Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim

Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim HaLevi Al-HaRambam (Hebrew: חידושי רבינו חיים הלוי על הרמב"ם, lit. Our Rabbi Chaim the Levite’s Novellae on Maimonides) is a volume of insights written by Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, it also contains numerous novel understandings of the Talmud. Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik is known as the founder of the Brisker Derech (also known as Lomdus, the conceptual approach to Talmudic study), and was famous for the brilliant manner with which he reconciled contradictions in Maimonides' writings. The text was written in a very terse style whose intricacy is difficult to decipher even for those very familiar with the Brisker Derech, and was written for those already on a very advanced level of Talmudic and Halachic study.[1] Rabbi Chaim’s son Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik first printed it posthumously in 1936, he stated in the preface that his father wrote it with extreme precision, having “sifted the text seven times over and winnowed it a hundred times more.” [2] Some years later a commentary on Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim was written by Rabbi Chaim’s student Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky.[3]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ “Rabbenu Chaim HaLevi's sefer of chiddushim on the Rambam was indeed a sefer that opened gates of light, one "whose expression was enlightening and waters pure," in the Grach's sons' words, but it is a difficult sefer. It words are not understandable from only a light reading, even to those who are used to the Brisker way of thinking. The Grach's son, Rav Moshe zt'l, once said that the sefer is difficult because his father wrote it for men on his level, and he cited the Or Somayach zt'l as an example. It is for such men, he said, that the sefer was written.” In-Depth Features: A Divine Prince in our Midst by Mordechai Plaut
  2. ↑ Mentor of Generations: Reflections on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik by Zev Eleff. Published by KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2008. Pg. 84
  3. ↑ Sunset: Stories of Our Contemporary Torah Luminaries, Zt"l, and Their Spiritual Heroism by Hanoch Teller, Marsi Tabak. Edition: 2. Published by Feldheim Publishers, 1987. Pg. 256.

See also


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