A well known Lubavitch author, Rabbi Chaim Dalfin, wrote a fascinating book, also containing many informative footnotes, about the relationship between the famous Rosh Yeshiva Rav Yitzchok Hutner (1906 –1980) and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994) as well as with Chabad–Lubavitch in general. The name of the book is "Rabbi Hutner and Rebbe" (Jewish Enrichment Press, 2019) and it is unique in many ways. Rav Hutner and Rebbe book cover Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin First because there are virtually hardly any biographies or books about Rav Hutner while there are a variety of books published about the Lubavitcher Rebbe since he passed away in 1994. Second, it is a highly controversial matter to write about a great non-Hasidic Lithuanian-style rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva such as Rav Hutner having an intimate relationship with both the last and seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe as well as with the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn (1880–1950). Thirdly, what makes this matter so important is that Rav Hutner and both Lubavitcher Rebbes were key personalities in the rebuilding of Torah Judaism in America after the Holocaust. Fourth, it is truly a wonder that in a book about Rav Hutner and the Rebbe, so many important biographical details about Rav Hutner himself should emerge as a result of the author's meticulous research. The book has the written commendations of Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet Rothkoff (born 1937) a Professor at Yeshiva University's Caroline & Joseph Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, Israel and of Dr. David B. Levy Chief Librarian at Touro-Lander College for Women, New York City, USA. The following is a brief summary of the first half of the book's chapters: 1. Respectful Differences: From their first encounter in 1929 at the University of Berlin and at the home of Rav Chaim Heller (1879–1960) in Berlin; subsequently coming to Brooklyn and even learning together over a span of three years (1948–1951); and their written debate in 1967 regarding Lubavitchers putting on Tefillin (phylacteries) with Israeli soldiers and other non-observant Jews, notwithstanding all of these complex encounters and even disagreements, at the end of it all, towards the end of his life Rabbi Hutner said that the Rebbe was a friend whom he felt comfortable conversing with about anything. Rabbi Hutner also attended some of the previous Rebbe's, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn's 1940s Farbrengens ("celebrations') and meals in Brooklyn. Even though Rav Hutner would caution his own students not to attend the later Rebbe's Farbrengens, one could say that there was no offense intended in Rabbi Hutner's instructions that his students avoid participating in the Rebbe's Farbrengens. Rabbi Hutner, a master educator, a student of a great educator, Rav Noson Tzvi Finkel (1849–1927) known as the Alter ("elder") of Slabodka, learned from his teacher that a student must have total and unconditional subservience to his teacher. And if that is lacking, the entire educational foundation is tenuous. The Rebbe did not take this personally. On the contrary, when a time of emergency came he prayed for Rav Hutner and his family. In 1970 Rabbi Hutner, his wife Masha, daughter Bruria and her husband Rabbi Yonoson David with many other Jews that were on a plane from Israel to America were hijacked to Jordan by an Arab terrorist group. At a Farbrengen at that time during the captivity, the Rebbe said that the captives need Godly intervention for a miraculous salvation. It was also the Yohrtzeit ("commemorating the day of death") of the MAHARAL of Prague Rabbi Yehuda Loew ben Betzalel (1512–1609) whose teachings Rav Hutner had popularized. The Rebbe said: "May the merit of the Maharal help those who are passionate about the teachings of the Maharal. May he experience a miracle, a revealed miracle and a miracle above nature to save him and everyone else." The Rebbe also alluded to it being a decree from above in saying that the regular way God impacts the world is restricted for the captives. Less than ten days later Rabbi Hutner and all the others were freed. The Rebbe took personal interest in Rabbi Hutner's safety. A few months after he returned to safety, Rabbi Hutner had a private audience, known as Yechidus ("private audience") with the Rebbe. 2. Slabodka and Lubavitch: To compare and contrast Rabbi Hutner and the Rebbe, it is helpful to look at the contrasting education they received as teenagers and young adults. Rabbi Hutner received home tutoring and then attended the Slabodka yeshiva, known as Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael, from 1921 to 1929. He was fifteen when he started and twenty three when he left. From 1921 to 1925 he was with the yeshiva in Slabodka, in Russia/Lithuania and from 1925 to 1929 he was with the yeshiva in Hebron, British Mandate of Palestine. The Lubavitcher Rebbe did not study in a yeshiva for older teenagers and young adults but as a boy went to Cheder (Torah school for young boys) and had private Melamdim (tutors). When Rabbi Hutner was in Slabodka in Hebron from 1925 to 1929 he would visit Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935) in Jerusalem and when he returned to Jerusalem as a married man in 1933, the first time he visited Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Kook made a special "Shehecheyanu" blessing upon seeing Rabbi Hutner. Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria (1913–1995) quotes Rabbi Hutner as saying: "Rabbi Kook opened up for me the importance and understanding of the MAHARAL of Prague's teachings. If I had not met Rabbi Kook I would be missing fifty percent of my personality. Rabbi Kook was a GRA (Vilna Gaon, 1720–1797) student. A person's stature is similar to a house that has upper and lower foundations; my foundation 'floor' is the Alter of Slabodka (Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, 1849–1927) and my upper 'floor' is Rabbi Kook." Was Rabbi Hutner a Hasid or a Litvak? He was a Litvak who appreciated Hasidic teachings and culture, yet was very much part of the non-Hasidic Litvish yeshiva world. The people he was close to were mostly non-Hasidic Litvish Roshei Yeshiva and rabbis. The notable exception was the Lubavitcher Rebbe with whom he had, at times what seemed at least outwardly to be, a tumultuous relationship. Rabbi Hutner was a highly complicated person. As an example, his creative mind found the MAHARAL's teachings as a base for his creativity. He did not see himself as a student of the MAHARAL, rather as a continuation of the MAHARAL. Possibly, Rabbi Hutner felt an obligation to his teacher Rabbi Kook and the larger Jewish world that he can and should share the MAHARAL's gold with everyone. He succeeded in this endeavor. The fact is, no one else did this on the level he did. His Maamaraim ("lectures') were the embodiment of the MAHARAL's teachings. The Rebbe, in stating in public that Rabbi Hutner is passionate about the MAHARAL's teachings, lauded him as a serious disciple of the MAHARAL. 3. Students vs. Hasidim: Rabbi Dalfin, the author of "Rabbi Hutner and Rebbe" stresses the great differences between the Rav-Talmid (teacher-student) relationship in the non-Hasidic Litvish yeshiva type of educational system that Rabbi Hutner grew and worked in versus that of the Rebbe-Hasid relationship typical of Hasidism in the world that the Lubavitcher Rebbe lived in, stressing that a Litvish Rav (also known as a "Rebbi", with an "i") is not equivalent to a Hasidic Rebbe! However, when Rabbi Dalfin writes that Rabbi Hutner excelled in creating students who were dedicated to him with heart and soul nevertheless they were not his Hasidim because he was not a Hasidic Rebbe, he (Rabbi Dalfin) misses the mark. Certainly Rav Hutner would have loathed the English word "students" and would rather have used the Hebrew/Yiddish word "Talmidim" which does translate in English into "students" but carries a far deeper and profounder meaning in the original Hebrew/Yiddish. Similarly Rav Hutner would also have despised using the word "teachers" in connection with those who give over and disseminate the Torah to others. Rather than using the word "teachers" Rav Hutner would have insisted on using the word Rav or Rebbi (in the singular) or Rebbeim (plural) for what would commonly be called "teachers" in English. Just as Rav Hutner would not tolerate calling his disciples by their English given names but insisted that they be called by their Hebrew Jewish names, likewise in describing his own educational and pedagogical philosophy and methods Rav Hutner would never in a thousand years either use or give consent to be described as a mere "teacher" and his disciples as lowly "students"! Right off the bat when Rabbi Dalfin writes this chapter, he uses the word "Students" to describe the non-Hasidic Lithuanian yeshiva men, while using the word "Hasidim" to describe followers of Chabad and the Chabad Rebbes. Rabbi Dalfin goes to great lengths in describing the Rebbe-Hasid relationship and uses the correct Hebrew/Yiddish terms for that phenomenon, but unfortunately uses the incorrect English moniker "teacher-student" to describe the non-Hasidic Lithuanian yeshiva Bochurim (young men) in their yeshivas. The Rav-Talmid relationship is a key feature and foundation of not just the modern day non-Hasidic Lithuanian yeshiva system but goes back to Biblical times, and as the Mishna states "Moshe received the Torah from [God at Mount] Sinai and handed it over to Yehoshua..." (Pirkei Avot 1:1) who was his disciple, meaning Moses was the original Rebbi and Joshua was the Talmid! If anything, Rabbi Dalfin's descriptions of the latter-day Rebbe-Hasid bond was more typical of Rav Hutner's relationships with his disciples, more so than any other Rosh Yeshivas in the modern age. Rav Hutner was able to straddle many worlds and those surrounding him were part of many concentric circles that were multidimensional. On the outskirts were perhaps those Talmidim that may have appeared as no more than "students" and Rav Hutner as a distant "teacher" but as one closed in and got closer to the center of the circles the atmosphere was more like that between a "Hasidic Rebbe" and his "Hasidim". 4. Cultural Differences: This chapter deals with the stark differences between Rav Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe in so many ways. While Rav Hutner was from Warsaw Poland, and remained a "Poilisher" all his life even though he was a disciple of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian Slabodka Yeshiva headed by the Alter of Slabodka. Warsaw at the time of Rav Hutner's childhood was a very progressive city where the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment) and Zionism were very popular among its Jews. Rav Hutner became and was the consummate Rosh Yeshiva, preparing students to learn Torah in depth and develop good character traits or to become Torah-observant lay people. He was very guarded and private with most people including relatives. Rav Hutner was very secretive about himself and his personal life stemming from either his Polish cultural upbringing or by emulating the primary mentor of his youth the Alter of Slabodka who used to sign his name by reversing his initials to read HATZAFUN ("the hidden one") emulated by Rav Hutner so much so that Rav Hutner disliked attending fundraising dinners and conventions. In other differences, Rav Hutner would leave his home base in Brooklyn to his summer home at the coast or in the Catskills and eventually left his flock of students in Brooklyn and made Aliya settling in Israel towards the end of his life and it is there where he passed away and was buried. On the other hand the Lubavitcher Rebbe was born and raised in small towns ("shtetels") of the Ukrainian part of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. He lived mostly at home until the age of twenty four and came from a devout Lubavitch rabbinical family connected to the distinguished Chabad-Lubavitch royal dynasty of the Schneerson (or "sohn" with an "h"). family. His learning style was in the traditional Chabad manner. Once he came to America he basically never left Brooklyn and not once did he ever visit Israel. Russian Jews are supposedly more gregarious and outgoing and open by nature compared to Polish Jews. Although the Lubavitcher Rebbe stayed put in Brooklyn, he sent his Hasidim out all over the world as Shluchim ("emissaries") including to Israel, while most of Rav Hutner's disciples remained in Brooklyn and America. The Lubavitcher Rebbe passed away in America and was buried in Queens, New York, next to his father in law the sixth and previous Lubavitcher Rebbe. 5. Correspondence: Rabbi Hutner had an undeniable genuine interest and curiosity in Chabad Hasidism, its literature, teachers and teachings. Rabbi Hutner became very close with the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn who praised Rabbi Hutner highly, and with the seventh and last Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who became a weekly study partner, after they arrived in Brooklyn in the early 1940s. From 1951 onwards Rabbi Hutner and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson kept up a lively correspondence covering all manner of Torah topics. The correspondence between the Rebbe and Rabbi Hutner and vice versa displays a profound respectable relationship in personal, communal and Torah issues. In the Rebbe, Rabbi Hutner found an individual with whom he could easily discuss ideas in Zohar, Kabbala, Chasidus, Chakira, Jewish Philosophy and MAHARAL. At certain points the author of the book "Rabbi Hutner and Rebbe", Rabbi Chaim Dalfin, inserts comments suggesting that just as Rav Hutner studied Tanya, that is the magnum opus of Chabad-Lubavitch, and other related Chabad literature and the printed discourses of the various Lubavitcher Rebbers, that therefore so should present-day non-Hasidic Lithuanian yeshiva students and certainly students at the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin that Rav Hutner headed, study those same Chabad works as well. While this may make superficial sense it ignores the harder realities of the times Rav Hutner lived in and what has transpired since then. Firstly, the majority of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian-type yeshiva world that exists today mainly in Israel and America are not in any way disciples of Rav Hutner and have nothing to do with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Some are even very openly antagonistic to the Lubavitchers and accuse some of them of practicing false "messianism". Secondly, in this regard, Rav Hutner was "the exception that proves the rule" because even during his own lifetime, as even Rabbi Dalfin admits, Rav Hutner was a unique Rosh Yeshiva who incorporated thoughts systems that were never part of the historical Litvish yeshiva world. Rav Hutner incorporated what he learned from Rav Kook in his younger years in Israel as well as from the Lubavitcher Rebbes in America and from many other sources and streams of Torah thought. This was not done by the other non-Hasidic Lithuanian Rosh Yeshivas and certainly not by their disciples and followers today. Thirdly, Rav Hutner was what historians call a "transition figure" who linked not just the past with the future, but linked up diverse and even contradictory streams of Torah Judaism in an attempt to rebuild the Torah world in America and Israel after the terrible destruction and losses of the Holocaust years. The same cannot be said of his disciples who only knew and accepted Rav Hutner as their main source of Torah learning. Rav Hutner was someone who learned from various sources and can be called a "polymath" meaning that he was a person with a wide range of knowledge across many different disciplines since he actively sought information from diverse sources. 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 1988 – 1995, a Trustee of AJOP 1994 – 1997 and founder of American Friends of South African Jewish Education 1995 – 2015. From 2017 –2024 he was a docent and tour guide at The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Downtown Manhattan, New York. 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 @ gm ail. com
