But he knew that Rav Kook was a great gadol, so he decided to go. He walked into the shul, which was packed, and stood in the back. He listened and was transfixed. He began to stare at Rav Kook, and Rav Kook saw this tall young man fixated on him, and he became fixated on my zaidie.
When it was over, Rav Kook looked for him but couldn’t find him. So he went over to the great posek, Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, who was also there, and asked him, “Do you know that tall young man who came in?” Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank said, “Yes, that’s Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlop, one of the iluyim of Yerushalayim.” He said, “I want you to find him and tell him to see me.”
The rest is history.
What about Rav Kook so impressed your grandfather?
His greatness. He saw that Rav Kook was a gaon olam, even as he was a gaon b’machshavah. My zaidie was very big in machshavah himself.
As dean of YU’s rabbinical school for 37 years, you obviously interacted with many interesting rabbanim, such as Rav Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik, Rav Dovid Lifshitz, and Rav Mendel Zaks, the Chofetz Chaim’s son-in-law. Can you talk a bit about Rav Zaks?
Rav Mendel Zaks was the bochen of the yeshiva. He was a gadol and the rosh yeshiva of Radun while the Chofetz Chaim was still alive. I remember at his levayah, Dr. Belkin [YU’s president], who received semicha from the Chofetz Chaim when he was 17, said he knows for a fact that Reb Mendel edited [portions of] the Mishnah Berurah and the Chofetz Chaim accepted all his emendations.
Reb Mendel Zaks had a son, Reb Gershon Sacks, who was a gadol olam. He began the Chofetz Chaim yeshivas in Monsey. Reb Gershon gave shiurim and some of the biggest rebbeim here [at YU] went faithfully every week to hear him.
What was your relationship with Rav Soloveitchik [popularly called “the Rav”] like?
I saw the Rav every week. At the beginning [when I first became dean of RIETS], the Rav would walk into my office several times a year to show that I was like his boss, chas v’chalilah. I was very upset, and later on he didn’t do it.
He was a great supporter of mine. At the time, the relationship between the Rav and Dr. Belkin was very difficult – which was very well known – but they both, for reasons unbeknownst to me, liked me very much and trusted me, and I helped bring them together.
You must have had many interesting encounters with Rav Soloveitchik. Can you share just one?
The story that is most interesting and unbelievable is one I told at his tenth yahrzeit.
There was a man, a judge in New Jersey, who was married to a cousin of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The couple was married for 11 or 12 years but didn’t have any children, so they decided to adopt. She went to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, her cousin, but the Rebbe was very much opposed to adoption because of the problem of yichud.
There are heterim, but the Rebbe was against it. He said, though, that she should go to Rabbi Soloveitchik, and he’ll allow you to do it. Something like that.
So the husband came to me and said he wanted to see the Rav. I told the Rav the story, but he got very upset. He said, “The Rebbe sends him to me [implying that the Rav was a meikil]? It’s his cousin and I should pasken.” He was very much opposed.