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RABBI YITZCHOK FRANKFURTER
Rav Elyakim Schlesinger of London, whom I had
the great privilege to speak with last week and
glean from his daas Torah, hails from Frankfurt am
Main, Germany. His mother was a daughter of the
famed resident of that German city, Moreinu Yaakov
Rosenheim, one of the founders of the Agudath Israel World
Organization, and one of that Orthodox organization’s foremost
leaders for many years.
When Rav Schlesinger asked me whether my ancestors too
were from Frankfurt, as indicated by my family surname, his
and I may have to the city Frankfurt that made Rav Schlesinger
seem so instantaneously familiar to me, but rather his connection
to a city that is today the metaphysical center of the Torah
world, Brisk. Rav
Schlesinger not only
has the mannerism
of his great rebbi,
Rav Yitzchok Zev
Halevi Soloveitchik,
the Brisker Rav,
whom he repeatedly
quoted during
our conversation,
but he also has an
uncanny physical
resemblance to him.
The Second
World War had
some strange consequences.
As a
result of the war, I
was thinking, one of
the primary propagators
today of the
Brisker school of thought is none other than a grandson of Rav
Yaakov Rosenheim, a noted Hirschian whose leadership of the
Agudah caused Rav Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk apprehension
about joining that movement. Rav Chaim feared that the Hirshian
derech, of Torah and Derech Eretz
its way into Russia and Poland through the Agudah.
It was Rav Yitzhak Isaac Halevy (Rabinowitz) (1847–1914)
Rosenheim’s partner as co-founder of the Agudath Israel orga-
Rav Chaim to join, notwithstanding his many misgivings. Consequently,
upon Halevy’s passing in 1914 Rav Chaim withdrew
his involvement in the Agudah movement.
The letter that Halevy wrote to Rosenheim about getting Rav
Chaim involved in the Agudah movement is compelling:
“Herrn Jacob Rosenheim:
the Rav of Brisk to take part in our endeavor requires great and respected
ministers. Therefore you think that it may be helpful if Marx
perhaps riches would.
“From this I see but one thing: You know most of the Russian rabbonim.
But not the cream of the crop. The Rav of Brisk has in his
world only Torah. The riches of the wealthy, even of millionaires like
Rothschild, can’t make him budge one inch.
ence,
but that, due to his nature, he fears to issue a ruling. To take this
he fears that he may
cause damage and
perhaps his opinion
was wrong, etc.
“If this were only
ing
him, everyone
knows in Russia that
we are literally close
to each other like
two brothers…
“The Rebbe of
Lubavitch (the
Rashab) only knows
the Rav of Brisk
from hearsay, for
he never saw him,
therefore his words
regarding my sending
Lipshitz to the
Rav of Brisk are
somewhat inaccurate….”
Halevy’s responsibilities toward Rav Chaim didn’t end with
Rav Chaim’s arrival in Katowice for the Agudah convention in
1912. As soon as he arrived, there was a deep crisis over the
so-called “Hungarian demand” that only Orthodox congregations
that separated from general communities that included the
Reform could join the movement. Halevy had the daunting task
of maintaining the peace between Rav Shlomo Zalman Breuer
of Frankfurt, who was behind the Hungarian demand, and Rav
Chaim of Brisk, who opposed it.
That Rav Yaakov Rosenheim’s grandson, Rav Schlesinger, is a
leading Brisker disciple and protégé, is certainly one of the uncanny
outcomes of an incomprehensible war.
8 AMI MAGAZINE // DECEMBER 7, 2011 // 11 KISLEV, 5772