Rav Yitzchok Hutner
Rosh Yeshiva of Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin and author of Pachad Yitzchok, whose ma'amorim joined deep Torah thought with a burning love of Hashem.
Biography
Early years
Rav Yitzchok Hutner zt"l was born in 1906 in Warsaw to a family with roots both in Ger Chassidus and in the Lithuanian world of Torah. As a child he learned privately. His uncle, Rav Benzion Ostrover, had been a talmid of Rav Mendel of Kotzk, and he became the young man's direct link to the world of Chassidus.
At fifteen he went to Slobodka, where the Alter, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, guided him. Among his fellow talmidim there were Rav Yitzchok HaLevi Ruderman, Rav Reuven Grozovsky, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky and Rav Aharon Kotler.
In 1925 he joined the new branch of Slobodka in Chevron, and there he learned from Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Kook, with whom he formed a deep bond. Both men had a philosophical and mystical bent. He stayed in Chevron until 1929 and escaped the massacre of that year because he had gone away for Shabbos. In a letter written in 5689 (1929) he described how the years of learning in Eretz Yisroel had surrounded him with waves of Torah light.
He then returned to his parents in Warsaw and tutored Aharon, the son of Rav Moshe Soloveitchik. After this he studied philosophy at the university in Berlin, where he befriended two future leaders, Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik and Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The three remained close for the rest of their lives, although each held a different approach to Torah thought.
In 1932 he published Toras HaNozir, a commentary on the Rambam’s Hilchos Nezirus, with an approbation from Rav Kook. He married Masha Lipshitz, who was born in America, and the couple went to Eretz Yisroel. There he completed his Kovetz He’oros on Rabbeinu Hillel on the Sifra. In 1934 he travelled to Europe to compare manuscripts of Rabbeinu Hillel’s commentary. Although he was deeply attached to the Land, the couple soon left for America, and he did not live in Eretz Yisroel again for about thirty years.
Torah and leadership
In Brooklyn he joined the staff of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School and was soon asked to help manage the high school division of Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin. In 1940, with the permission of the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yaakov Moshe Shurkin, he began giving a shiur to the fourth-year class of the post-high-school program. With the help of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz of Torah Vodaas, he built up the yeshiva’s beis medrash into an environment that produced talmidei chachamim in the mold of those in Eastern Europe. By 1940 it already numbered hundreds of students, and he went on to become the yeshiva’s senior Rosh Yeshiva.
He built Chaim Berlin according to his own vision, which blended different streams of Torah thought. He appointed Rav Avigdor Miller, a product of Slobodka, as mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor), until the yeshiva moved to Far Rockaway in the 1960s and the daily trip from Brooklyn led Rav Miller to resign. He also changed the usual mussar program of Slobodka, shortening the mussar session to ten or fifteen minutes and replacing the mussar talk with a ma’amar built on the Maharal. In the 1950s he founded Kollel Gur Aryeh, one of the first kollelim of its kind in America.
Rav Hutner held that secular studies were necessary for a student who wanted to go to college and earn a living, and talmidim at Chaim Berlin could combine their learning with evening college classes. A plan to open a combined yeshiva and college, for which a charter had been obtained, was dropped at the insistence of Rav Aharon Kotler. He was proud of what his talmidim achieved beyond the beis medrash, provided that their worldly success stayed under the rule of Torah values.
On Shabbos and Yom Tov he delivered a ma’amar, a discourse that combined the depth of Gemara, the warmth of a chassidic tisch and a philosophical lecture. There was singing, and on Purim a band. Often the singing and dancing lasted through the night. The talmidim who heard these ma’amorim came to feel like his chassidim, and in time he wore chassidic dress himself. His leadership came to resemble that of a Rebbe more than that of a Rosh Yeshiva.
His attachment to Rav Kook never ended. He remained warm toward Rav Kook’s son, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, and toward Rav Moshe Tzvi Neria, and he once told Rav Neria that without meeting Rav Kook he would lack half of himself. Rav Eliezer Waldman recalled that he said, “Rav Kook was 20 times as great as those who opposed him.” Yet after coming to America he became a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America. His talmidim recall that each Succos he hung a picture of Rav Kook in his succah, and that when the question of drafting religious girls arose after 1948, he replaced it with a picture of the Chazon Ish, who had ruled against national service for them.
He also kept up a regular correspondence with Rav Schneerson and had several long private meetings with him on halachic, chassidic and kabbalistic subjects. He explained in a letter the ruling of the Chazon Ish on milking on Shabbos, noting that it was given during a campaign by the Histadrut for Jewish employers to hire only Jews, and that the Chazon Ish added words of conciliation, in keeping with the Torah’s way of peace with everyone. He also repeated the Chazon Ish’s message that just as the world cannot exist without women, Torah cannot exist in the yeshivos without Beis Yaakov.
Teachings and seforim
In 1938 he published a short work of halachic rulings drawn from the Sifra. In 1949 he began publishing his discourses on ethics and Jewish thought, which he subtitled Divrei Torah B’inyonei Hilchos Dei’os V’Chovos HaLevovos. These discourses on the Yomim Tovim and on Shabbos, collected as Pachad Yitzchok, fill seven volumes and are his best-known work. He delivered almost all of them in Yiddish, yet they were written in a poetic, modern Hebrew reminiscent of Rav Kook’s.
At the heart of his thought lay the teachings of the Maharal of Prague. He also built on the Vilna Gaon and on Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. He spoke only in general terms about other great mekubalim, such as the Baal Shem Tov, the Ari, the Baal HaTanya and Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izhbitz, and about the Zohar. Rav Yisroel Kirzner, one of his closest talmidim, edited his writings. A volume of his letters to talmidim, in which his approach to chinuch can be seen, is part of Pachad Yitzchok.
Later years and passing
In the late 1960s Rav Hutner began to visit Eretz Yisroel again, with the plan of building a new yeshiva there. In 1970 he and his family were caught in a hijacking on their way home to America, as told in the story below. Afterward he established Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok in Har Nof in Jerusalem, which he named for his sefer.
Rav Hutner passed away in Jerusalem on 20 Kislev 5741 (1980) and was buried on Har HaZeisim.
Legacy
Twenty years after his passing, his Torah was sought as eagerly as ever, and his Pachad Yitzchok continues to shed light on the basic duties of the Jewish soul and on the seasons of the year. He raised a generation of rabbanim and mechanchim in Eretz Yisroel and in America. Among them were Rav Yonasan David, his son-in-law, and Rav Aharon Schechter, his successors as Roshei Yeshiva of Chaim Berlin; Rav Aharon Lichtenstein; Rav Pinchas Stolper, who followed his guidance in founding NCSY; Rav Shlomo Freifeld, who founded one of the first full-time yeshivos for baalei teshuvah; and Rav Noach Weinberg, founder of Aish HaTorah, along with his brother Rav Yaakov Weinberg of Ner Yisroel. Rav Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, was also his talmid.
His daughter, Rebbetzin Dr. Bruria David, earned a doctorate in philosophy at Columbia University and founded Beth Jacob of Jerusalem, a seminary for young women, where she served as dean.
Stories
Held Hostage
On 6 September 1970, TWA flight 741 was seized by terrorists while carrying Rav Hutner home to New York from Eretz Yisroel. With him were his wife, his daughter and his son-in-law, Rav Yonasan David. The hijackers let the non-Jewish passengers go but kept the Jews on board. A week later the women and children were sent to Cyprus, and the aircraft were destroyed with explosives.
Over forty Jewish men remained prisoners, in and near Amman, Jordan. They included Rav Hutner, Rav Yonasan David and two talmidim who had traveled with him, Rav Meir Fund and Rav Yaakov Drillman. At one stage Rav Hutner was kept by himself in a remote spot while Jews around the world davened for him. Some of the terrorists wanted to cut his beard, but their commanders held them back.
Alarm spread throughout the Torah world. Large gatherings were held to daven, and askanim worked day and night. The Steipler and Rav Shach went to the Prime Minister and other members of the government to explain Rav Hutner’s stature among the Torah community. Meanwhile, frightening rumors circulated about the Zarka Desert, which was thought to be where the captives were kept.
While explosions and shooting went on around him, Rav Hutner looked deeply into himself. He kept thinking of what Chazal tell of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabbi Yishmael as they were led to be killed, when Rabban Shimon confessed that he did not know why he was to die. Day after day Rav Hutner asked himself whether some fundamental piece of understanding was missing in him that would explain why his life seemed to be coming to an end. He spoke of this later in his ma’amorim during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.
Delegations visited the captives daily. One of their leaders, a man of dignified bearing, bowed courteously to Rav Hutner and spoke with him. When he had gone, Rav Hutner remarked, “His face. That is the nobility of Yishmoel.” He explained afterward that the descendants of Yishmoel carry honor that lacks power, whereas Eisov’s honor comes joined with power, and he developed this at length in a ma’amar on Succos of 5731 (1970).
The captives were freed on the twenty-fifth of Elul and flown to Cyprus, where Rav Menachem Porush was waiting with a chartered plane. Rav Hutner’s tallis, tefillin, shirt, jacket and hat had all been taken from him, so a former talmid, Willie Frommer, gave him his own shirt and tallis katan. Rav Porush noted that Rav Hutner had lost twenty kilograms. The group reached New York just before the first night of Rosh Hashanah. Before tekias shofar Rav Hutner delivered a ma’amar, so that his followers would not lose any Torah learning because of his ordeal, and he thanked Klal Yisroel for the prayers that had helped bring him home.
The Lost Manuscripts
The hijacking had a sad aftermath. Rav Hutner’s manuscripts, among them the volume of Pachad Yitzchok on Shavuos, which was complete and ready for printing, stayed behind in the hands of the hijackers. Every possible pressure was tried, but nothing worked.
His talmidim, together with others who had heard his talks over many years, worked together to put a new Shavuos volume together. Its introduction applies the posuk, “They will come weeping, and I will bring them in supplication” (Yirmiyahu 31:8), to the talmidim and to Rav Hutner himself. Only joy that comes after suffering, it says, can bring tears of happiness. The sefer would stand as a symbol of all the suffering that the righteous experience, whose beginnings are hard but whose ends are peaceful.
Creators and Storers
When the Alter of Slobodka passed away, young Yitzchok Hutner was standing beside Rav Yechezkel Sarna. Rav Sarna said to him that two kinds of builders take part in raising every spiritual edifice. One kind are the creators, yotzrim, and the other kind are the storers, otzrim. The creators have left us, he said, and now we must take on the role of storers.
Rav Hutner did indeed begin as a storer, preserving what he had received. But he rose higher, and in time he became a creator, the builder of his own spiritual edifice that goes on quenching thirst in our day.
I Do Not Forgive You
In one letter to a talmid, Rav Hutner wrote, “I want you to know that I do not forgive you.” The sharp words carried a compliment as well, because the rebbe was telling his talmid that he thought him worthy of a precise accounting over a particular matter.
Rav Hutner used to cover his love for his talmidim with a cloak of rebuke. He once wrote that every piece of writing remains as a record, as the posuk says of the deed of purchase, “so that they may last many days” (Yirmiyahu 32:14). But some things, he added, are harmed if they last too long. He was familiar with each talmid’s character and the workings of his soul, and his words to each one were fitted to him.
The Rebbe Who Never Said Talmid
Though he loved his talmidim, Rav Hutner never once called anyone his talmid. In all the many letters he wrote to those who learned from him, he did not give the recipient that title.
He observed that the gaon Rav Akiva Eiger also never called anyone his talmid, while the Chasam Sofer uses the word often in his teshuvos. He concluded that both are the words of the living G-d, and that each of them is rewarded in Olam Haboh for his way.
A Gift Known by Its Aroma
One talmid was struggling to find his match and build a home. Rav Hutner wrote to him that he was aware of every trial the young man had faced. With a gentle sting he added that when the moment came to sing at the crossing of the sea, the talmid had been occupied with a parshah of the Torah. He expressed confidence that with Hashem’s help the talmid would climb ever higher and succeed.
An author sent Rav Hutner a copy of his sefer, and Rav Hutner replied with warm thanks. He explained that an upcoming departure for Eretz Yisroel made the journey a burden and he lacked the calm of mind needed to savor the gift fully. Sadly, he wrote, he could enjoy only its fragrance.
Tears at the Simchas Beis HaSho’eivah
Rav Hutner once wrote to a talmid and recalled a simchas beis hasho’eivah they had attended together. It was held in a large succah full of people on a high rooftop, apart from the lowly dwellings beneath. Divrei Torah lifted the soul, and the succah was filled with song. One of the melodies joined a powerful tune to the words “Achas sho’alti.”
Rav Hutner told the talmid that he had seen clearly how the tears of that night came from the well of his soul. Then he added a wondrous thought. Those tears had changed the skin of the talmid’s face, spelled with an ayin, into the light of his face, spelled with an alef.
Choosing the Right Moshol
Rav Hutner would recount a moment from his youth with his teacher, Rav Avrohom Grodzensky. The two had been talking pleasantly for a long while. As Rav Hutner rose to go, Rav Grodzensky asked him to stay a little longer, because in the conversation he had mentioned a parable about a lame man.
Rav Grodzensky himself had a defect in his leg. By this hint he taught his talmid that part of mussar is to consider carefully which moshol one selects.
Hakofos on Shemini Atzeres
Rav Hutner’s love for Eretz Yisroel did not weaken after he settled in America. He once directed that his yeshiva hold hakofos following the Shemini Atzeres night meal, in order to show solidarity with the Jews of Eretz Yisroel, who were already celebrating Simchas Torah and dancing hakofos that same night.
Writing about electricity on Shabbos to a talmid living in Bnei Brak, he said that so long as the talmid lived in Bnei Brak, going against the plain wishes of the Chazon Ish was entirely out of the question.
Teachings
The Struggles We Share With the Gedolim
In a letter, Rav Hutner wrote that when we read the lives of gedolim, we often picture them as having been perfect from the start, with no struggles. This is a false picture. The difference between them and us is not that they never struggled or failed while we do. The difference is that they rose and went on, and grew stronger through hardship, while we give up. The struggles are exactly where we most resemble them. Who knows what battles the Chofetz Chaim fought before he mastered his speech? Rav Hutner also taught that Shlomo HaMelech’s words, that a tzaddik falls seven times and rises, mean that he rises through his failures. The falls themselves lift him. So when you meet failure, do not think you alone are lowly. Remember that the tzaddik also had a yetzer hora and overcame it.
Pachad Yitzchok, Igros, Vol. 1, letter 128 (on Mishlei 24:16)
Thought That Reaches the Heart
Rav Hutner asked what machshovoh, Jewish thought, is meant to do. If it is only a system of ideas, it becomes dry and lifeless, and it can even do harm, like any knowledge that is cut off from commitment. Yet in our age even sincere people can be left cold by the cold rationalism of the world around us, which is the power of Amalek. Our minds must be reached together with our hearts. Over the past hundred and thirty years the yeshivos tried different ways to join them. Rav Hutner’s way was to explain and define ideas in the language of the mind, so that each point also stirred the heart to love and fear Hashem. He wrote that the awakening of the duties of the heart comes directly out of the toil to understand the divrei Torah that define them.
Pachad Yitzchok, general introduction printed in each volume
The Bond Between Rebbe and Talmid
Rav Hutner taught that the bond between a talmid and his rebbe must not rest on any outside reason, even a lofty one such as the rebbe having ruach hakodesh. Such a reason, he said, is itself a flaw in how the talmid accepts his rebbe. The bond comes from a spiritual pleasure the talmid finds in his rebbe’s words, leadership and conduct, a pleasure beyond words and beyond the intellect. The deeper the bond, the more the talmid can take in. He added that a rav’s love for his talmidim is only natural, since their relationship is formed through Torah. If a rav loves Torah but not his talmidim, his love of Torah is worth nothing.
Pachad Yitzchok, Shavuos, ma’amar 18, perek 2
Understanding the Years of Each Generation
In his letter of approbation to Toldos Am Olam by Rav Shlomo Rottenberg, Rav Hutner wrote on the verse “Understand the years of each generation” (Devorim 32:7). He taught that every upheaval in Jewish history is part of Hashem’s way of leading His treasured people. Every added effort to understand Jewish history through the Torah is therefore a way of appreciating Hashem’s ways, and there is no greater closeness to our Father in Heaven than this depth. He said that one who limits love and fear of Hashem to speaking about Gan Eden and Gehinnom has no place in our beis medrash. In a lecture to teachers, he also advised using the word churban, destruction, rather than shoah for the events of the last generation, so that they are seen within the long history of our suffering in galus.
Letter of approbation to Toldos Am Olam by Rav Shlomo Rottenberg (on Devorim 32:7)
Two Ambitions of the Seeker of Hashem
In 5699 (1939) Rav Hutner wrote a note to himself on a tension in the avodah of every talmid chacham. One ambition is to take shelter within Hashem’s own precinct. The other is to live in the street and the marketplace and to sanctify Hashem’s Name through everyday dealings with others. These two desires pull in opposite directions in practice. Finding the right balance between them, he wrote, is among the most difficult tasks in serving Hashem. He himself chose a path that held both, serving his talmidim, the yeshivos and the klal while keeping his own inner life, and so he passed on a whole outlook to those who learned from him.
Personal note written in 5699 (1939)
The Covenant Between the Land and the Torah
In a letter from 5689 (1929), Rav Hutner wrote that more than three years had passed since he went up to Eretz Yisroel, and that during that time he had dwelt in the tent of Torah and many waves of Torah light had washed over him. When he later had to leave the Land, the parting was very hard. He wrote that many basic ideas of Torah thought and of understanding Judaism had become clear and rooted in him because of Eretz Yisroel. No method, no teacher and no educator, he said, could reach as deeply into his soul as the Land, the true place for a life of Torah. A covenant has been made between the Land and the Torah.
Letters of Rav Hutner, 5689 (1929) and later
The Gadlus of a Gadol and the Needs of His Generation
At the end of a hesped for Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Hutner spoke of three kinds of gedolim. There have been gedolim whose personal stature matched the size of their mission to their generation. There have been towering gedolim whose mission did not show their greatness. And there have been gedolim whose mission to their generation went beyond their personal stature. He placed Rav Kotler in the first group, and said that Rav Kotler’s work was in the public eye and was a type of greatness that everyone could readily appreciate.
Hesped for Rav Aharon Kotler
Seforim
- Pachad Yitzchok: His discourses on the Yomim Tovim and Shabbos, in seven volumes, with a volume of letters to talmidim; he subtitled the series Divrei Torah B’inyonei Hilchos Dei’os V’Chovos HaLevovos.
- Toras HaNozir: A commentary on the Rambam’s Hilchos Nezirus, published in 1932.
- Kovetz He’oros: A commentary on Rabbeinu Hillel’s commentary on the Sifra.
- Halachic rulings from the Sifra: A short work published in 1938.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: Rav Benzion Ostrover (his uncle), Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slobodka, Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Kook, Rav Avrohom Grodzensky
Talmidim: Rav Yonasan David, Rav Aharon Schechter, Rav Yisroel Kirzner, Rav Yitzchok Shurin, Rav Hirsch Diskind, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, Rav Pinchas Stolper, Rav Shlomo Freifeld, Rav Noach Weinberg, Rav Yaakov Weinberg, Rav Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, Rav Feivel Cohen
Children: Rebbetzin Dr. Bruria David (his daughter and only child), wife of Rav Yonasan David
Also on 20 Kislev
All hilulos on 20 Kislev ›Historical sources
- Chareidi.org, 20 Kislev 5761 feature (Avrohom Hacohen Ehrentreu; Moshe Musman)
- Pachad Yitzchok, Igros, Vol. 1, letter 128