Highlighting: “Rav Elya Meir Sorotzkin: A Life of Love for Torah and Talmidim” by Avrohom Birnbaum. ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications. 2022. Hardcover. 464 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1422632765.
(Courtesy of Artscroll) He was a self-made man. Yes, he came from a princely family of Torah greatness. Yes, he was endowed with superb intellect. But perhaps it can be said that Rav Elya Meir Sorotzkin, zt”l soared to greatness despite these unique qualities, not because of them. His was a life of constant growth.
The fact that he was gifted never stopped him from trying even harder. As a young bachur, he understood that he would only be able to truly grow in Torah away from home in Telshe Cleveland. Only when he was just another talmid, not as the son of the rosh yeshiva. Nothing could stop him, not homesickness, not a different culture, nothing. Rather, his challenges built him.
That is the person you will meet in this new ArtScroll book, “Rav Elya Meir Sorotzkin.”
He became a rosh yeshiva at a very young age and, with “blood, sweat and tears,” as he would often say, built Yeshiva Tiferes Boruch into one of America’s premier institutions. Moreover, he built individual talmidim. Because he personally went through the painstaking process of self-discovery and growth, he was able to identify with the struggles and triumphs of his talmidim in a way that few could.
The last years of life were akin to a flame that burns increasingly bright before it is extinguished. Nothing could stop him from carrying on with his life’s mission of learning and teaching Torah, transmitting Torah in its purity and splendor to his talmidim.
His body was battered. His doctors viewed his ability to continue delivering his shiur until the last day that he was conscious as a medical miracle.
It wasn’t.
It was a culmination of a life of ratzon, of willpower, of never letting the physical get in the way of the spiritual.
This book will give you a deep appreciation for Torah. It will show you what a lifelong impact a rebbe can have on his talmidim and later their wives and children too. On every page, there is an inspiring story with which any reader can identify.
This book will elevate you, inspire you … and obligate you.
The following is one story from this riveting book:
The Gauge
It was a fascinating observation made by numerous talmidim. By watching Rav Elya Meir davening the tefillah of Ahavah Rabbah, you could easily detect the difficulty of the sugya that the yeshiva was then learning. The more difficult the sugya, the more intense was his tefillah.
“When the yeshiva was learning the difficult areas of Perek Lo Yachpor in Maseches Bava Basra, his Ahavah Rabbah was so intense that you almost felt you could touch it,” was the way one talmid put it.
Reb Shaya Plotzker said it even more powerfully: “A certain rosh yeshiva once said in a shmuess that if someone wants to understand true love of Torah, he should come to Bais Medrash Govoah on Shavuos morning and listen to the tefillah of Ahavah Rabbah. I add that if you want to truly understand what ahavas haTorah is, come to the Springfield Yeshiva on any day!” The Ahavah Rabbah of the rosh yeshiva was said with such feeling that there was no person who experienced it who didn’t feel aroused to invest more time, effort, and energy into learning.
