InTribute he Rav was born in Pruzhin, his head on the palms of his hands on twenty-three, the Rav left Warsaw to Poland, on February 27, 1903, into the table. The students and I, and even study philosophy at the University of Tone of the most learned and the Rambam, waited in great tension for Berlin. Moving from the Torah-cen- In commemoration of the renowned rabbinic families in Europe at my father’s words. But my father would tered culture of his childhood and his that time. The most telling and powerful raise his head and sadly state: “There is Rav’s one hundredth birthday description of his childhood is from an no answer. The words of the Rambam and tenth yahrtzeit. article the Rav wrote in the mid-1940s are difficult. No one is capable of resolv- As new issues (although it was not published until over ing these questions.” The shiur ended thirty years later). This description is not with no explanation. The students were arise, there is no only about his childhood; it is about a sad, and even my father was depressed. A set of values that shaped his entire life. sense of despair descended upon all of us. one to guide us as Rambam, the Rav recalled, was the I cried. Even the eyes of the Rambam Reflections only friend he had during his child- glistened with teardrops. clearly and as hood. Reb Moshe Soloveitchik, the With a broken heart, I would walk Rav’s father, would carefully analyze slowly to my mother and cry out to her: definitively as the Rambam in the shiurim he delivered “Mother, Father cannot answer the to his talmidim in Pruzhin. “The Rambam. What will we do? He did not Rav did. on Rambam was a constant guest in our succeed today.” And my mother would home,” wrote the Rav. tell me: “Don’t worry. Father will find family tradition to the secular metrop- I would strain my ears to catch my an answer to the Rambam. If he does olis of Berlin was a significant step for father’s every word. In my young and not succeed, then when you grow up per- the Rav. “You have no idea how enor- a impressionable mind, there developed a haps you will find an answer to the mously difficult it was for me to move dual impression: First, that the Rambam Rambam. Always remember, my son, the from the world of R. Hayyim to that was being attacked by enemies who wanted important thing about Torah is to study of Berlin University,” the Rav once to hurt him, and second, that the it in happiness and enthusiasm.” 3 told a talmid. “Even my children can- Rambam’s only defender was my father. I As a child, the Rav was deeply influ- not appreciate it because they already Life 5 felt strongly that without my father, who enced by a number of people: his two found a paved road.” Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, z”l, (1903-1993). Photo courtesy of knows what would happen to the grandfathers, Reb Chaim Brisker and One can only imagine how difficult it Department of Communications and Public Affairs, Yeshiva University Rambam? It was as if the Rambam himself Reb Elya Pruzhiner, both highly must have been for him on those long, were with us in the room, listening to my respected talmidei chachamim and lonely winter nights in a foreign country. By Jacob J. Schacter [RIETS].) After greeting the Rav, my and how much more important it will father’s words. The Rambam sat next to me manhigei Yisrael; his uncle, Reb Velvel Again, we do not know much about the father introduced me to him. The Rav become, with the passage of time, to on my bed. What did he look like? I don’t Brisker, “the Griz”; his Chabad Rav’s life in Berlin, but some informa- know exactly. He seemed to look like an melamed in Khaslavitch; his mother tion is forthcoming from a little-known will never forget the first time I bent over and caressed my cheek, at convey what he was to a generation exceedingly handsome and good father. His and, above all, his father. It is impossi- source. In 1994, a book of memoirs by met the Rav, zt”l. I was six years which point, one of the rabbis accom- “asher lo yada et Yosef” (Exodus 1:8), a name was also Moshe just like my father. ble to overstate the extent of his Werner Silberstein, a German Jew who Iold and lived half a block from panying him said to me, “Don’t wash generation that did not have the [When Reb Moshe defended the father’s influence. The Rav never had known the Rav in Berlin, was pri- Montefiore Medical Center in the your face for a week.” zechut to experience firsthand the Rav’s Rambam] the Rambam was comforted learned in a yeshivah, and his father vately published by his family. Silberstein Bronx, where my parents and I often I was astounded because every day extraordinary qualities—his vibrancy and smiled. I too was delighted and was his rebbe muvhak. writes: visited patients. One evening, as my my mother would say, “Yankef Yosef’l, and dynamism, his brilliance and lack joined in the feeling of joy in the room. I The Rav lived in Pruzhin until In the twenties I became acquainted father and I entered the hospital, we did you wash your face today?” And of pretension, his radical intellectual would jump from my bed and run to my 1910; he spent the next ten years in with Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, a young noticed a tall man, surrounded by a here was an adult—a rabbi—telling me honesty and demanding search for mother and cry out the good news: two small towns in White Russia man who had just arrived in Berlin large group of people. Recognizing the not to wash my face for an entire week! truth, his extraordinary power of self- “Mother, Mother, the Rambam won. He (Raseyn and Khaslavitch) where his from Warsaw. It did not take long man, my father whispered to me with Ten years have elapsed since the revelation and deep-seated sense of beat the Rabad. Father helped him. father served as rabbi. Around 1920, for us to become well-acquainted and great excitement, “That’s the Rav. Rav’s passing, and the “shriek of privacy, his unswerving commitment Look how wonderful my father is!” the family moved to Warsaw. then good friends. He often came to our That’s Rabbi Soloveitchik.” (My father despair”1 that immediately follows to the mesorah and intimate knowledge But once in a great while my father e know little about the Rav’s house in Berlin, one of the few where he has the distinction of being the first death is absent. But the need to dis- of and appreciation for the philosophi- did not succeed, and despite all his life over the next six years in was able to eat without hesitation, even rabbi to receive semichah from the Rav cuss the Rav’s life, reflect upon his cal contributions of Western culture. efforts the enemies of the Rambam W Warsaw; we do know, how- on Pessach. In this connection I should at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac achievements and describe the values But the task is daunting and the defeated him. Their questions were as ever, that it was here where he studied like to relate an unforgettable episode. Elchanan Theological Seminary that he represented is more pressing responsibility enormous. The Rav had than ever.2 Our sense of loss has very high standards. A sentence or a strong as iron. Although my father mus- political science at Warsaw’s Free During a visit, a few days before Pessach, Rabbi Schacter is the dean of the Rabbi grown with the passage of time as new thought had to be formulated with tered all his strength, he could not save Polish University and where he was he replied to my wife Raya’s invitation Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute in issues arise, and there is no one to clarity and precision. Only Rabbi the Rambam from his detractors. first exposed to advanced secular stud- that he be our guest on Seder night: 4 Boston and a contributing editor of guide us as clearly and as definitively Soloveitchik could appropriately Salvation did not come for the Rambam. ies in a systematic fashion. “Great, but could I ask to be present Jewish Action. as the Rav did. How important it is memorialize Rabbi Soloveitchik. Deep in thought, my father would lean In the fall of 1926, at the age of when you kasher the cooking stove?” Fall 5764/2003 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5764/2003 JEWISH ACTION Notes 11. See Reb Moshe’s letter to Rabbi “With pleasure,” said Raya, “but with Eastern European yeshivot, and were all written in the mid-1940s 1. This is a quote from Rabbi Joseph B. Yehuda Leib Forer of Holyoke, the request that you tell me quite honest- Maimonides School, a day school. although the latter two were not pub- Soloveitchik, “A Tribute to the Rebbitzen of Massachusetts, in Mayer S. Abramowitz, 17 ly, if something is not done correctly. I Today, Maimonides School continues lished until many years later.) Over Talne,” Tradition 17:2 (spring 1978): 73. Chachmei Yisrael of New England (Worcester, shall do it the way I learnt it from my to flourish, but the Heichal was closed the years, the Rav also published a 2.