חיים הלוי סולובייצ'יק

Rav Chaim HaLevi Soloveitchik (15 Adar II 5613/1853–21 Av 5678/1918), known to the Torah world as Reb Chaim Brisker, was the father of the Brisker derech of learning and among the greatest rabbanim of his generation. He was born in Volozhin, second son of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, then a maggid shiur in the Volozhin yeshiva, and his wife Tzirel; his boyhood learning was in Slutsk, where his father had gone to serve as rav — family tradition has him learning there at twelve under Rav Mendel of Slutsk. He married Lipsha, daughter of Rav Refael Shapiro, the son-in-law of the Netziv. In 5640/1880 he joined the Volozhin yeshiva, and at twenty-seven stood as second to the Netziv at its head; when the Russian government forced the yeshiva closed in 5652/1892, he succeeded his father as rav of Brisk.

The derech that bears his city’s name changed how the yeshiva world learns. Reb Chaim analyzed each sugya into its precise components — classically “two dinim” — and asked exact questions of definition: is a halachah said on the cheftza or on the gavra? The obligation to destroy chametz before Pesach, for instance — is it that the man not possess chametz, or that the chametz be destroyed — a distinction with real consequences for how the biur may be done. His analysis gave special weight to the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, resolving its difficulties through new understandings of the sugya itself. He committed little to writing: Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim HaLevi on the Rambam, which he himself reviewed and polished, appeared after his petirah, while other Torah of his, written down from memory by talmidim without his review, circulates as the Chiddushei HaGrach “stencils” on Shas.

As rav of Brisk he gave himself to the tzibbur and to chessed, his house open wide to the poor. He was famous for stringency in hilchot pikuach nefesh — and therefore for marked leniency toward the sick on fast days; when challenged that he was lenient in the dinim of fasts, he answered that he was stringent in the dinim of pikuach nefesh. He worked together with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Sholom Dov Ber, against the decrees of the czarist regime. Among his talmidim were Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz, author of the Birchat Shmuel; Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, author of Even HaAzel; Rav Shimon Shkop; and Rav Elchonon Wasserman. Of his sons, Rav Yitzchak Zev — Reb Velvel — succeeded him in Brisk, and Rav Moshe became a rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchonon in New York, where his own sons Rav Yosef Dov and Rav Aharon followed him. Reb Chaim was niftar in Otwock on 21 Av 5678/1918 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Warsaw, beside the Netziv.