Chaim Soloveitchik
Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik (חיים סולובייצ'יק) (also known as Reb Chaim Brisker), (1853-July 30, 1918) was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the Brisk yeshivas and of an approach to Talmudic study within Judaism. He was from Brest, Belarus (Brisk in Yiddish), then in Imperial Russia, now in Belarus. A member of the Soloveitchik-family rabbinical dynasty, he is most commonly known as Reb Chaim Brisker ("Rabbi Chaim [from] Brisk").
He is considered the founder of the "Brisker method" (in Yiddish/Hebrew: Brisker derech), a method of highly exacting and analytical Talmudical study that focuses on precise definition/s and categorization/s of Jewish law as commanded in the Torah with particular emphasis on the legal writings of Maimonides.
His primary work was Chidushei Rebbe Chaim Halevi, a volume of insights on Maimonides' Mishnah Torah which often would suggest novel understandings of the Talmud as well. Based on his teachings and lectures, his students wrote down his insights on the Talmud known as Chiddushi HaGRaCh Al Shas. This book is known as "Reb Chaim's stencils" and contains analytical insights into Talmudical topics.
He had two famous sons, Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik (also known as Rabbi Velvel Soloveitchik) who subsequently moved to Israel and Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik who moved to the United States and subsequently served as a Rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva University in New York and who was in turn succeeded by his own son Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (1903-1993).
Quotes
- "If you intend to give a coin to the Jewish National Fund, give it to another idolatry, but not to the Zionists, since this idolatry is worse then any other."
- "The Jewish people have suffered many (spiritual) plagues -- the Sadducees, Karaites, Hellenisers, Shabtai Zevi, The Enlightenment, Reform and many others. But the strongest of them all is Zionism."