A Night of Intellectual Honesty: Volume 6, Issue 39, Ha'azinu
September 19, 2026; 8 Tishrei, 5787 Sponsored anonymously for the Refuah Shleimah of Yair Nissan Ben Sara
In 1949, Rav Chaim Shmulevitz ZT”L (“Rav Chaim”) delivered a Shiur (Torah class) at the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim. By then, he had been giving Shiurim for roughly two decades—in Mir, Shanghai, and now Eretz Yisrael. Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzenski ZT”L had once stood in his honor when he was still young, explaining that one rises when a person who carries the knowledge of the Mir Yeshiva’s entire library enters the room.
One example of Rav Chaim’s vast erudition, arose when the Yeshiva hastily packed its Sefarim (Hebrew books) while fleeing the Nazis. A student suggested renting a wagon to take as many Sefarim as possible. In the rush, they left behind a Ketzos, a renowned Halachic commentary of more than 1,000 pages. When Rav Chaim learned of this, his extraordinary knowledge and brilliant mind enabled him to rewrite the whole Ketzos from memory...