Brisk! The very name conjures visions of incisiveness, clarity, definition, uncomopromising honesty, intellectual brilliance. From Volzhin, thefirst great yeshivah in the contemporary sense of the word, to Brisk, one ofthe world’s Torah capitals, to Jerusalem, where Torah greatness blossomed anewafter the Holocaust, the great bearers of the “Brisker” tradition havestretched minds and elevated souls. Now, as in the pre-war Lithuanian city ofBrisk (also known as Brest-Litovsk), this tradition of Talmudic scholarshipattracts some of the finest minds of the Torah world.

In this volume, Rabbi Asher Bergman turns to the legendary giants whose names still evoke awe: Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin, the Beis HaLevi, Reb Chaim and the Brisker Rav (Reb Velvel) — over a century of greatness. Many of the selections in this book come from the notes of Rabbi Bergman’s grandfather, Rabbi Eliezer Schach Shlita, and some may not be available anywhere else.

The great men presented in this volume lived in and charted the sea of Talmud. It had the primary claim on their intellect, but the Chumash, too,basked in the rays of their brilliance. In Rabbi Yaakov Blinder’s excellent translations, their comments engage the mind and cast a new light onChumash, in the manner uniquely identified with Brisk.

If you know the genre, you’ll love this book. If not — this is your golden oppurtunity.