Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik: "How negative events can cause new Opportunities"

B"H

It is anything but easy figuring out the Soloveitchik family. In order to get a picture, I have been collecting books, photos and plenty of articles. The strange thing is that modern Jewry and the national religious movement mainly concentrate on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (died in 1993). Don't get confused with the "Beit HaLevi" because here I am referring to the philosopher Joseph B. Soloveitchik.

Haredi Jewry often quotes the Brisker Rav as well as all the other Brisker Soloveitchiks. I am interested in both directions but do prefer the Brisker family tree.

As Yom Kippur is right ahead, I would like to share a Soloveitchik story about how we can learn from negative events.

As far as I know, the first Rabbi Soloveitchik mentioned was Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik who lived in the days of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. It was in Slobodka (Vilijampolė) / Lithuania where Reb Moshe was running a successful lumber business. He had inherited all his wealth from his parents but one day, he just lost the business and all his money. 

The Jews in town started speculating about why Rabbi Moshe had lost his business. How could it be that G - d took all the money from him leaving him a poor man ? Of course, people started guessing and some came to the conclusion that Rabbi Moshe may have not given enough Zedakah. However, there was no definitive answer, as we don't know G - d's thoughts and intentions.

After loosing his business, Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik didn't  really know what to do with himself and started learning at the local Beit Midrash. After some time had passed, he and other Jews noticed how talented he actually is with his Torah studies. He became an excellent scholar founding the great rabbinical Soloveitchik dynasty. 

If Rabbi Moshe hadn't lost his wealth, he would have carried on with his business without entering a Beit Midrash and discovering his real talent and task in life. Because he lost his business, he got the great opportunity of starting something new and even founded a rabbinic dynasty. 

From this we can learn that not everything negative happening to us should get us into depression. Sometimes we must loose somethin in order to find a new way in our life. We may be successful in one field and think that this is it. However, what if it turns out being a dead end and, in the end, we are left with nothing. Hopefully we get over it and start something new. Start a new life and suddenly we realize that loosing something valuable in the past wasn't the end of the world but a new opportunity for the future.


Later on, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin chose Rabbi Moshe's son, Rabbi Yosef Soloveitchik, to marry his daughter Rielka. The beginning of the Soloveitchik dynasty. 
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Source:

The Brisker Rav by Rabbi Shimon Yosef Meller

Rabbi Yosef Ber of Brisk on Simchat Torah

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Rabbi Yosef Ber of Brisk:

The phrase SIMCHAT TORAH literally means the joy of the Torah, to teach us that it isn't enough for us to be happy with the Torah, the Torah must be happy with us.

Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz on the Brisker Rav

Photo: Shtetl Links

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Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz (see photo) speaking to his students of the Knesset Beit Yitzchak Yeshiva in Kamenetz:

"Do you know why the Brisker Rav (Rabbi Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik), 1886 - 1959, has merited such greatness in Torah ? Every child in cheder (Torah institute for small children) knows that almost all Torah that exists in our times has its source in the forerunner of the modern - day yeshiva of Volozhin (in Lithuania). Every Torah center today owes its existence either directly or indirectly to it. This merit is due completely to the founder of the yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin.
Now, Rabbi Chaim asked of the Holy One, Blessed be He, that this merit stand in good stead for him, that his children and descendants should be extraordinary talmidei chachamim (wise students) and merit the crown of Torah. And the Holy One, Blessed be He, decided that indeed he deserved such a reward".

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Source:

"The Brisker Rav" 

by Rabbi Shimon Yosef Meller

Volume One 

Are we allowed to make Havdalah over electricity ?

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A Sephardi Rabbi on an Israeli haredi radio channel taught the following:

Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk (Brest - Litowsk), 1853 - 1918, kept the custom (Minhag) to make Havdalah over an electric light. One of the reasons was that he wanted to show the Reform movement that Judaism does accept modernity (new inventions). However, making Havdalah over a candle is a bigger Mitzvah.

Apparently Ashkenazim are allowed to make Havdalah over electricity but Sephardic Jews are halachically not allowed to do so.

Leading Rabbis on Israel's Independence

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The words of our sages:

Rabbi Avigdor Miller

"The State of Israel solves nothing. All 'problems' remain the same, and new ones are created: 1) The Arabian lands have been rendered uninhabitable for Jews; 2) constant wars with neighbors must be waged, incurring huge military expenditures and loss of many lives, in addition to constant peril; 3) it has exacerbated Jew-hatred in the nations, due to Arab influence and also to embroilment with the foreign policy of the nations; 4) and the proponents of the State of Israel attempt to kindle a fire under the Jews in all lands in order to make their position untenable so that they emigrate to augment the population of the new State." (Sing You Righteous, p. 25)

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn of Lubavitch

"I am against the proposed Jewish state. It would be a calamity for the Jews, and in a short time they will realize what a calamity it is."

Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik

"The Rambam says that Meshiach will bring the Jewish people out from under the rule of the nations. Whoever believes there can be a redemption from the rule of the nations without Meshiach, is lacking complete emunah in Meshiach." (Yalkut Divrei Torah)


"Reb Meir Soloveitchik related that the Brisker Rav once asked: Why is the wording of the last oath different from the first two? In the first two (Shir Hashirim 2:7 and 3:5) it says "If you arouse and if you awaken," and in the last one (8:4) it says "Why do you arouse and why do you awaken?" The answer is, he said, that the first two oaths are said to the Jewish people before they make any attempt to throw off the yoke of exile. "Do not do it..." for if you do it will be bitter. But Shlomo Hamelech foresaw in his ruach hakodesh that there would come a time when the Jews would indeed try to force the end. After they have already tried, and seen the bitter consequences ("I will permit your flesh") Hashem calls to them: Why do you continue in your folly of fighting with the nations? Don't you see what the results are? Why are you asking for more?" (Uvdos Vehanhagos Leveis Brisk, v. 4 p. 187)

Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik

"The Jewish people have suffered many plagues - the Sadducees, Karaites, Hellenisers, Shabbesai Zvi, Haskalah, Reform and many others. But the strongest of them all is Zionism." (Mishkenos Haro'im p. 269)

Rabbi Aharon Kotler

"Rabbi Wasserman, Rabbi Kotler, Rabbi Rottenberg from Antwerp, and the rabbis from Czechoslovakia and Hungary were unanimous in rejecting any proposal for a Jewish state on either side of the Jordan River, even if it were established as a religious state, because such a regime would be a form of heresy in our faith in the coming of Moshiach." (Hapardes, August 1937)

The Chazon Ish

On the fifth of Iyar in the last year of the Chazon Ish's life, he was honored to be sandek at three different brisin. Still, he requested that Tachanun be said, lest someone come later on and testify, "The Chazon Ish did not say Tachanun on the fifth of Iyar," without revealing the circumstances. He once said, "It would have been proper to declare the fifth of Iyar a public fast day." (Mishkenos Haro'im, p. 1196)

The Satmar Rebbe, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum

"If we were to put all the sins of this generation and all the transgressions committed in the entire world on one side of a scale, and the Zionist state on the other side, it would outweigh everything, for it is the poisonous source of the worst defilement, the worst cause of damage in the entire world, and they are ones who defiIe the entire world." (Vayoel Moshe, Introduction, p. 11)

The Chazon Ish

"Why do we mention the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt every day, but not the miracle of Purim? It was a very great miracle, in which the entire Jewish people was saved from death! The answer is that regarding the future redemption, Scripture states, "I have adjured you not to arouse or awaken the love before it is desired" (Shir Hashirim 2:7). We are forbidden under oath to force the hour, to make any effort toward the redemption and the coming of mashiach. This is why our Sages say that mashiach will come only when we take our minds off him (Sanhedrin 97a). This is the meaning of the verse, "I will show wonders like in the days when you went out of Egypt" (Michah 7:15): the future redemption will be similar to the Exodus, which happened when we took our minds off it· Israel did not force the hour, nor did they make any efforts toward the Exodus. They continued their labor and affliction until G-d sent Moshe, His chosen, to take them out. This is why we remember the Exodus every day, to teach that the future redemption
will be similar to the Exodus. Israel will not force the hour or take any physical action toward the redemption, but rather everything will be done on its own, an act of Heaven. In the miracle of Purim, on the other hand, Mordechai forced the hour by sending Esther to the king in violation of the law, thus endangering her life, although there were still many months left before the fulfillment of Haman's decree. Perhaps Jews would learn from this story that now as well, we must force the hour and take action to bring mashiach by force. Therefore, we do not mention the miracle of Purim daily."

Rav Chaim Elazar of Munkacz

"After the sin of the spies, Moshe told the Jewish people, 'Do not go up and do not fight.' But they went up anyhow, 'and the ark of the bris of Hashem and Moshe did not move from the camp.' This is a prophecy about our time: the Zionists go up to Eretz Yisroel with a strong hand to found colonies and fight with the gentiles. This is against the command of Hashem Yisborach, who warned against this way, and said it would be bitter in the end. But the ark and Moshe - the Torah, the Torah leaders, and the loyal Jews - did not move from the camp to join the Zionists. 'And they beat them and destroyed them until Chormah' - refers to the destruction and the killings we have seen in Jerusalem near the Kosel Hamaaravi (in 1929)." (Chaim Veshalom)

Eastern European Interests

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Despite that I was born in Germany, I have always been interested in Judaism taking place in Eastern Europe and not necessarily in Germany. When I read about the Holocaust or collect information on Rabbis and communities, it will mostly be Eastern Europe. I actually do have roots there, as my mother came from Poland.

I have been trying to give a wide overview on haredi society, Jewish history, (some) science and plenty of Chassidut in this blog but I cannot deny that many things haven't even been mentioned. This happened due to lack of time, as I have only two hands and need to work and sleep sometimes.

I want to try fixing certain lacks of information by putting a few short teachings or descriptions about further Rabbis / haredi directions into the blog. I am actually a little ashamed that I have never really mentioned the Chatam Sofer, the Soloveitchik Rabbis (including the Brisker movement), Rabbi Aryeh Levin, the Kook Rabbis as well as Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, the Abarbanel, Rabbi Elchanan Wassermann, the "Netziv" (Rabbi Berlin), Rabbi Zadok HaCohen of Lublin or Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. And those are only a few names on my list. Despite my chassidic preferences, I very much appreciate the teachings of the Litvishe (famous student of the Vilna Gaon), Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin.

We have a Brisker Synagogue in Jerusalem and I haven't even made it there once. Not yet. However, I am starting to put some information about different teachings into the blog and I will see whether I can put everything together as a whole.

A Brisker renting out his Home for Pessach

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Pessach Madness

A sarkastic joke about the Brisker Pessach preparations. Not only Brisk but more and more people just turn into a "kasher le'Pessach" madness.