Tribute By Nachama Soloveichik A tribute to Rav Ahron Soloveichik marking his tenth yahrtzeit (18 Tishrei 5762) Rav Ahron Soloveichik, zt”l, 1917-2001 Photo: Yeshiva University Archives 54 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5772/2011 y grandfather was civil rights, but as a physically fragile man who personified strength, perseverance and love. famous. At some My most salient memory of my grandfather is utterly point in my life, I mundane: I remember him walking up and down the stair- figured that out. way in his home. If this sounds strange, you have to imagine the grand U-shaped staircase leading from the ground floor Rabbi Ahron to my grandparents’ master bedroom. What made for a Soloveichik was the youngest son of Rabbi beautiful architectural design was a very long walk for a Moshe Soloveichik, an esteemed rabbi in a man crippled by a stroke and dependent on a cane. Every morning my grandfather walked down from his long dynasty of Jewish scholars. But I bedroom to the dining room where he ate, learned, wrote, never saw him that way. and met with visitors. Every evening he made his way back As a child wiling away my summers at my grandparents’ up. Each step was accompanied by an intense cry of pain home on Ardmore Avenue in Chicago, our family lineage barely made an impact on my conscious- ness. There were signs I probably should have picked up on. For starters, there were always impor- tant-looking people who wanted to talk to my grandfather, and there was always a crowd filling my grandparents’ dining room on Shabbos mornings. But I was nei- ther old enough nor interested enough to grasp the significance of these events; there were more im- portant matters to concern myself with—calling dibs on the oversized recliner in my grandparents’ bed- room, the mysterious artifacts dis- Rav Ahron at the 1979 wedding of OU Officer Emanuel Adler. From left: Rav Ahron Soloveichik, covered in their basement, my Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, Rav Levi Yitzchak Horowitz (the Bostoner Rebbe), and Rabbi Yosef grandmother’s freshly stocked Weiss, shlita, a rosh yeshivah at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. pantry, et cetera. At age nine, some Courtesy of Emanuel Adler things were simply lost on me. Other things were very much not lost on me. And those are the things that define my and a shudder that wracked his frail body. One of my grandfather in my memory. To this day, ten years after his younger siblings was so frightened by this image that he death, I see him through the naïve eyes of my childhood— used to cover his eyes as my grandfather walked past. As a not as the great Torah scholar heralded in rabbinic child, it never occurred to me that my grandfather had an- speeches, not as the politically active rabbi who fought for other choice, and maybe that’s because in his mind, he didn’t. Life had dealt him an excellent reason to give up, but he never accepted it. He never stopped teaching, never Nachama Soloveichik is the granddaughter of Rabbi Ahron Solove- stopped giving, never stopped climbing those steps. ichik. She lives in Washington, DC. Winter 5772/2011 JEWISH ACTION I 55 His reservoir of strength, even in the most difficult mo- memory of him during that time clashed violently with my ments, was a testimony to his commitment and his love. He earliest and most salient memories of him. The determined, traveled to New York every week to teach at Yeshiva Univer- unstoppable grandfather of my youth seemed utterly de- sity, not because he sought recognition, but because he sim- feated. He still had his sefarim and his students, but when ply loved teaching Torah. His hundreds of students around his greatest love disappeared from his life, his reason to exist the world can attest to that fact better than I can, but I saw seemed to fade as well. the other side of the story. I watched him fly out every Tues- My grandparents were married for over fifty years. They day morning and fly home every Thursday night. were a team in every way—both teachers, both givers, both My grandfather’s strength was matched only by his devoted to each other. Together, they raised six children, love—for his family, for teaching, for life itself. These two bestowed unconditional love (and chocolate) on their parts of him were two sides of the same coin. We often imag- many grandchildren, and opened their home to hundreds ine intellectual giants as stoic, unemotional figures. We view of students. them from a distance—we admire them, but we cannot re- My grandfather was certainly a brilliant scholar and a late to them. My grandfather was nothing like that. renowned teacher, but I knew him differently. I knew him In my mind, it is not a coincidence that my grandparents as a man with a seemingly bottomless capacity for died four months apart—my grandmother in early July and strength, a man who refused to give up, a man who was my grandfather in early October. For a part of those four great because he was determined to make the most of the months, my grandfather lived in my parents’ home. My life he was given. g minute of your life in a way that sancti- Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik and fies the name of Heaven. NCSY—An Appreciation Kiddush Hashem: Living every minute in a way that makes others By David Luchins think more about Torah and its Divine Author. There, in two words, is the n Sunday evening, January 29th, 2012, NCSY’s Ben Zakkai Honor Society will essence of the majesty and magic of Obe honoring the legacy of Rabbi Ahron and Rebbetzin Ella Soloveichik. Why, Rav Ahron Soloveichik’s epic legacy. you may rightly ask, should Ben Zakkai be the venue for the Orthodox Union to cel- The fifty-eight years of profound Tal- ebrate this remarkable couple’s extraordinary contributions? mud shiurim in the classic Brisker derech of his father and grandfather, February 1966, Manhattan’s West threat of death—you should violate Rabbis Moshe and Chaim Soloveichik, Side: The Ben Zakkai Honor Society the mitzvah and not die . zt”l; the half-century of remarkable was hosting its first meeting and the moral issues raised in the hashkafah But if the enemy commands you to guest speaker was Rabbi Ahron shiurim on every imaginable topic, worship idols or commit adultery Soloveichik, a young rosh yeshivah from the wars in Vietnam and Biafra to or murder, you must give up from Yeshiva University, a brilliant his fervent opposition to capital pun- your life . .1 graduate of New York University Law ishment and apartheid; the heroic School, who had been asked to discuss decade and a half when he overcame a Rav Ahron asked the teenagers in our halachic responsibilities toward devastating stroke to travel every week the room to consider the Rambam’s non-observant and non-Jews. He from Chicago to New York after his sense of priorities. Shouldn’t the order began by quoting from the Rambam’s brother, the Rav, became too ill to give of the halachot be reversed? Shouldn’t laws of Kiddush Hashem: shiurim “because my mother and my dying as a Jew al kiddush Hashem, by brother would have wanted me to do The entire House of Israel is com- sanctifying the Divine Name, have it.” All this, and more, can be summa- manded to be mekadesh Hashem . pride of place in Hilchot Kiddush rized in two words: Kiddush Hashem. What is kiddush Hashem? . When Hashem? The Rambam, Rav Solove- the enemy orders you to violate one ichik suggested, is teaching us a pro- March 1965, New York City: A public of the mitzvot of the Torah on found lesson—it is a wonderful thing to school NCSYer from Buffalo, New be prepared to die as a Jew al kiddush York, was visiting Yeshiva College. An Dr. David Luchins, a talmid of Rav Ahron, Hashem, but you can obviously only do NCSY advisor brought him to Rav is a senior vice president of the Orthodox that once in your life. A far more sig- Ahron’s daily Gemara shiur. The Union and founding dean of Touro Col- nificant challenge is to live every teenager was introduced to the rosh lege’s Lander College for Women. 56 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5772/2011 yeshivah before class and Rav Ahron to meet privately with the rosh public school girl approached the rosh asked him about his Jewish education. yeshivah. Twin boys from a non-obser- yeshivah and shyly handed the rebbet- He had never studied Gemara. Rav vant home shared with him the details zin a note: Ahron then delivered a remarkable of their struggle to keep Shabbat in a “Rabbi,” she wrote, “I did not un- two-and-a-half-hour shuir in which fiercely hostile environment. Rav derstand most of what you said, but I every term was translated and ex- Ahron began to cry. “I wish I had your will always remember that you were plained in extraordinary detail. strength,” he told these twelve-year- here tonight—with all of us.” The shiur ended. A talmid told the old NCSY public schoolers. “I wish I visitor, “Please come again, that was had your courage. May Hashem help July 1989, Old City, Jerusalem: Rav the first time I ever heard all those you change your parents’ attitude to- Ahron met with the teenagers on terms and concepts explained.” The ward your shemirat Shabbat.” NCSY’s Michlelet program, as he met visitor replied, “It was great.