayos or murder must one forfeit his own life not to violate the aveirah. Why doesnt the Rambam talk about the times one must give up his life before talking about the times he does not give up his life? The answer, explained Rav Ahron, is that the purpose of life is not to die al Kiddush Hashem, it is to live al Kiddush Hashem. Therefore the Rambam begins by mentioning times that you must violate an aveira to remain alive. And this lesson of living al Kiddush Hashem was successfully transmitted not just to his talmidim, but to all who saw him. Sometime in the 1940s or early 50s, a mentally ill woman threw herself on the tracks in the subway. Rav Ahron picked her up because he cared about her well-being. A non-Jewish priest who witnessed this scene asked Rav Ahron What is your name? I have never met anyone as special as you. Even the flight attendants who saw Rav Ahron felt special to be associated with him. Why was Rav Ahron able to impact so many people?

4 Because he was a genuine person, tocho keboro. Rav Ahron's kindness and generosity werent limited to his students or to people he knew, but to all those in need. Rav Ahron was a very devoted and caring father and uncle. While still a bachelor, his nieces and nephew would eagerly await the Uncle Ahrons visits because he would take them to a park to play. Another nephew recounted how Rav Ahron took him to a theater, and Rav Ahron was learning the whole time using the aisle lights on the floor to illuminate the Gemara. He always helped his children with their homework, both in limudei kodesh and limudei chol. One summer, when Rav Ahron was learning chumash with his sons, many dozens of people would listen in, and it, in effect, became a shiur for many people. By the mid-1960s, Rav Ahron had already made a significant impact on contemporary Jewish life. Several years previously, Streits Matzos approached Rav Yoshe Ber asking him to give hashgacha to their matzos. He declined, and suggested they ask his brother Rav Ahron. Despite his youth, they offered him the hashgacha, and he accepted it and gave it for the rest of his life, after which his son Rav Moshe succeeded him. Rav Ahron felt that machine Matzos were preferable to handmade Matzos, because the machine mixing reduced the chance that any part of the dough would be poorly mixed and thus be chamtez. He explained his reasoning, based on his understanding of the Rishonim, to Rav Aharon Kotler, and Rav Aharon Kotler agreed with him. Rav Ahron was very active in reviving the observance of kemach yoshon in America. The US used to have several years worth of wheat in storage, so any wheat that we bought was assumed to be yoshon for reasons mentioned by the poskim. However in the 1950s the US began shipping grain to the Soviet Union. Because of that, the stockpiles of wheat were much smaller and of more recent harvest thus the grain was from the new (chodosh) harvest, not from the old (yoshon) harvest. Rav Ahron brought awareness about the issue of yoshon and several bakers made sure to only use flour from Kemach Yoshon. Rav Ahron was also renown for his familiarity with modern issues. A posek from the previous generation, Rav Moshe Tomashuv, sent all shailos involving modern machinery to Rav Ahron. When Rav Ahron protested that he was too young to pasken those shailos, Rav Tomashuv told him because of his unique abilities, he had a responsibility to pasken those shailos. By that time, the war in Vietnam was in its early stages. Rav Ahron was vehemently opposed to it. Rav Ahron was not a pacifist, as was clear from his position on the State of Israel's requirement to defend itself. However he felt that certain actions were being undertaken against the Vietnamese people because of their ethnicity. Rav Ahrons kavod habriyos was extraordinary. As one talmid put it, no other Rosh Yeshiva knew what Biafra was (it was a country in Africa that was suffering through civil war and famine), but Rav Ahron didnt just know about it, he followed the situation closely, and encouraged giving aid to its suffering people. Rav Ahron published articles on such contemporary issues as Civil Rights, the Role of the Woman in Halacha, and Torah Tzniyut versus New Morailty and Drugs, and more. After the 1967 Six Day War, Rav Ahron was vociferous in declaring that Israel must keep every inch of land it captured. To give any of it back was to capitulate to the terrorists which would have put more Jews in danger, which was unacceptable in his eyes. Of course, Rav Ahron also gave public shiurim and wrote articles about the establishment of the State of Israel, even as a non-Halachik country, the Holocaust, and Yom Hashoah. (Rav Ahron did not join organizations. Like his grandfather Rav Chayim he felt that being a member of an organization restricted his ability to help people who most needed to be helped. In fact Rav Ahron explained pasuk (Yirmiya 9:25) vechol beis yisrael aralei leiv that while Yisrael is kosher, beis yisrael, the structures of organizations, are not always kosher.)

In the mid-1960s, Rav Ahron was approached to assume the position of Rosh HaYeshiva at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois. Ironically, that institution furnished the visa to Rav Ahrons brother Rav Yoshe Ber in the 1930s allowing him to leave Germany. They did not have enough money to pay him, so when he arrived in the United States he stayed on the East Coast, eventually settling in Boston. At that time HTC was in turmoil. Most of their musmachim accepted pulpits in shuls without mechitzas. Leaders of HTC had been put in cherem by the leading rabbonim of the generation such as Rav Moshe Feinstein for the impunity with which they discharged the former Rosh Hayeshiva, Rav Chayim Zimmerman (who was a talmid of Rav Ahrons father Rav Moshe at YRYE). Joining HTC was not an attractive option; however, Rav Yaakov Kamencki told Rav Ahron that while going to Skokie might not be the best thing for Rav Ahron, it was the best thing for the Torah. One of the conditions under which Rav Ahron would assume the position was for the Board of Directors to negotiate a settlement with Rav Zimmerman. That was accomplished, the cherem was removed, and Rav Ahron became Rosh Hayeshiva. An interesting aside: whenever he traveled to Chicago he went by plane. But when his family moved in the summer of 1966, they took the train. Why? His youngest child was only a few years old, a katan. Rav Ahron said that while there was a small risk in traveling by airplane it was mutar to fly. But he had no right to be mochel that danger for his minor son, so they traveled by train. Rav Ahron was not only a tremendous talmid chacham, he was also a posek. Every zman he would give shiurim in both Gemara and Yoreh Deah several times a week. A nephew, in brief divrei hesped, told how he asked Rav Ahron a shaiah about a get, and Rav Ahron gave him an answer. The nephew persisted: it is a practical question, not only a theoretical one, so Rav Ahron wrote a 50 page teshuva on the matter. Rav Ahron worked very hard to resolves issues of personal status. Rav Ahron also issued a psak allowing yichud between adopted children and parents. Rav Ahron was a genuine person who dealt with real people and issues that affected people. The issue of musmachim accepting pulpits in shuls without mechitzas was a significant problem for Rav Ahron at HTC, and led to serious disagreements with the Board of Directors and several faculty members, who supported musmachim accepting such positions. Rav Ahron refused to sign semichas of students who accepted such pulpits. He required the semicha students to sign an agreement that they would not accept a pulpit without a mechitza. If they broke their word, he would contact the synagogue and inform them that their new hire was not true to his word. Several times Rav Ahron found himself in shuls with less than satisfactory mechitzos. Once, he was stranded in Iowa for Shabbos. Before Shabbos, he noticed that there was no mechitza, so he fashioned one by tying a talis to a coat rack. The members of that shul were inspired by Rav Ahrons action to install a mechitza. Another time, Rav Ahron was with a talmid who was an educator in New England. The mechitza was not high enough (Rav Ahrons shita was that a mechitza has to be 10 tefachim high, which is shorter than Rav Moshe Feinsteins requirement). Rav Ahron built a platform under the mechitza to raise it to an acceptable height. Eventually, members of the HTC Board instructed the administration to physically lock the doors and not let Rav Ahron into any of the the HTC buildings. Undeterred, Rav Ahron gave shiur on the lawn of the HTC campus. Despite not receiving his salary, Rav Ahron remained loyal to his talmidim, not missing a shiur. In 1974, Rav Ahron founded Yeshivas Brisk of Chicago. It included a high school,

6 post high school yeshiva and semicha program, and a kollel. It obtained accreditation with surprising speed, and quickly became a makom Torah. Because of his keen sensitivity in knowing his talmidim and being able to be roeh es hanolad, he assigned responsibilities to many talmidim. Some were to give confidence to those boys. Some were to have the students use their skills and talents to benefit other people. One time, Rav Ahron assigned a boy to be a chavrusa with a blind boy. The boy was happy, he felt he wouldnt have to study too hard during seder with the blind boy. But the blind boy was very serious and instilled hasmadah into the other boy, who eventually became a Rav and understood the wisdom Rav Ahron had in assigning that chavrusa. At the beginning of choref zman 5743 (October 1982), there was a serious fire in the Yeshiva building. The campus had many classrooms, dormitories, laboratories, a gym and nice grounds, but after the fire the yeshiva had to move to a shul. The shul lacked the facilities that the Yeshiva needed such as sufficient classrooms and a dormitory. This negatively affected the student population of the Yeshiva. Half a year later, Rav Ahron suffered a debilitating stroke which paralyzed the entire left side of his body. In the year that followed, his sons Rav Moshe and Rav Eliyahu gave the Gemara and Yoreh Deah shiurim in his place. At the one-year anniversary of suffering the stroke, Rav Ahron gave a seudas hodaah and resumed giving both the Gemara and Yoreh Deah shiurim. Despite the stroke, Rav Ahron was undeterred and indefatigable in continuing his shiurim, counseling his talmidim, and in his involvement in public matters. (Rav Ahron continued to be very independent and did as much as he could by himself, despite his physical handicap. A talmid told friends at a Navardok yeshiva that watching Rav Ahron put on tefillin was more inspiring than their mussar seder.) In 1986, after his brother Rav Yoshe Ber was too frail to continue giving shiur at YRYE, Rav Ahron was asked to again serve as Rosh Yeshiva. With Torah to be taught, there was no other option for Rav Ahron but to commute every week to New York. Rav Ahron would leave Chicago every Tuesday morning and return every Thursday evening, which he did for the remainder of his life. He continued to give both Gemara and Yoreh Deah shiurim in Chicago during that time. The 1980s, despite Rav Ahron's significant health issues, saw Rav Ahron continuing to lead. He still did not shy from controversial issues when he felt that kavod haTorah was at stake. When the YU administration asked many of the Roshei Yeshiva to give shiurim or write articles on Torah UMadda, Rav Ahron gave a lengthy 2-part shiur. His presentation was very Torah-centric and very openly against the study of bible criticism. Additionally, Rav Ahron was critical of YU accepting federal funds for its affiliated Law School by recognizing, as an official school group, a homosexual club. He similarly opposed a group organized under a homosexual banner participating in a Yom Haatzmaut parade. In Israel, the issue of Who is a Jew came up again, as it had in the 1950s. Rav Ahron was unequivocal in declaring that only halachik Jews have the status of Jews, and there should be no stumbling blocks due to incorrectly identifying improperly converted people as Jews. Rav Eliezer Menachem Man Shach, as head of the Agudah coalition in the Knesset, tried to make a compromise with the Israeli government, creating a classification of cultural Jew. Rav Shach felt that such a classification would not cause problems of kidushas yisrael, but Rav Ahron strongly rejected it because he felt it would. There was no middle ground. Similarly, there was a dispute about mikvaos being used for non-halachik

7 conversions. Due to situations in Chicago and Toronto, Rav Ahron published an article strongly condemning the use of mikvaos for halachikly invalid conversions. Another contentious issue in the 1980s was building Eruvin in large cities. He felt that Manhattan was unquestionably a reshus harabim midioraissa and thus no Eruv could be built there. Rav Aharon Kotler had a very similar shita. He felt the same way about Chicago. Nevertheless, when students of Rav Shneur Kotler started a kollel in Chicago, several of the members helped lead a renewed push to build an Eruv in Chicago. When the group asked Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv for an approbation for the Eruv, he refused, saying that Rav Ahron Soloveichik was the Rav of Chicago and they had to follow his psak. (Despite this, an eruv was built in the early 1990s.) Rav Ahron continued to fight against the Land for Peace concept. Just as he argued after the 1967 war, Rav Ahron continued to strongly oppose Israel relinquishing any territory as part of a peace agreement, especially with the terrorist PLO, led by Yasser Arafat yemach shemo. Rav Ahron met with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993 regarding the Oslo agreement. He told the Prime Minister I am envious of your share in Olam Haba that you obtained by recapturing Yerushalayim in 1967. However you are giving it all up if you give land to the Palestinians. During a telephone conversation with former Chief Rabbi pleading with him to not let his political party, vote with Rabins coalition in approving the Oslo peace accords, the former Chief Rabbi hung up on him. A couple years later, Rav Ahron met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who was a descendent of the Vilna Gaon) and related the following story: after the Arab riots of 1929, a British governor wanted to meet with Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook. Rav Kook told him I cannot shake a hand that is stained with Jewish blood. You know about the risk of the Arab riots yet you did nothing to save the Jewish residents. Rav Ahron told Netanyahu do not shake the hand of Yasser Arafat. Refuse because his hand is stained with Jewish blood. Unfortunately, Netanyahu ceded control of Chevron to the PLO. Later, Rav Ahron would maintain a friendship with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. (Sharons father, Shmuel Sheinerman, was from Brisk; interestingly, former Prime Minister Menachem Begins father Binyamin was one of the communal leaders in Brisk at the time Rav Chayim was Rav of Brisk.) Another important public figure with whom Rav Ahron had significant contact was Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. A very serious matter about which Rav Ahron collaborated with Sen. Moynihan was in attempting to obtain the release of Jonathan Pollard from prison. Despite the earnest efforts of both men, they were not successful. Rav Ahron endured humiliation by the prison guards in North Carolina when he visited Pollard. The guards would not let him use his walker, and they also removed his suspenders, citing them as a potential weapon. Rav Ahron leaned against the wall to support himself to walk down a long corridor to visit Pollard. In 1992 he published his first sefer, an English work containing articles and transcriptions of shiurim on contemporary topics and holidays. A year later, another English sefer of his Hashkafa shiurim on Sifrei Bereishis and Shemos was published, followed by a sefer on inyanim in Hilchos Aveilus that he wrote in memory of his grandson Yisrael Yosef. Two volumes of his chiddushim arranged according to Rambam sifrei Mada and Ahava were published in the late 1990s. Two years before his petira, Rav Ahron resumed giving Hashkafa Shiurim at YRYE on Thursday afternoons (he had continuously given them every Friday in Chicago through all the years). I was told by one of the attendees that the room was so crowded to hear Rav Ahron, and the students were surprised

8 and inspired by Rav Ahrons grasp on current events and the Torah view towards them. They never before heard a rebbi address topics in such a way. In 2001 Rebbetzin Ella was battling cancer. Right before Tisha b'Av, she passed away. Rav Ahron was deeply hurt by her passing. He said that he felt like half a neshama. A few short months later during Chol Hamoed Sukkos, Rav Ahron was niftar. Hundreds of his talmidim wept not only for their rebbi, but for a father figure.