Rav Chaim Malinowitz packed in so much that his story defies easy description Fearless and original? Mainstream and down-to-earth? Broad-minded and maamin? These just brush the surface of a wide-ranging life suddenly cut short last month
That near-mythical neighborhood, which has receded into the collective imagination as the world of Rabbi Shmuel Kunda’s classic “When Zaidy Was Young,” was the birthplace of Rav Chaim Malinowitz. The many stops of his life — as a student of Mirrer gaon Rav Abba Berman, as a young dayan in Monsey, as a brilliant editor at the forefront of Artscroll’s Torah revolution, and as an inspirational rav and community builder in Ramat Beit Shemesh — took him far from Delancey Street and the Bialystoker Synagogue. But it was the Lower East Side’s mix of Torah learning and pashtus that marked every stage of his life — cut short suddenly at age 67.
In a way, Rav Chaim Malinowitz’s life story is a difficult one to tell. Asked to talk about him, people respond with a jumble of adjectives: fearless, original, mainstream, broad-minded, gaon, down to earth, blunt, caring, maamin, prolific. This multi-faceted definition is itself part of the story of someone so wide-ranging.
But in another sense, Rav Malinowitz’s life story is very simple. As his father’s rebbi, Rav Aharon Kotler, said when asked how his exclusively Torah system would produce rabbanim: “When the clouds fill up with water, it rains.”
About Rav Chaim Malinowitz, whose lifelong dedication to Torah learning led to a prolific output of teaching, psak, and communal leadership, it could be said that it didn’t just rain — it poured.
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