Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, zecher tzaddik l'vracha

The loss of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein is a great tragedy. In the charedi days of my youth, I figured that he couldn't be a "real" talmid chacham - after all, he was clean-shaven and had studied English literature in university, whereas I had been taught that only exclusive Torah study produces real Gedolim. But then my horizons broadened, and I learned that many great Torah scholars had also studied other disciplines (and that several members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah had also been to college!).

Then I started to actually study what Rav Lichtenstein  had to say. I discovered that he was a gadol b'Torah who was wise, thoughtful, sophisticated, and humble. Rav Lichtenstein's treatment of the topic of Daas Torah is one of the most important discussions of the topic that I have ever seen. You can read the original Hebrew at this link, and my friend Joseph Faith produced an English translation which you can download here.

May his legacy endure and inspire.