Part one was a review of Rabbi Pinchas Stolper's (1931–2022) seven books written in English based on the teachings and translations of Rav Yitzchok Hutner's (1906–1980) Pachad Yitzchok books. Part two was a review of Rabbi Yitzchok Alster's (b. 1935) five books written in English based on interpretations and translations of Rav Hutner's works.
Almost 44 years after the passing of its famous Rosh Yeshiva Rav Yitzchok Hutner (1906–1980), Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin–Kollel Gur Aryeh finally saw the publication of two groundbreaking volumes, both English translations, of works by and about Rav Hutner, with the impetus of Rabbi Avraham Fruchthandler (b. 1943) the President of the yeshiva and with the blessings of Rav Yonosan David (Rav Hutner's son in law) the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn and Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok in Jerusalem.
The first volume is "PACHAD YITZCHOK: Selected Maamarim of Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner on Shabbos and the Yamim Tovim. Adapted by [Rabbi] Eliakim Willner" (Published by ArtScroll Mesorah Publications). The second volume is "An Inner Life: Perspectives on the Legacy of Harav Yitzchok Hutner zt"l from the ZICHRONOS ["Memories"] of his daughter Rebbitzen Bruriah David. Adapted into English by Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner" (Published by Gur Aryeh Institute for Advanced Jewish Scholarship [and] Bais Medrash Pachad Yitzchok).
Both translators, Rabbi Willner and Rabbi Kirzner, are devoted students and disciples of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin–Kollel Gur Aryeh in Brooklyn although for most of their lives they were there when Rav Hutner's successor Rav Aaron Schechter (1928–2023) served as the main Rosh Yeshiva so that their personal connections to Rav Hutner are not as strong and deep as the much earlier life-long connections that Rabbi Pinchas Stolper (1931–2022) and Rabbi Yitzchok Alster (b. 1935), the other translators of Rav Hutner's works, had with the master himself.
During the last years of Rav Hutner's life sometime in the 1970s he reached out to the young Rabbi Willner about the prospects of starting an English translation of Rav Hutner's Pachad Yitzchok books as Rabbi Willner recounts in his Foreword, that started Rabbi Willner on his lifelong quest to work on translating Rav Hutner's books, even though he had to wait a very long time after Rav Hutner's passing in 1980, almost 44 years, to see the publication of his recent work on Pachad Yitzchok by ArtScroll.
There is an interesting historical connection between Rabbi Willner and Rabbi Kirzner in that in 1981, a year after Rav Hutner had passed away, Rabbi Willner translated a very small number of vignettes from the newly published "Letters" of Rav Hutner that were interspersed as part of a much longer article "By the Writing Desk of the Master" (published in The Jewish Observer, December 1981) written by Rabbi Kirzner's father, Rabbi Israel Meir Kirzner (b. 1930) who is also a famous economist.
Rabbi Israel Meir Kirzner was one of Rav Hutner's closest disciples, so much so that Rav Hutner relied on him to write up the tables of contents with the lists of Torah sources for Rav Hutner's books and he is the father of the ArtScroll writer and editor Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner as well as of several other sons who are distinguished rabbis in their own right. In fact, in his Preface to "An Inner Life" Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner thanks his father Rabbi Israel Meir Kirzner for his "great part in this great work" of translating the biography by Rebbetzin David of her father Rav Hutner.
Rabbi Ekiakim Willner is an accomplished author and translator. Two of his best known works are translations of the works of the MAHARAL of Prague (1512–1609) "NESIVOS OLAM: Nesiv HaTorah: An Appreciation of Torah Study" (Mesorah Publications, 1994) and "NESIVOS OLAM: Nesiv HaAvodah: The Philosophy and Practice of Prayer" (Mesorah Publications, 2016). Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner works as a General Editor at ArtScroll Publications on Judaica books such as "SEFER ZERA SHIMSHON: [Ten Volumes] Translated and Elucidated by a team of Torah Scholars under the General Editorship of Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner" (ArtScroll Mesorah Publications, 2023).
So there is not a shred of doubt about the reliability, loyalty, talents, skills, and scholarship of both rabbis who are distinguished Talmidei Chachamim (Torah scholars) in their own right, in undertaking the serious job of translating and elucidating the complex works written in Hebrew by and about Rav Hutner into good English all while remaining true and faithful to the pure heritage of the Godliness and holiness of the entire Torah and its related scholarship.
Interestingly, both Rabbi Willner and Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner say the same thing in the opening remarks to their translations. They both effusively thank Rabbi Avraham Fruchthandler (b. 1943) the long time President, businessman, philanthropist and main benefactor of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin–Kollel Gur Aryeh in Brooklyn and of Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok–Kollel Ohr Eliyahu in Jerusalem for making the publication of their translations possible. Rabbi Willner writes in the Acknowledgements to his book that: "I, and in fact the entire Olam HaTorah ["Torah world"], owe a great debt of gratitude to Reb Avrohom Fruchthandler, noted Askan ["activist"], and patron of the Yeshiva par excellence. Among many, many other things, he championed the cause of actualizing Rav Hutner's desire that there be an English edition of the Pachad Yitzchok. Without Reb Avrohom's involvement, this work would not have come to fruition."
In a similar vein Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner writes in his Translator's Preface to his book that: "In his own lifelong commitment to furthering the Rosh Hayeshiva's [Rav Hutner's] legacy, Reb Avraham Fruchthandler [b. 1943] conceived this project and spearheaded it. Although the translator bears responsibility for all its shortcomings, it is to him that all the credit is due"!
The question arises: Why did it take so long? Since, as Rabbi Willner says in his Foreword, that: "About fifty years ago [sometime in the 1970s], I got word that the Rosh HaYeshiva, Rav Hutner, zt"l, wished to speak with me...and told me... I would like you to write over some of my Maamarim [lectures] from Pachad Yitzchok in[to] English...When I next spoke with the Rosh HaYeshiva himself he reiterated the sentiment and told me I should continue adapting Pachad Yitzchok Maamorim for an English-speaking audience."!
Why did it take close to fifty years for serious translations of Rav Hutner's Pachad Yitzchok books to be undertaken? As Rabbi Willner says, from the time he got his mandate to translate Rav Hutner's books he continued with that mission all the time, for fifty years! So why wasn't the translated work edited and published starting five decades ago as it is hopefully being slowly done today?
The answer is that there were different schools of thought behind the scenes at the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin after Rav Hutner passed away in 1980 whether to go ahead with Rav Hutner's own declared wishes to see his written Pachad Yitzchok works translated into good English. Obviously the conservative school of thought held sway for almost fifty years and did not give the green light to any official translations into English of Rav Hutner's books feeling that they would lose the specificity, efficacy, potency, and perhaps even the holiness that they carried in the original Hebrew.
We also see from the written statements of both Rabbi Willner and Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner that it was Rabbi Avrohom Fruchthandler who, behind the scenes, headed the school of thought that pushed for the translation and publication of both the Pachad Yitzchok by Rabbi Willner and of the biography by Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner that finally came to fruition in 2024!
Rabbi Willner, given a writer's and poetic license, has chosen an unusual presentation of Rav Hutner's Pachad Yitzchok books by creating a basic theme and then presenting a selection of translations from the kaleidoscope of Rav Hutner's writings based on that theme. Rabbi Willner's book does not take a single volume or series of chapters from one of Rav Hutner's books and then translate and explain them. He describes his methodology as: "I am finally able to bring a carefully curated selection of the Rosh Yeshiva's Maamarim [lectures] before an English-speaking public. My original thought was to gather for publication all the Maamarim and Igros [letters] on Krias [reading] Shema [Hear O Israel], Birchos [blessings of] Krias Shema, and Kabbolas Ol Malchus Shamayim [accepting the yoke of Heaven]...The connection of each Maamar to the unifying Shema theme is presented at the beginning of the Maamar."
This means that although an officially sanctioned translation of Rav Hutner's Pachad Yitzchok books has supposedly begun, for now the English-speaking public will have to suffice with a set of selective translations following a thematic presentation according to the Shema (Hear O Israel) prayer.
Hopefully in the future when Rav Hutner's books will be fully translated in the way they were originally written and published then Rabbi Willner's selections will be included in a more comprehensive true-to-form project. Rabbi Willner did not act on his own but as his translation makes clear he received the blessings and approval, the approbation, of Rav Hutner's son in law Rav Yonosan David who spends most of his time in Jerusalem where he is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok while when in America he is also the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn.
Rabbi Willner acknowledges Rav Yonosan David's approval: "Expression of Hakoras HaTov ["gratitude"]: Heartfelt thanks to the Rosh HaYeshiva, Moreinu Verabbeinu Rosh HaYeshiva Hagaon Rav Yonosan Dovid David Shlit"a for authorizing the publication of this work and for his support and Berachos [blessings] of encouragement as it progressed." Most significantly, Rabbi Willner dedicates his book to the memories of Rav Aaron Schechter (1928–2023) and to Rebbetzin Bruriah David (1938–2023), who with her husband Rav Yonosan David, following the passing of Rav Hutner in 1980, were the main teachers, expositors, spokespeople and guardians of Rav Hutner's Pachad Yitzchok works and the Hilchos Deios Vechovos Halevavos ("laws of ideas and obligations of the heart") as Rav Hutner's thought systems were named and called by him.
Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner, in "An Inner Life", takes the straight path of translating as best he can Rebbetzin David's biography about her father. It is not a biography in the critical scholarship style of the secular academic world that Rebbetzin David herself was intimately familiar with because she had studied at university and had a prestigious PhD degree from Columbia University. Her official thesis for her doctorate was a critical analysis of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Chajes known as the Maharatz Chajes (1805–1855): "The Dual Role of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes: Traditionalist and Maskil" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1971) wherein, while acknowledging Rabbi Chajes as a giant Torah scholar, she nevertheless critiques Rabbi Chajes's association with some Maskilim (followers of the Jewish Enlightenment movement) and tendency to approve of Jewish Haskala ("Enlightenment") personalities and methods.
As in the case of Rabbi Willner, Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner thanks Rebbetzin David's husband, Rav Yonosan David, for his support of the translation: "The Rosh HaYeshivah, Harav R' Yonasan Shlit"a, was encouraging from the beginning of the work, and provided crucial input whenever it was needed. The translator greatly appreciated his Chizuk ["encouragement"] and warmth, which certainly impacted the project."
Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner writes in his Translator's Preface and starts his book as follows: "Within a few years of the Rosh Hayeshivah's [Rav Hutner's] passing, Rebbitzen David penned the Zichronos ["Memories"] section of a Sefer Zikaron ["memorial book"] that was published in his memory [by Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin]. She based her work primarily on the Rosh Hayeshivah's own words, which she culled from his writings and various other sources, and divided it into two sections. The first section traces his life as he advanced through his years, from a young Bachur [unmarried young man] until his final days, and the second elaborates on various aspects of his Avodas Hachaim ["life's work"].
This volume is an adaptation of her work for an English-speaking audience." He ends the work with this translation of Rebbetzin David's words: "It is thus our Tefillah [prayer], that the endeavor of transcribing some of our recollections of the Rosh Hayeshivah's life will serve...To give lastingness and continuance to the Sefer Torah ["Torah scroll"] that was his life, and to ensure that the Torah he taught will continue to flourish even though he is no longer with us."
In this series of articles we have so far mentioned and reviewed fourteen books that are combinations of interpretations and translations into first class English based on the works and life of Rav Yitzchok Hutner. In the first article we presented seven titles based on Rav Yitzchok Hutner's books and thought systems by his devoted disciple Rabbi Pinchas Stolper (1931–2022). In the second article we reviewed five titles by Rabbi Yitzchok Alster (b. 1935), another devoted disciple of Rav Yitzchok Hutner. In this article we looked at two titles by younger disciples of the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin–Kollel Gur Aryeh with strong connections to Rav Yitzchok Hutner, one by Rabbi Eliakim Willner and one by Rabbi Shmuel Kirzner.
Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin was born to Holocaust survivor parents in Israel, grew up in South Africa, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is an alumnus of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and of Teachers College–Columbia University. He heads the Jewish Professionals Institute dedicated to Jewish Adult Education and Outreach – Kiruv Rechokim. He was the Director of the Belzer Chasidim's Sinai Heritage Center of Manhattan. He is the author of The Second World War and Jewish Education in America: The Fall and Rise of Orthodoxy. Contact Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin at izakrudomin@gmail.com
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