By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

Tonight, the second of Kislev marks the 55th Yahrtzeit of Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l.
Every so often, individuals emerge in Jewish history who, by dint of their personality and intellect, change the very topography of Jewish life. One such person was Rav Aharon Kotler, zt’l, the founder of Beth Medrash Gavoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. His twenty years in this country profoundyly changed the face of Torah Jewry.

Interestingly enough, although the name of Rav Aharon Kotler is well known in Torah circles, very little biographical information of his earlier life in Europe is available. This is especially true for the English-reading public. In honor of the 55th yahrzeit of Rav Kotler, the Five Towns Jewish Times is presenting much new material in this mini-biography in a three-part series. The information was culled from newly available documents.

Childhood In Svisloch

Rav Aharon was born in the town of Sislevich, or Svisloch, in Belarus on the 2nd of Shvat in 5652 (Sunday, January 31, 1892, although in the Julian calendar used in Russia at the time it would have been January 19, 1892). He was the fourth child of the famed Pinnes family. There were two older brothers who passed away at young ages and an older sister, Malkah. His father, Rav Shneur Zalman Pinnes, was one of the two rabbanim of this community, which was in the Grodno section of Czarist Russia, not far from Minsk. The other rav was Rav Mordechai Shatz, the son of Rabbi Meir Yonah, who had published a copy of the Baal HaIttur.

His father’s family had spent time in the town of Ilya, also in Belarus. It was a town that produced a prodigious number of Torah scholars. Rav Yitzchok Pinnes, Rav Aharon’s paternal uncle, became the av beis din in Minsk. They were both the children of Rav Moshe Pinnes. Rav Moshe Pinnes’s ancestor was Rav Yitzchok Pinnes, who was the av beis din of Minsk from 1819 until 1836.

Svisloch was originally a moderately sized small town in the late 1700s and early 1800s, with a population of between 200 and 300 people. The Jews of the town made their money primarily through trade of timber, grains, and some real estate. The town had fairs as well. In 1830, a great fire destroyed most of the businesses, and the Jewish community had great difficulty recovering financially, as the fairs were no longer held there. In 1850, there were about 970 Jewish residents in Svisloch. After four decades of economic stagnation, the Jews of Svisloch decided to specialize in the tanning industry. They invited German craftsmen, experts in the field, to assist them in setting up a tannery. It was very successful. Soon Svisloch had eight large tanneries and a number of smaller shops. The Jewish population more than doubled, and the Jews constituted two thirds of the residents of the town.

Jews came from the surrounding towns to work in Svisloch as well. Conditions in the tanneries were not ideal for the workers. There were tanners, tailors, shoemakers, and carpenters. Many of the Jewish workers were not paid well and the Bund movement soon developed in Svisloch.

Sometime in 1895, Rav Aharon’s mother passed away. Rav Aharon was just three years old. When he was a young child, many in his town sought to involve him in the new paths that were emerging in the society around them, and these individuals were not such a good influence on the young man.

He was developing a reputation as being a remarkable prodigy. Already in 1899, at the age of seven, Rav Aharon knew all of Tanach by heart and he was also learning Gemara. Sources say that he was proficient in two tractates with Tosfos—knowing them by heart. In the meantime, the Bund was to call the first strike in Svisloch in 1901.

Svisloch’s industry grew ever stronger and plans were made to bring the railroad to Svisloch. This was to happen in 1903.

On Monday, the 24th of Av 5663, (August 17, 1903; Julian calendar August 4), Rav Aharon’s father passed away. Rav Aharon was four months shy of his twelfth birthday. After his father’s passing, he remained in Svisloch for two months.

Krinik

After the yomim tovim in 5664, Rav Aharon attended R’ Zalman Sender Kahana-Shapiro’s yeshiva, Anaf Eitz Chaim, in Krinik. Krinik was a small shtetl in a valley lying between two flat mountains in Belarus. Like Svisloch, its main industry was tanning.

Rav Zalman Sender (1851–1923) had studied under the Beis HaLevi in Brisk and was the chevrusah, learning-partner, of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik. Rav Zalman Sender was both the rav and rosh yeshiva in Krinik. Previously he had been so in Maltch (where he had remarried) and he eventually settled in the Shaarei Chessed section of Jerusalem in 1921. His son was Reb Avrohom Dov Shapiro, the author of the Dvar Avrohom, the last Rav of Kovno. Other talmidim of Rav Zalman Sender were Rav Avrohom Yaffen and Rav Isser Yehudah Unterman. His seforim were published posthumously under the title Chidushei HagraZaS on Kodshim.

There were approximately 80 students in Rav Zalman Sender’s yeshiva. It seems that Rav Aharon remained there for two zmanim. Then Rav Aharon returned to his uncle’s home in Minsk.

Minsk

Minsk was a vastly different city than any other that Rav Aharon had known. At the time there were about 40,000 Jewish residents in Minsk, and it was known as the Jerusalem of White Russia, with numerous synagogues. The majority of Minsk’s residents were Jewish.

Rav Aharon began to study in the Katzovisheh Shul (the Butcher’s Shul) in Minsk and there met Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, zt’l, who would become a lifelong friend. This was in September of 1904. Reb Yaakov was ten months older than the young Rav Aharon, and invited him over to his home in Minsk for meals and an occasional game of chess.

Reb Boruch Ber’s Yeshiva

Rav Aharon did not return to Krinik after the yomim tovim in 1904 and instead went to Yeshiva Kneses Beis Yitzchok in Slabodka, where Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz had just been appointed the rosh yeshiva. He was a talmid of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik. He remained there for one zman, where he made the acquaintance of talmidim in the other yeshiva in Slabodka, Knesses Yisroel. Among those talmidim was Rav Yaakov Yechiel Weinberg. Rav Aharon remained in Rav Boruch Ber’s yeshiva from after yom tov of 1904 until Pesach of 1905.

The Katzovisheh Shul

In Minsk

After the one zman learning in Kneseth Beis Yitzchok, Rav Aharon returned to his uncle’s house in Minsk and learned in the Katzovisheh Shul for twelve months. This was probably from Pesach of 1905 until Pesach 1906. Rav Aharon was 14 years old.

The Katzovisheh shul used to give the talmidim learning there a monthly stipend of 2 rubles. The better students got 3 rubles a month. Rav Aharon was given 5 rubles per month. The buying power of one ruble in 1905 Russia was about five dozen eggs or two chickens.

Rebbitzen Rachel Chadash recorded the following words about this remarkable shul:

The synagogue of butchers (the Katzovisheh shul) contained a “gathering” (Kibbutz) of youths. A “gathering” refers to a yeshiva of youths and adults, aged 18 and older, who study Torah themselves, without the tutelage of a head of a yeshiva. A volunteer from among the rabbis of the city or a guest who was learned in Torah would visit there and deliver a class to the youths of the “gathering.” Many people of the city studied in the “gathering.” It was presumed that someone who studied in the “gathering” was great in Torah.

Some of them studied Yoreh Deah in order to study for the rabbinate, and others studied Torah for its own sake. In general, this was not considered beneficial for obtaining a marriage partner. In most of Lithuania and Belarus, young scholars had an exceptionally difficult time finding marriage partners. The youths who came from nearby or faraway towns had their food provided by the butchers. They lodged in the synagogue.

The Culture Of Minsk

Minsk at the time was a hotbed both for Jewish culture as well as for Hertzl’s movement in Russia. Achad HaAm was invited to the town and a huge conference was held in Minsk in 1902 where he spoke about Haskallah. This speech was the high point of his career—packing every seat in Minsk.

Rav Aharon’s sister, Malka, also in Minsk, traveled in different circles in Minsk than her uncle, the dayan. Other family members tried influencing him and even registered him in a religious haskalah school. Of course, he did not attend.

While in the Katzovisheh Shul Kibbutz, as it was called, both Rav Aharon and Rav Yaakov were introduced to Rav Reuven Grozovsky. Rav Reuven was a student of the Alter of Slabodka, who had heard of the child prodigy known as Aharon Soslovicher. Now that he was no longer studying at the other yeshiva in Slabodka—Knesses Beis Yitzchok—and was in the active hotbed that was Minsk, getting Rav Aharon to come to Knesses Beis Yisroel in Slabodka was an imperative. Rav Reuven spoke to them in learning and convinced them of the intellectual growth that the two could achieve in Slabodka. His goal was to get them away from the influences seeking to distance them from Torah study. He recruited other Slabodka talmidim from Minsk, Asher Kerstein and Zalman Yoseph Baininson, to assist in convincing them.

He also spoke to Rav Shlomo Golovenchitz, a rosh yeshiva in Minsk who got funding for the train tickets for the two young men. The funding came from R’ Yaakov Noach Oxenkrug. The two left for Slabodka after Pesach in 1906.

Yeshiva Knesses Yisroel

In Slabodka

While in the Katzovisheh Shul kibbutz, both Rav Aharon Kotler and Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky were introduced to Rav Reuven Grozovsky. Rav Reuven spoke to Rav Shlomo Golovenchitz, a rosh yeshiva in Minsk, who got funding for the train tickets for the two young men. The funding came from R’ Yaakov Noach Oxenkrug. The two left for Slabodka after Pesach in 1906.

Minsk to Slabodka was a 180-mile train trip. Rav Aharon and Rav Yaakov decided to see Vilna on the way and got slightly lost while there.

Rav Aharon arrived in Knesses Yisroel in Slabodka after Pesach in 1906. He remained there for five years.

The origins of both yeshivos in Slabodka date back to the Kovno Kollel started in 1877, upon the return of Rav Yisroel Salanter to Eastern Europe. Rav Yitzchok Elchonon Spector had become Rav of Kovno thirteen years earlier in 1864. He passed away in 1896.

The administrators of the Kovno Kollel were Rav Avrohom Shenker and Rav Yitzeleh Blazer. Rav Blazer was with the kollel from 1880 to 1891. Rav Blazer brought in Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel as an unofficial administrator, not yet known as the Alter of Slabodka. Rav Nosson Tzvi argued that there could be four single bachurim for every married kollel man. Slowly the kollel members were replaced by bachurim, and by 1882, there existed a fully functioning yeshiva.

A year later, in 1883, Rav Yisroel Salanter passed away, deeply affecting both Rav Blaser and Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel. Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel had molded the developing yeshiva by further hiring kollel members to teach the bachurim. In 1889, Rav Yitzel Rabinowitz was hired to serve as the rosh yeshiva, and he remained there for five years until 1894 when he took a rabbanus.

In his stead, in 1894, two magiddei shiur from Volozhin were hired. They were brothers-in-law, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer and Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein.

Rav Blaser and Rav Finkel were strong adherents of the Mussar movement, which caused some tension within the yeshiva. In 1897, a year after Rav Yitzchok Elchonon had passed away, a meeting was held by Lithuanian rabbanim, presided over by Rav Tzvi Hirsch Rabinowitz. A ruling was issued that Rav Nosson Tzvi must remove himself from the Kovno Kollel.

Rav Finkel observed the ruling and announced to the 200 students in the beis midrash that he was going to open another yeshiva in the Butcher’s Kloiz across the river. Fifty bachurim joined him, as did Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein. Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, who was to eventually become Rav Aharon’s father-in-law, had been dispatched six months earlier to Slutsk to start a yeshiva there. When the Alter formed his new Yeshiva, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer returned to assist in the new yeshiva.

The new yeshiva opened in 1897 and was named Knesses Yisroel after Rav Yisroel Salanter, who had founded both the original kollel and the Mussar movement. The Alter planned to make mussar the essence of the new yeshiva. The original yeshiva took on the name Knesses Beis Yitzchok after Rav Yitzchok Elchonon Spector, the gadol of the generation.

Knesses Beis Yitzchok had a number of roshei yeshiva before they ultimately engaged Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz. After the break, Rav Moshe Danishevsky, the Rav of Slabodka, served as the main maggid shiur. Afterward, Rav Chaim Rabinowitz, the rav of Myshad became the rosh hayeshiva. He eventually left and took a position as a maggid shiur in the yeshiva in Telze.

Slabodka technically means “suburb” in Slavic. It was originally called Vilyampoleh and was a suburb of Kovno, connected by a famous wooden bridge over the Vilaya River. The bridge cracked every year from the melting ice. The Alter used to say of this bridge, “It was always meant to be a one-way bridge—from the turbulence of Kovno to the spirituality of Slabodka.”

The seder in Slabodka began with Shacharis at 7:00 a.m. This was followed by breakfast in the stanzia, the dormitory, and seder began at 9:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m. the morning seder was over and they davened Minchah.

At the time there were close to 400 students in the yeshiva. Some others in the Slabodka Yeshiva at the same time as Rav Aharon were Rav Avrohom Kalmanovitch, Rav Dovid Leibowitz, and Rav Chatzkel Sarna.

Slutsk

Rav Aharon left for Slutsk in 5672 (at the end of 1911). Slutsk was known as a city of die-hard misnagdim and was one of the few cities in Russia that did not develop a chassidishe contingent. In 1897, the Ridbaz, Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Vilovsky, had approached the Alter of Slabodka to open a branch of the yeshiva in Slutsk. Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer was placed in charge, prior to his coming back to Slabodka after the initial breakoff. The Alter sent 14 top students to Slutsk. Among them were Rav Laizer Yudel Finkel, the Alter’s son, who eventually became the rosh yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva; Rav Rafael Alter Shmulevitz, father of Rav Chaim Shmulevitz; Rav Yoseph Kanovitz, eventually the son-in-law of the Ridbaz; Rav Shlomo Pletchinsky, a future son-in-law of the Alter of Slabodka; Rav Moshe Yom Tov Wachtfogel, father of Rav Nosson Wachtfogel; Rav Pesach Prusskin, rebbi of Rav Moshe Feinstein; and Rav Reuven Katz, Chief Rabbi of Petach Tikvah.

Some 300 students studied at Slutsk at one particular time—many of them future luminaries. Rav Yoseph Eliyahu Henkin, Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, Rav Elazar Shach, and Rav Moshe Feinstein were among its students. In the early years, the Alter of Slabodka and Rav Yitzeleh Blazer would spend weeks at a time there as well.

In 1911, shortly before Rav Aharon’s arrival, the yeshiva obtained its own building. Each member of the town came and contributed to it. The entire city came out for the inauguration of the new building.

Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer wanted Rav Aharon for his daughter, Rivka Chana Perel. He was concerned that a wealthy gvir might take the initiative in taking this outstanding iluy as a son-in-law. When he heard that others had discovered the young Rav Aharon, he quickly returned to Slabodka to arrange the shidduch. Of note is that Rav Isser Zalman also sought a suitable young man for his niece, who was an orphan and whom he had raised as his own daughter. He married this niece to another young iluy, Reb Elazar Menachem Mann Shach, later to be known as the famed Rav Shach of Yeshivas Ponevezh.

Rav Aharon married and settled in Slutsk. One year later, Rav Isser Zalman asked his son-in-law to give a shiur in the yeshiva. Rav Aharon was 22 years old. Rav Isser Zalman said the shiur on Mondays and Thursdays, while Rav Aharon said the shiur on Tuesdays.

Although Slutsk was a fairly large Jewish community, the economic situation was weak, primarily because of poor transportation lines. In 1914, however, Slutsk did get its own railway station, which eased the economic situation.

Rav Aharon was 26 when his only son, Chaim Shneur, was born in 1918, in Slutsk, Russia. Only Rav Shneur and his sister, Sarah, survived infancy. Rav Aharon Kotler named his son after his first rebbi—his father, Rav Shneur Zalman Pines. However, as his father-in-law was named Isser Zalman, he left off the Zalman, naming him Shneur and adding the name Chaim, as his father had died when he was young. A few years later, the young Chaim Shneur became deathly ill and they added the name Yoseph, for a full name of Yoseph Chaim Shneur.

(To be continued)

The author can be reached at [email protected]