Rakafot Aharon: Timeless Halakhah and Contemporary History (4 vols.)

By Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff 

Shvut Ami/The International Center  

for Soviet Jews 

Jerusalem, 1997 

Reviewed by Rabbi Ron Yitzchok Eisenman  

“When I get home this evening, I will kiss the mezuzah, my wife, and the television set.” This well-known, enigmatic statement is often the “first pitch” thrown right over home plate by one of the most popular lecturers on YU Torah, Rabbi Dr. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff.  

An unabashed Yankee fan, a first-rate talmid chacham and intense devotee of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, Rabbi Rakeffet, who earned a PhD in Jewish history, is the YU version of a social media Torah influencer. Having passed his eighty-seventh birthday, he started teaching when Richard Nixon was president and has been dazzling students for five decades—his half-century commitment to teaching makes Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games played seem trivial in comparison. 

Although he prides himself on being a proud “confirmed-Litvak,” he is more akin to a Modern Orthodox Chassidic Rebbe to his masses of fans, ranging from Baby Boomers to Generation Alpha. Broadcasting from Yerushalayim multiple times a week, Rabbi Rakeffet, who serves as professor of rabbinic literature at Yeshiva University’s Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, shows no signs of slowing down as he continues to teach, entertain and spread Torah. Spicing his Torah with plenty of anecdotes involving great Torah leaders, he never fails to add a large serving of his passionate devotion to Religious Zionism to every shiur. 

Born in 1937, Rabbi Rakeffet was an early member of Bnei Akiva, where he met his eishet chayil Malkah. He made aliyah in 1969 after serving as a pulpit rabbi in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, and in Maplewood, New Jersey. He hit the ground running as he began teaching Torah immediately.  

When Beit Midrash L’Torah (BMT) outgrew its original campus in 1976, Rabbi Rakeffet impressed upon the well-known philanthropist Joseph Gruss to give over the new campus in Bayit Vegan he had built to BMT and Yeshiva University, which he did. Rabbi Rakeffet has been teaching at YU’s Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute for decades. 

Besides being a long-time rebbi and mentor to thousands, in 1980, Rabbi Rakeffet was recruited by Aryeh Kroll to join the Mossad’s clandestine Nativ operation to teach Torah in the Soviet Union. He visited the Soviet Union in 1981, 1985 and 1989 with Malkah, and recruited hundreds to join him in disseminating Torah behind the Iron Curtain. His initial visit to the Soviet Union motivated him to help found Shvut Ami—the International Center for Soviet Jews, an organization that helps Russian Jews integrate into Israeli society and learn about Judaism.  

Although he prides himself on being a proud “confirmed-Litvak,” he is more akin to a Modern Orthodox Chassidic Rebbe to his masses of fans, ranging from Baby Boomers to Generation Alpha. 

The four volumes of Rabbi Rakeffet’s writings under review, published by Shvut Ami to help raise funds for Russian Jews, are now available as a set. In 1997, Rabbi Rakeffet compiled many of his published articles on Torah and Jewish history into two volumes of Rakafot Aharon. In 2016, Shvut Ami published volume three of Rakafot Aharon, and the last volume was published in 2019. Much of the material in the four-volume work is based on his popular lecture series held at the Gruss Institute. Currently, for the first time, all four volumes are available to order as a set. Two of the volumes had been sold out for several years (and have recently been reprinted thanks to a generous donor). 

The volumes, which cover a potpourri of Torah topics, are sure to be welcomed and read by both well-seasoned veterans of Rabbi Rakeffet’s shiurim and newcomers who are seeing his writings for the first time. Although it is beyond the scope of this review to provide an in-depth analysis of the astonishing medley of Torah and historical essays contained within the volumes, a short summary is in order. 

The first two volumes contain various biographies of Torah giants of the nineteenth century, as well as some historical and semi-biographical articles such as “A Rabbi in a Soldier’s Uniform,” which shares how Rabbi Rakeffet himself became a proud member of the IDF in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. 

Volume two contains reprints of articles written by Rabbi Rakeffet in Tradition, Gesher and other publications dealing with a variety of halachic/historical events, such as the infamous Get in Cleves in 1766 and the failed attempt to merge the Jewish Theological Seminary and Yeshiva College in 1926. 

Volume three deals with contemporary halachic topics of agunah, mamzerut and artificial insemination. These are among the most complex questions in modern times, and Rabbi Rakeffet explores and explains them with remarkable clarity.  

Volume four includes “Hilchot Kiddushin” on marriage problems, “The Russian Saga,” a section on contemporary Torah history and concludes with many fascinating photographs and documents. 

As an expansive and totally inclusive review is beyond my purview, I will limit my review to volume three and, specifically, to Rabbi Rakeffet’s analyses of military agunot in Israel and the Langer mamzerut case.      

Traditionally, an agunah is a woman whose husband is missing and she is therefore trapped in a dead marriage, unable to remarry. The chapter in Shulchan Aruch about agunot is considered by many to be the single hardest chapter. Otzar HaPoskim devotes an entire volume to this subject of attempting to determine a husband’s death without absolute proof. Rabbi Rakeffet (pp. 12–90) offers readers an accessible tour through the history of the efforts made by great rabbis to balance the need to free a trapped woman and to prevent possible adultery if the husband is alive.  

These are among the most complex questions in modern times, and Rabbi Rakeffet explores and explains them with remarkable clarity. 

Rabbi Rakeffet then proceeds to modern times where we have additional technological capabilities. Most interesting is his survey of the work done by the Israeli Rabbinate to free the wives of men presumably killed during war. While we certainly sympathize with the presumed widows of soldiers, when there is no identifiable body, we need to evaluate the evidence and build up a case to determine death. Rabbis Yitzchak Herzog and Shlomo Goren did just that for the wives of the defenders of Kfar Etzion who were massacred in 1948. After building the case, Rabbi Herzog agreed to permit the women to remarry if he received the approval of two other great rabbis.  

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef worked hard to evaluate the evidence in the nearly 1,000 agunah cases created by the Yom Kippur War. Most significantly, in addition to the many other considerations, Rabbi Yosef ruled that a dog tag is considered a definitive identifier because no one lends a dog tag to someone else. Rabbi Yosef also addressed the complex question of an air force pilot whose body is never found. This question was also taken up by Rabbi Avraham Zvi Rabinowitz, the chief rabbi of the Israeli Air Force. Rabbi Rakeffet surveys these and other military agunah questions, showing us how halachah is capable of handling difficult contemporary issues, while also reminding us of the sacrifice that so many brave soldiers have made to safeguard our Biblical homeland. 

Rabbi Rakeffet devotes nearly thirty pages to the unfortunate case of Hanoch and Miriam Langer, who were declared mamzerim by the Beit Din Hagadol, led by the towering figures of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. In this particular piece, one sees both the greatness and perhaps the personal leanings of Rabbi Rakeffet. 

Rabbi Rakeffet’s command of the sources and mastery of the complex subject matter surrounding mamzerut is impressive and confirms his credentials as a first-rate talmid chacham. His fluency with the primary sources as found in the Gemara and their respective conclusions as codified in the Shulchan Aruch, as well as his unrivaled ability to transmit this information in a manner to be understood by all, is astonishing. 

Yet concurrent to his obvious mastery of the sources is his clear intent to justify a pesak by Rabbi Goren, which was unprecedented in both its substance and certainly in the manner in which it was issued. It appears to this reviewer that Rabbi Rakeffet’s affinity for the former Chief Rabbi Goren caused him to be overly generous in his evaluation of this case of mamzerut. Most important is Rabbi Rakeffet’s overlooking the fact that no major rabbinic figure at the time, inclusive of his own rebbi, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, came to the defense of Rabbi Goren. 

Rabbi Rakeffet quotes a “confidant” of Rabbi Soloveitchik who maintains that the Rav supported Rabbi Goren privately, but the fact is that the Rav did not say anything publicly on the subject. 

To maintain the validity of Rabbi Goren’s pesak seems untenable both halachically and historically. Rabbi Rakeffet’s defense of the pesak makes for provocative and fascinating reading but will not resonate with the world of Torah learning.  

Yet my words are meant l’hagdil Torah—to promote Torah learning and certainly not to detract from the enormous contribution to limud haTorah that Rabbi Rakeffet has achieved through these volumes. 

The set of Rabbi Rakeffet’s writing will certainly be a welcome addition to any Torah library and will be joyfully received by all lovers of Torah worldwide. May Rabbi Rakeffet continue to honor us with his Torah for many years. 

Rabbi Ron Yitzchok Eisenman is rabbi of Congregation Ahavas Israel in Passaic, New Jersey.