Wednesday Links (sometimes it takes 12 days to put together links...)

Walmart's $10 Smartphone
Marrying a Soloveitchik (old)
Satmar Bus Achdus
Lakewood עיר התורה produces votes like no other district
JTS Book Sale (שטיקל שאלה)
Montreal has Monsey-like issues

א נייע סאלאווייטשיק "ראש ישיבה" אין YALE

Here's how the family tree grows, as I understand it:

First there was Joseph Ha-Levi Soloveitchik of Slobodka and Kovno. He had a son Isaac. Isaac had two sons, Moses and Abraham. Moses had a son, Joseph, who was the rabbi of Kovno and was married to the daughter of Chaim Volozhin. Joseph had two sons, Isaac Zeev and Elijah Zevi. Isaac Zeev was the father to Joseph Ber (Beis Ha-Levi). His son was Chaim Brisker whose sons included Velvele Brisker and Moses. Moses was the father of The Rav, Joseph Dov (Ber) Soloveitchik. Meanwhile, back to Elijah Zevi. He had a son Simcha (The Londoner), who had a son Zalman Yosef, who had a son Yitzchak Lev (Isaac Louis, my grandfather, who changed the name from Soloveitchik to Salovey when he immigrated to this country from Jerusalem), who had a son Ronald (Azreal), who fathered three children, one of them me! So, my great-great-great grandfather (Elijah Zevi) and Joseph Dov (Ber) Soloveitchik (The Rav)'s great-great grandfather were brothers. That should clear things up, no?

My sources for this are the Encyclopedia Judaica; Shulamith Soloveitchik Meiselman's excellent book, The Soloveitchik Heritage: A Daughter's Memoir; and family legend.

 Thanks for the interest in my family.

 Peter Salovey

Hattip:hashemrunstheworld@yahoo.com

הגר"מ הלוי.... The man who would be Chief Rabbi

Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik's invocation prayer at the RNC Convention this week. If Chabad doesn't try to stuff lots of feathers in their hats as it is, Meir went to Cheder Lubavitch in Chicago, and don't you forget that!!! He has fond memories of being off for a week from cheder during the ה' טבת festivities some 25 years ago. The comments and text in the player is how I got the clip.

מאיר יעקב
בן
אליהו
 בן
אהרן
בן
משה
בן
רבינו חיים הלוי

The next Brisker באלאגאן

RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL: 

Someone had the great idea of combining all of the chidushim on Maseches Sukkah from the various Brisker family members. However, he did two major aveiros, from a Brisker perspective:

 1. He brought chidushim from the American branch.

 2. He brought chidushim from AJ's talmidim -- they are extremely makpid about unofficial shiur transcript. I'm holding my breath until the first pashkevil. סוכת הלויים

Alpert's take and other good reads

(Jewish Press Photo)

the JP interviews YU Librarian ידידנו R' Zalman Alpert

Reb Dovid Solowejczyk speaks about the "שעת השמד" in Israel

רבי מאיר סאלאווייטשיק זוכר את המחנך החב"די הרה"ח ר' אהרן מרדכי זילברשטרום ע"ה

Yated: 2-year old, and not Mohel is at fault

הושענא למען היתד

.....וזרח השמש ----- עד שלא

The handwritten note written by Reb Chaim Kanievski yesterday, passes the torch from his shver, Rav Elyashiv, who is very ill, r"l, to Reb Aron Leib Shteinman, zol gezunt zein. It's not clear if Rav Elyashiv himself told his son-in-law to pass the torch, or if it was done on his own, since RYSE has not been conscious, as far as we know, for some months now. Sources close to the matter say that is closely related to the fact that Rav Elyashiv is gravely ill, and the clamor to replace him has already begun. A recent sign of that change has been at the Israeli Yated Ne'eman, no relation to the American newspaper of the same name, where the old guard that was close to the late Ponovizher Rosh Yeshiva was unceremoniously thrown out and replaced by Rav Shteinman's people. Reb Aron Leib is not considered a follower of the true "Torah Haskafah" that the late Ponovizher Rosh Yeshiva handed down over the years. Neither is Rav Elyashiv, for that matter, but his leadership was uncontested, now that he's sidelines the fights can begin. The factions here are many, ואי אפשר לפורטם, and you can give yourself a migraine trying to figurer it out. I was asked how can I be "sleeping" at a time like this? You all know that I don't just report the dry news, I need to have an "angle," something to set me apart. Which is why I waited until this fell into my lap. It doesn't reflect on how I fell about Reb Aron Leib, whose tzidkus is undisputed, it just gives you a feeling as to what others feel, even if they claim to be respectful of Torah and talmidei chachomim...

 The following is a true story about the נצי"ב of Volozhin, זצ"ל, as told by הרב אברהם יהושע סאלאווייציק of Yerushalayim:

The Netziv, Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, lived in Lithuania during the 19th Century. Him and his brother-in-law, Reb Yitzchok Fried, were sons-in-law of Reb Itzele Volozhiner, son of Reb Chaim Volozhiner, the Yeshiva's founder. After his first wife passed Reb Hirsh-Leib Berlin married the daughter of the בעל ערוך השלחן. He was one of the most famous Rabbonim of his generation, and it's said that in the 40 years he headed the yeshiva in the town of Volozhin, some 10,000 students studied there. Many of them went on to lead communities and Yeshivos of their own. (a list of famous alumni can be seen here) The Netziv wrote commentaries on all parts of the Torah, and once, when he'd published a particularly difficult work, called "HaEmek Shayla," he called together his friends for a special celebration, where he told them the following story:

"When I was a child, I never paid attention in school. I was lazy and did not want to concentrate. Then one day when I was 11 years old, I came home from school and heard my parents talking. My father was explaining how he'd spoken to my teacher and together they'd concluded that I'd never amount to anything in terms of scholarship. So, my father explained, he was arranging to enroll me as an apprentice shoemaker as soon as I became Bar Mitzvah. "I was so shocked by this conversation that I ran to my parents and exclaimed: 'I'm sorry I've been so negligent with my studies. Please give me one more chance to prove that I'm a good student.' And from that day onward, I applied myself to the study of Torah with tremendous vigor and dedication. Since then I have not wasted a moment and it is that devotion which has enabled me to write the commentary which we are celebrating today." Then the Netziv continued: "But just imagine what would have happened had I not overheard my parents' conversation. I'd probably have ended up as a shoemaker. And I'd have been a pretty good shoemaker besides! But think of what would have happened at the end of my life when I'd get up to the Heavenly Court and they'd ask me: 'Naftali, (or Hirsh Leib - HT) show us what you've done with your life.' And I'd proudly show them my beautiful shoes: the fine workmanship, the quality leather and the exquisite design. "And then they'd ask me: 'But Naftali, where are all the books you were to publish? Where are your 10,000 students?'" The Netziv continued: "And what would I possibly respond??" Reb Avraham Yehoshua said that when Rav Shteinman reaches heaven, they'll ask him "Where are the shoes?!"

And this is where today's best and brightest end up. In Brisk...

.....רעדן אין לערנען

Click on the player above for a conversation between the Rav, RYBS of Boston, and an unknown Rosh Yeshiva/Rov from Eretz Yisroel. Any information on this person would be greatly appreciated. About halfway through you can hear the Rosh Yeshiva speak about what the Lubavitcher Rebbe told him about learning "Kabbalah" in his Yeshiva...

Classic "Rav"

4 short audio clips of the late Rav Yoseph B. Soloveitchik of Boston. Each "microphone" is a link to another audio clip, which starts automatically. So if you're at work or some other place where you don't want people to know that you're "oofgeklert" and listen to the "Rav," lower your speakers volume BEFORE you click on the microphone. We learn several things from these clips, including the fact that the Rav hut keinmol kein "zemiros" nit gezogt."

"עטרת ישראל ותפארתו"

It's busy season at the moment, so you'll need to excuse my slow pace of writing these last few days and weeks. For now, take this. It's interesting to note that RYBS would write these words in a letter to RaSHaG, not the Rebbe... Which makes doubters like his son Hayyim and others look silly when they say there was no connection and that Lubavitch propagandists were the ones to "create" it based on circumstancial evidence. It would seem that RaSHaG probably wrote about the Rebbe in his letter to RYBS, but I could be wrong.