The Orthodox Union joins in mourning the passing of a beloved teacher and revered Torah scholar HaRav Aharon Soloveichik ZT"L whose clarity of vision inspired and shaped our community for almost half a century. We are particularly appreciative of his decades of sustained, intense involvement in so many of the programs and activities of the Orthodox Union and NCSY. May the All-comforting console his entire loving family among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem

HaRav Aharon Soloveitchik ZT"L
1917-2001
by Dr. David Luchins

Rav Aharon HaLevi Soloveitchik was the youngest of Rav Moshe and Pesha Soloveitchik's children. Born in Khaslavichy, Russia on May Day 1917, he was an extraordinary link between the Torah of Brisk and Lita and the contemporary complexity of American and Israeli life. Tutored in Talmud by Rav Yitzchak Hutner, zt"l, taught English Literature by Rav Avigdor Miller, zt"l, nurtured in his grandfather Reb Chaim's derech by his father and "Rebbi Muvhak", Rav Moshe, zt"l, and an honors' graduate of New York University School of Law, he defied easy descriptions and simplistic stereotyping. 

For almost half a century, Rav Aharon's clarity of vision inspired and shaped the Torah world in a fashion that was uniquely his. From Vietnam to Biafra, from civil rights to apartheid, from peace process to religious pluralism, he was rarely reticent and rarely equivocal. Blessed with an exceptional mind and a compassionate heart, he had an unmatched gift for addressing contemporary issues through the timeless prism of Torah Hashkafa.

To walk into a shiur of Rav Aharon was to be propelled into a unique world where Ralph Waldo Emerson and Pitt the Elder might be summoned to help make a point. But proof - all proof - always came from the sources of our Tradition. Even after a debilitating stroke robbed him of physical vigor, his mental capacity and analytical skills were still a wonder to behold.

But Rav Aharon was far far more than an accomplished Talmud Chacham and Darshan par excellence. He was at the very cutting edge of those who helped elucidate how Orthodox Jews should deal with the last half century's two great gifts to Klal Yisrael: American democracy and Medinat Yisrael. 
On issue after issue, Rav Aharon was the defining voice of Torah reason in a world grown far more confusing. 

"It is not just that Rav Aharon is the only Rosh Yeshiva that speaks about Biafra", his lifelong friend Rav Mordechai Gifter, zt"l, once explained. "It's that he is the only Rosh Yeshiva who ever heard of Biafra." 

In the summer of '75, Rav Aharon visited NCSY's Camp West in Big Bear, California. He spoke for hours to the teenagers, several of whom spoke of their personal problems practicing Yiddishkeit in not fully observant homes. After the last teenager left the room the Rosh Yeshiva began to cry. When the author asked him what was wrong he said "their courage, their strength - I don't know if I could be as brave as they are." 

Looking back at the Rosh Yeshiva's life, our eyes filled with tears, we can only say the same about his courage, his strength, his bravery, his example.
Y'HIY ZICHRO BARUCH

Dr. Luchins is a Senior Vice President of the Orthodox Union, Senior Guest Lecturer at the OU Israel Center, and a longtime close talmid of Rav Aharon zt"l.