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Rabbi Yitzchok (Isaac) Hutner (1906 - 1980)was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a partly hasidic family. He received private tuition in Torah and Talmud his parents recognizing his mental acumen.As a young teenager he was enrolled in the famous mussar Slabodka Yeshiva in Lithuania, headed by Rabbi Nosson Zvi Finkel (1849 - 1927), known as the alter("elder"),who during his lifetime moulded not only the young Yitzchok Hutner,but also many who were eventually to become the heads (Roshei Yeshiva) of most of the so-called Lithuanian-style Yeshivot that were established in America and Israel during the 20th century, such as Rabbis Aaron Kotler , of Lakewood in New Jersey, Yaakov Kamenetzky of Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn ,Elazar Shach in Bnei Braq Israel of Ponovez , Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman of Ner Israel in Baltimore, Dovid Leibowitz Chofetz Chaim in Queens , and Eliezer Finkel Mir in Jerusalem, as well as his own institution called Chevron also in Jerusalem.

Having obtained a solid deep grounding in Talmud, the young Rabbi Hutner was sent to join an extension of the Slabodka yeshiva in Hebron studying there until 1929, narrowly escaping the Hebron Massacre of 1929 during the Arab riots.It was during his stay in then Palestine that he became a disciple of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (d.1936)who was appointed the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine. The philosophical and mystical mind-set of both men, made them kindred spirits, and like Rabbi Kook, the young Rabbi Hutner developed a warm welcoming posture towards Jews who were much less religious, but were seeking to also re-connect with their heritage.They viewed things in the context of the end of the Exile, galut, and the onset of the times awaiting the Jewish Messiah, Moshiach.

In later years when Rabbi Kook's name became entrenched with Mizrachi, Religious Zionism, Rabbi Hutner,as a sitting member of Agudath Israel ' s "Council of Torah Sages" ( Moetzet Gedolei HaaTorah), sought to decrease the former association Rabbi Kook, even though he maintained cordial relations with Rabbi Kook's son and heir Rabbi Zvi Yehudah Kook.

Rabbi Hutner then spent some years as a wandering scholar. Most notably he spent time in university in Berlin studying philosophy, but not desiring to obtain a degree.He deliberately spent time familiarizing himself with the intellectual milieuof Germany.He befriended two other future rabbinical leaders studying secular philosophy in Berlin : Joseph Ber Soloveitchik,who was to head Yeshiva University in New York, and Menachem Mendel Schneerson who would head ChabadLubavitch in Brooklyn. The three of them were to retain close and cordial personal relations throughout their lives, even though each differed from the other radically in Torah weltanschauung (hashkafa), but nevertheless each had developed a unique bridge and synthesis between the Eastern European world- view, and connected it with a Westernized way of thinking and life. This was a key factor enabling them to serve successfuly as spiritual leaders in the United States of America.

A short while after marrying his American wife, Masha , Rabbi Hutner set sail for America. In 1936 he assumed the leadership of the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, the oldest institution of its kind in Brooklyn , having been set up as an elementary school in 1906.He set about building a high school, recruiting boys from all sorts of religious backgrounds. His forceful and very charismatic style of leadership soon gained him a large following amongst both lay leaders and students.

He was somehow able to construct an intense curriculum and an environment that produced young scholars who were in the same league as their compatriots in Eastern Europe.In 1940 he established a post-high school yeshiva, ''Bet Midrash''with hundreds of students. He had a very liberal attitude to secular studies, viewing them as essential for people to support themselves by eventually going to college and becoming profesionals. He maintained this liberal policy during his entire tenure at the helm of the yeshiva, allowing and even encouraging students to combine their day's learning in yeshiva together with attending college, such as at Brooklyn College in late afternoons and evenings.He appointed the Yeshiva University and Slabodka educated Rabbi Avigdor Miller as the Mashgiach (spiritual mentor and supervisor) of the yeshiva.

Rabbi Hutner developed a very special style of celebrating Shabbat and the Holy Days, Yom Tov, by giving a kind of talk called a maamer. It was a combination of Talmudic discourse, hasidic celebration (tish), philosophic lecture,group singing,and when possible , like on Purim, a ten piece band was brought in as accompaniment. Many times there was singing and dancing all night. All of this , together with the extreme respect to his authority that he demanded, induced in his students obedience and something of a "heightened consciousness" that passed into their lives making them into literal hasidim ("devotees")of their Rosh Yeshiva, who encouraged this by personally donning hasidic garb, (begadim)and instructed his students to do like-wise.

His methodology and style was controversial, as it veered too much towards the hasidic-style, more than his Lithuanian-style colleagues reared as mitnagdim could tolerate. Ironically, Rabbi Hutner became a fierce critic of Lubavitch and the idolization of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Yet both men reffered to their discourses as maamarim.He also forbade his students from attending any lectures given by Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik at the same time that he appointed Rabbi Soloveitchik's younger brother, Rabbi Aaron Soloveitchik as head of his own Yeshiva Chaim Berlin.

In the 1950s he established a school for post-graduate married scholars to continue their in-depth Talmudical studies. This was the Kollel Gur Aryeh, one of the first of its kind in America. Many of his students became prominent educational, outreach, and pulpit rabbis. He stayed in touch with them and was intimately involved in major communal policy decion-making as he worked through his network of students in positions of leadership,and won over to his cause people who came to meet with him.

He published his magnum opus which he named Pachad Yitzchok, ("Fear of Isaac", meaning the God whom Isaac in Genesis feared, and also refers to God by that name, also in Genesis).He called his outlook Hilchot Deot Vechovot Halevavot, ("Laws of 'Ideas' and Duties of the Heart"} and wrote in a clear, yet very poetic modern-style Hebrew reminiscent of his original mentor's style , Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, even though the original lectures were delivered in Yiddish.

He was the mentor of some controversial figures Jewish outreach. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach who became the "Singing Rabbi"' was one such student. Another was Rabbi David Halivni Weiss, who would move over to the Conservative JTS.Another was a cousin to the earlier Shlomo Carlebach who also was called Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who was appointed as the Mashgiach (spiritual supervisor) at the Yeshiva Chaim Berlin , but who split with Rabbi Hutner on policy matters.All three were Holocaust survivors who Rabbi Hutner took upon himself to raise as his own "sons" together with others in similar circumstances.

His students included Rabbis : Pinchas Stolper of the Orthodox Union and founder of NCSY who followed Rabbi Hutner's guidelines in setting up this youth outreach movement; Shlomo Freifeld who set up the one of the first full-time yeshivas for Baal teshuva students in the world, and who personally maintained an open relationship with Lubavitch unlike Rabbi Hutner himself;Joshua Fishman, leader and executive Vice President of Torah Umesorah the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools;Noach Weinberg founder and head of the Baal teshuva outreach conglomerate called Aish Hatorah;Rabbi Yakov Weinbergof Ner Israel Yeshiva in Baltimore and others.

In the late 1960s he began to visit Israel again planning to build a new yeshiva there. In 1970 he, together with his wife, daughter and son-in-law, were captured by the Black September Palestinian military movement who were in turn attacked by King Hussein's army in Amman, Jordan where the hostages found themselves after being let off the planes that were hijacked.In spite of this experience, Rabbi Hutner comtinued his efforts to build his yeshiva in Israel. Eventually it was set up and named Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok in Har Nof, Jerusalem. He died and is buried in Jerusalem.