Yahrzeit/Hillula of Rabbi Chaim HaLevi Soloveitchik

Rabbi Chaim HaLevi Soloveitchik - the renowned rabbi of Brisk (Brest-Litovsk), 1853-1918. An outstanding Talmudist, one of the greatest teachers and pillars of Torah in Eastern Europe. Son of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (1820-1892), also the Rabbi of Brisk, a gaon of his generation.

Like his father, he taught for several years at the famous Volozhin Yeshiva. He became renowned as an outstanding analytical scholar, who did much to spread knowledge of the Talmud among the Jewish people and raised a number of important students who later contributed to the development of yeshivas in the Holy Land. His manuscripts and lessons, recorded by his students, formed the well-known collection "Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim HaLevi."

Rabbi Chaim's son, Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik (1889-1959), continued his father's work, devoting his life to teaching Torah - first in Brisk, and later in Jerusalem.

His home was always full of people coming to him for advice, and some would even stay there for several days at a time. The doors of the house were never locked, and the oven in the kitchen was never allowed to go out. Many stories are told about this quality of the Brisker Rav. In all of them, he appears as a man concerned with concrete help, not with talk about it.

Sipurei Tzadik

With the outbreak of World War I, Brisk, a front-line city, filled with thousands of Jewish refugees who had been forced to leave their shtetls and towns. These people were left without shelter, without a penny, literally without a piece of bread.

The townspeople, under the leadership of their rabbi, helped the unfortunate refugees, but their strength was running out. A large meeting of rabbis was held to decide on the matter of raising money in America.

One of the learned men present rose and declared that the spiritual needs of the refugees also had to be addressed: "We are collecting money for bread. But has anyone thought about whether they even have a pair of tefillin?"