Ahron Soloveichik


Ahron Soloveichik; was a renowned Orthodox rosh yeshiva, and scholar of Talmud and halakha.

Biography

The youngest of five children, R’ Ahron Soloveichik was born to Moshe Soloveichik in Khislavichi, Russia, at which time his father was the rabbi of that town. Joseph Soloveitchik and Samuel Soloveichik were his older brothers.
His family first moved to Poland in 1920. Before his father moved to New York in 1929, Moshe engaged his student Yitzchok Hutner to become Ahron's rebbe. Ahron was Hutner's first student. Soloveichik celebrated his bar mitzvah in Warsaw, and then immigrated with his family to join his father in the United States in 1930. After he graduated from Yeshiva College, he went to law school at New York University and graduated with a law degree in 1946. He then spent the next 20 years teaching at yeshivas in New York City.
Soloveichik's first teaching position was in Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem then headed by Moshe Feinstein, from whom he received his semikhah. Shortly thereafter Soloveichik was appointed by Yitzchak Hutner to give the highest daily lecture in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. Soloveichik's final position in New York was at Yeshiva University, where he instituted a popular weekly hashkafa class in addition to giving one of the advanced daily Talmud classes. It was during this time that Soloveichik was honored as Lecturer of the Year at Yeshiva University, the first rabbi to be so honored.
In 1966, he came to Chicago to head the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois. After differing with the administration there on certain key issues, he was let go in 1974 and began his own Yeshiva as the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk in Chicago, an American incarnation of the Brisk yeshivas and methods.
Soloveichik taught Torah for 58 years, the last 34 of which were in Chicago. He was well known for being a humble, kind man yet one with an iron will and unquestionable integrity. Although the stroke he suffered in 1983 left him partially paralyzed, in nearly-constant pain and often in need of a wheelchair, he continued his duties at Yeshivas Brisk in Chicago and flew to New York every week to deliver a Talmudic lecture at Yeshiva University.
His wife, Ella Shurin, was a writer and teacher. The couple raised six children all of whom are rabbis or women married to rabbis: Moshe Soloveichik of Chicago, USA; Eliyahu Soloveichik of New York City, United States; Yosef Soloveitchik of Jerusalem, Israel; Chaim Soloveichik of Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel; Rochel Leah Marcus of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Tovah Segal of Newton, Massachusetts, United States.
He was buried beside his wife Ella and near his grandson Yisroel Yosef Soloveichik on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel.
His grandchildren include Meir Soloveichik.

Works

Other works in Hebrew include commentaries on the works of Maimonides and the laws of mourning which was dedicated in memory of his grandson who died young after a long battle with cancer.
Additional works in English include Logic of the Heart Logic of the Mind - Wisdom and reflections on topics of our times.

Articles