Part I
The building on Rechov Adoniyohu Hakohen in Yerushalayim
refused to reveal the events taking place inside it. We
knocked gently on the door and saw a modest home with an old
bookshelf, an old table, and simple chairs. We sensed that
serene tranquility that has always been the reserve of the
gedolim: Toras Hashem temimoh, meshivas nofesh.
We waited several minutes for the arrival of HaRav Zvi
Markowitz. We surveyed the worn-out volumes of Shas
that were purchased after the War, when there was a severe
shortage of paper in Eretz Yisroel and a great demand
for a Shas. A Shas was printed in Germany, and
on the illustrated title page the following posuk was
quoted: "I was almost destroyed from the land, but I did not
forget Your commandments."
We were awakened from our thoughts when the Rosh Yeshiva of
Karlin walked into the room. His high, wrinkled forehead,
which showed the sign of deep understanding, and his shining
face immediately imparted a rare atmosphere: we were
privileged to be in the presence of one of the oldest
roshei yeshiva of our generation.
The Chazon Ish ztv"l considered the establishment of
yeshivas in Eretz Yisroel to be the restoration of
Torah to its own home. The face of the Chazon Ish -- who was
one of the architects of the promise "it shall not be
forgotten from his descendants" -- lit up every time he saw a
talmid chochom who had plucked up the courage to teach
Torah in a yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel after the
destruction in Europe. This is how he started off a letter in
5709 (1949) addressed to "Our dear friend, Morenu HaRav Zvi
[Markowitz] shlita from Yeshivas Slonim in the Holy
Land in the town of Ramat Gan":
"For several centuries now the yeshivas of Bovel have been in
exile paving the path for their return to the country from
which they were exiled. They were destroyed in Bovel and
rebuilt in the foreign territories of Spain, France, and
Germany. Their names have disappeared, but not their souls.
This is the Torah that went through ten exiles and built a
home for itself in Eretz Shin'ar. It went into exile
from Bovel to the Western countries. This is the Torah that
is now returning from the desolate Western countries to the
beloved and holy country that was given to our forefathers as
an eternal inheritance, and which served as its home when it
came from Sinai to appear with its shining rays amidst the
Jewish nation."
We mentioned this letter to the rov but did not ask any
unnecessary questions. "We have come to listen not to talk,"
we told the rov, and only asked one question: "Where does our
generation stand today in terms of the chain of Torah
tradition?"
The Rosh Yeshiva of Karlin, who himself is certainly part of
the transmission of the Torah fortresses from previous
generation in his capacity as a talmid muvhak of HaRav
Shimon Shkop ztv"l rosh yeshiva of the Grodno
Yeshiva and of R' Boruch Ber ztv"l from Kamenitz, and
who before that had absorbed massive quantities of Torah and
its ways in Slonim Yeshiva -- one of the first yeshivas
founded after Volozhin -- under the guidance of his future
father-in-law, the rosh yeshiva HaRav Shabsai Yogel
ztv"l, was surely the right person to tell us about
the Torah that had returned to the beloved Land, we thought
to ourselves, and asked again: "How would he classify the
current state of affairs? How has the Torah taken root in the
study halls of the yeshivas today?"
The elderly Rosh Yeshiva of Karlin chooses his words very
carefully. He is not one, chas vesholom, to make
superficial statements. Because of this, and the serious
atmosphere of our meeting, we cannot take full responsibility
that we have faithfully rendered his statements, which were
made in Yiddish, into English. However, we have tried our
best:
"We can't guess what the Chazon Ish meant: the
Rishonim already said, `If I understood him, I would
be him.' And the same applies to understanding what the
Chazon Ish meant with his statement about the transmission of
our Torah from generation to generation. However, in my
humble opinion, the reality is as follows:
"Those who learn Torah, toil over the words of the
gemora with the Rishonim, delving into the
depths of their statements. They comment on and clarify their
intentions. How can we know whether we are following the
right path? Is this what the Rashbo really meant? Did the
Ramban have that in mind?
"The answer is that the Vilna Gaon serves as our assurance in
this matter. His was a [or: he was a personification of]
Toras Emes with regard to all the parts of the Torah
and, as we know, the yeshivas in our day have their
foundations in [the Torah of the] Vilna Gaon. Our very
structure of learning -- [our way of] understanding and
explaining [the material] originates from the Vilna Gaon.
HaRav Chaim Volozhiner, who founded the Volozhin Yeshiva, was
a talmid muvhak of the Vilna Gaon and our methods of
limmud to this day are his methods."
We perk up our ears to hear more:
"The concept of the transmission of Torah is well known. It
seems difficult to understand this concept, because it is
clear that after the Talmud was concluded we were not allowed
to add or detract from it, as the Rambam writes in his
introduction to Mishneh Torah: `Ravina and Rav Ashi
and their colleagues were the last of the gedolim
amongst the chachomim of the nation who transmitted
the Torah shebe'al peh.' Rabbeinu Yonah at the
beginning of maseches Ovos writes that once all the
chachomim who had received the Torah as transmitted
from generation to generation met and they all made a joint
decision to put the Torah shebe'al peh into writing
and they wrote and finalized the Talmud currently in our
possession, after this nothing was to be added or detracted
from it.
"If so, what is there to be transmitted from rav to
talmid other than what is already written in the
gemora itself? What is it that is transmitted from
generation to generation, if everything is already written in
the gemora and the Talmud marked the conclusion of the
process of transmission of the Torah?
"The answer is that what has been transmitted from the
Rishonim to the Acharonim until our time is not
what to learn but how to learn. The essence of
the Torah shebe'al peh has not changed since the
Talmud was concluded, but the structure of learning has been
transmitted from the Rishonim to the Acharonim
from generation to generation via all sorts of methods of
limmud, and the Yeshiva world in our time learns
according to the method handed down via the Vilna Gaon.
"In practice," continues HaRav Markowitz, "the institution of
the yeshiva has taken on various shapes and forms over the
generations. There were times in our history when the whole
Jewish nation constituted one big yeshiva: every shul
was also a beis hamedrash and every rov was also a
rosh yeshiva of talmidim (our fathers still
told us of such conditions even in recent times), but [when
the spiritual situation of the nation] became weaker and
Torah study in depth with toiling and diligence started to
diminish, the gedolim -- in anticipation of future
events -- decided to concentrate all the candles into one
holy flame, and they created the yeshiva in its most recent
format.
"The yeshiva in its current form was founded by HaRav Chaim
Volozhiner under the instructions of the Vilna Gaon who was
the main receiver of the Torah tradition of his generation
and he established its framework and its manner of
transmission for future generations. These are the yeshivas,
which exist in our day.
"This is the system that is in place in Eretz Yisroel
and in chutz lo'oretz. In most yeshivas, i.e. in the
yeshivas of our brethren the Sephardim and in Chassidic
yeshivas, they all learn according to this system. The
transmission of Torah has been put back on the rails. The
venues of Torah have changed over the generations, but the
same Torah has been studied in all of them. In this lies the
answer to your question where does our generation stand today
in terms of the chain of Torah tradition.
"The Chazon Ish ztv"l kept a close watch on the
development of talmidim and spoke a lot in
limmud with the roshei yeshivos and with the
talmidim. He examined them and listened to the way
they were learning, and when he saw that the derech
halimud of those who had absorbed the tzuras
halimud from rabbonim before the Holocaust had taken
root, he was very pleased. I myself was given a yasher
koach by him when he heard divrei Torah from a
talmid at our yeshiva who had heard shiurim
based on what I had heard from [my] rabbonim in yeshivas [I
attended]."
At this stage we interrupted the rov to ask him about the
derech halimmud of the Chazon Ish himself.
The Rosh Yeshiva of Karlin answered as follows:
"The Chazon Ish with his geonus certainly also
included the standard derech halimmud of the yeshivas,
and in most of his written chidushim he includes in an
abbreviated form the pshat of the sugya
according to the basic derech halimmud adopted by the
yeshivas. He once said that in the Chazon Ish on
Bovo Kammo he expanded at greater length than what is
customary in the yeshivas, intending this as a present to the
yeshivas. When he talked to us in limmud it was along
the same lines that we were used to from the yeshivas. As we
know, it was the Chazon Ish who pushed for and encouraged the
establishment of all the yeshivas in Eretz Yisroel and
he saw in this how the Torah returned to its home. As he
wrote in the letter on the yeshivas in our day: `This is the
Torah that went through ten exiles and built a home for
itself in Eretz Shin'ar . . . This is the Torah that
is now returning . . . to the beloved and holy country.' "
