הרב יצחק זאב סולובייצ'יק

Rav Yitzchak Zev HaLevi Soloveitchik (20 Tishrei 5647/1886–9 Tishrei 5720/1959), the Brisker Rov — known in the yeshiva world as the Griz, and lovingly as Rav Velvel — was rav of Brisk and rebuilt the yeshiva of Brisk in Yerushalayim. He was born in Volozhin to Rav Chaim Soloveitchik and to Lipsha, daughter of Rav Refael Shapiro, son-in-law of the Netziv, and shone as an ilui from childhood. When the czarist government closed the Volozhin yeshiva the family moved to Brisk. He married Alta Hendel, daughter of Rav Chaim Auerbach; during the First World War he was in Warsaw, where he was chosen to head Yeshivat Torat Chaim, and in 5678/1918, after his father’s petirah, he was raised to the rabbanut of Brisk. So sought were his shiurim there that Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, rosh yeshiva of Mir, sent his choicest talmidim to Brisk to hear them.

The Second World War found him in Krynica, and he never saw Brisk again. In Soviet-held Vilna the “kibbutz” of select talmidim gathered around him — Rav Dovid Povarsky among them — and in 5701/1941 he reached Yerushalayim, his rebbetzin and three of his children having been murdered in the churban of Europe. From 5705/1945 he said shiur in his home to his sons and a small circle of chosen talmidim, and around that room the Brisk yeshiva of Yerushalayim grew. From his shiurim in Brisk, Vilna, and Yerushalayim came, among others, Rav Aryeh Leib Malin, Rav Yechiel Michel Feinstein — afterward his son-in-law — Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach, Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro of Be’er Yaakov, and Rav Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht of Kerem B’Yavneh.

His derech was his father’s: cutting the sugya to its yesodot and drawing everything from the exact shoresh of the din. He was famed for his chumrot and for striving to satisfy every shita in a machloket, and the Brisk yeshivot and kehillot keep his path to this day, in learning and in stringency alike. When he spoke in learning he would not quote by heart — he read every source from the sefer itself. He stood in firm opposition to Zionism and its institutions, though he saw in the victory of the War of Independence, against all reason, an open nes, and he opposed street demonstrations; toward individual rabbanim of the other camp he kept honor — he addressed Rav Kook as “pe’er hador,” called Rav Herzog a gaon and a tzaddik, and held Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap especially dear, visiting him when he fell ill.

His last years were burdened by lung illness, with stays in Switzerland as the guest of the nadvan Rav Wolf Rosengarten. He was niftar on erev Yom Kippur, 9 Tishrei 5720/1959; some twenty thousand accompanied him in Yerushalayim, without hespedim, to Har HaMenuchot. His chiddushim were printed as Chiddushei Maran Riz HaLevi on the Rambam and on the Torah, with further volumes on Yoma, Sukkah, and hilchot kiddush hachodesh, and much of his Torah lives on in the sefarim of his talmidim. His son Rav Yosef Dov (Berel) filled his place at the head of the yeshiva, and his son Rav Meshulam Dovid headed the Brisk yeshiva in Givat Moshe.