A year after his passing, Rav Dovid Soloveitchik's memories live in print
Photos: Mishpacha archives
Although Rav Meshulem Dovid Halevi Soloveitchik ztz”l lived on Amos Street in Jerusalem’s Geula neighborhood, his mind remained in a faraway Eastern European town. Reb Dovid, the Torah world’s senior rosh yeshivah who passed away on 18 Shevat last year at the age of 99, was the link between the past and the future: He lived in the alleyways of Jerusalem, but his spirit was still on Listovksa Street in Brisk.
During one of his shiurim, Reb Dovid related to his talmidim a certain chiddush from his father, the Brisker Rav, and then he sighed. “I remember that when my father gave this over at the time, we literally danced with joy,” he said. “But now, when I say that same shtickel, I see toite peinimer (dead faces).”
He went on to explain: “If you have an undecipherable sugya because everything is dark before your eyes, then when it becomes clear and the questions are answered, you see a great light, and then of course you dance. But today, when you ask a question, you don’t even feel the darkness, and therefore, after the answer, it doesn’t become lichtig. So what is there to dance about?”
“I don’t have complaints to the ‘oilem’ in our time, because I come from another world,” Reb Dovid told a talmid on another occasion.
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