Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveithchik ( "Velvel Soloveithchik", 1886-1959) also referred to as the Brisker Rav, was a son of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brest, Belarus (known amongst the Jews of the area as "Brisk"). He is also commonly known as the "GRYZ", an acronym for Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Zev ("genius rabbi Isaac Wolf"). Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished,. In the ancient Judean schools the sages were addressed as רִבִּי (Ribbi or Rebbi... 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 9 - The United States of America is 40,000 days old. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik, also known as Reb Chaim Brisker, (1853-July 30, 1918) was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the Brisk yeshivas approach to Talmudic study within Judaism. ... Brest (Belarusian: Бе́расьце, Брэст | Bieraście, Brest; also known as Brest-Litovsk and in Polish as Brześć Litewski, Brześć nad Bugiem or Brześć Białoruski; Ukrainian: Берестя; Russian: Брест; Lithuanian: Lietuvos Brasta (litterally meaning shallows of Lithuania) is a city (population 290,000 in 2004) in Belarus close to the Polish border where the... Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ...

He led the Jewish community in Brisk and headed its yeshiva. He fled the Holocaust and moved to the British Mandate of Palestine, where he founded the "Brisk Yeshiva" in Israel. Here, he continued educating students as his father did, with what would come to be known as the Brisker Derech (the "Brisker way" or "Brisker approach") of analyzing Talmud. This form of analysis stressed conceptual understanding combined with strict adherence to the text; it is also characterised by its emphasis on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. After his passing, the yeshiva split in two, each one taken over by a different one of his sons. A Rosh yeshiva (Hebrew: ראש ישיבה) (plural in Hebrew: Roshei yeshiva, but also referred to in the English form as Rosh yeshivas) is a rabbi who is the academic head, or rosh (ראש), of a yeshiva (ישיבה), a college of higher Talmudic study. ... Yeshiva or yeshivah (Hebrew: ישיבה pl. ... Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... Map of the territory under the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Brisk yeshivas commonly known as Brisk (a name used by many Yiddish-speaking Jews to refer to the town of Brest-Litovsk, located in what is now Belarus). ... Torah study is the study of Jewish religious texts by Jews for the religious (as opposed to academic) purposes. ... Commonly used image indicating one artists conception of Maimonidess appearance Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Hebrew: רבי משה בן מיימון; Arabic: Mussa bin Maimun ibn Abdallah al-Kurtubi al-Israili; March 30, 1135—December 13, 1204), commonly known by his Greek name (Moses) Maimonides, was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. ... The Mishneh Torah or Yad ha-Chazaka is a code of Jewish law by one of the most important Jewish authorities, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or by the Hebrew abbreviation RaMBaM (usually written Rambam in English). ...

The Brisker Rav was a leader of the Chareidi community in Israel and advocated complete withdrawal of participation with the Israeli government, the secular ideals and values of which were, in his view, antithetical to the principals of Orthodox Judaism. He went as far as opposing the reliance on government funding in support of yeshivas and other Torah institutions [1]. This viewpoint was disputed by other leaders in the Chareidi community, such as Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Schach. Haredi Judaism, or Charedi Judaism, also called ultra-Orthodox Judaism, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. ... Orthodox Judaism formed in reaction to the creation of the Reform Movement of Judaism. ...

See also

• Brisk yeshivas