Mizrachi SA Jewish Observer - Rosh Hashanah 2015 | Page 12

RABBI LICHTENSTEIN RABBI LICHTENSTEIN RABBI AHARON LICHTENSTEIN ZT”L RABBI RAMON WIDMONTE This article is an attempt, however inadequate, to share a personal perspective on Rabbi Lichtenstein zt”l, the Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivat Har Etzion. I remember him doing something similar when our nation lost Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l; now it falls to us, for his achievements and greatness are far beyond our abilities to articulate. I WILL never forget the first time I barely grasped one of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l’s Friday night sichot (talks on the Parsha). I went armed with the informally compiled dictionary of words he would use – many of which had Latin or English origins: you had to know that “mishtazer” meant “entwined” and that “ontologi” meant “ontological” (but then you also had to have looked up what “ontological” meant in the first place). Such were the demanding techn