Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik

Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik
The Brisker Rav
Reb Velvel (Yitzchok Zev) Soloveitchik
Personal details
Birth name	Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik
Born	19 October 1886 Valozhyn, Belarus
Died	11 October 1959 Jerusalem, Israel
Buried	Har HaMenuchos, Jerusalem
Denomination	Orthodox
Parents	Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik and Lifsha Shapira
Spouse	Alte Hendl Auerbach
Children	Freidel (1913–1919) Yosef Dov Lifsha (married Rabbi Yechiel Michel Feinstein) Chaim Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik Boruch Refoel Yehoshua Soloveitchik Gittel Sara Rascha (1926–1942) Meir Feige Tzirel (1931–1932) Rivka (married Rabbi Yaakov Schiff) Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Leib Shmuel Yaakov
Occupation	Rabbi

Yitzchok Zev Halevi Soloveitchik (Hebrew: יצחק זאב הלוי סולובייצ'יק), also known as Velvel Soloveitchik ("Zev" means "wolf" in Hebrew, and "Velvel" is the diminutive of "wolf" in Yiddish) or as the Brisker Rov ("rabbi of/from Brisk", (19 October 1886, Valozhyn – 11 October 1959, Jerusalem), was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva of the Brisk yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel. He was a son of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk. He is also commonly referred to as the GRYZ, an acronym for Gaon Rabbi Yitzchok Zev ("sage Rabbi Isaac Wolf") and "The Rov".

He served as the town rabbi of the Jewish community in Brisk and was the rosh yeshiva ("dean") of its yeshiva. He fled the Holocaust and moved to Palestine, where he re-established the Brisk Yeshiva in Jerusalem and continued educating students as his father did, in what would come to be known as the Brisker derech (Yiddish: the "Brisk method" or "Brisk approach") of analyzing the Talmud. This form of analysis stressed conceptual understanding combined with strict adherence to the text; it is also characterized by its emphasis on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. After his death, the yeshiva split, each son taking part of the following of the yeshiva.

Soloveitchik was a leader of the Haredi community in Israel and advocated complete withdrawal of participation with the Israeli government, the secular ideals and values of which were, in his view, antithetical to the principles of Orthodox Judaism. He went as far as opposing the reliance on government funding in support of yeshivas and other Torah institutions. This viewpoint was supported by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum and disputed by Rabbi Elazar Shach.