Years: 1853–1918
Primary city: Brisk
Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik developed the "Brisker method" of Talmudic study, which sought to isolate and define the precise conceptual categories underlying Jewish law. After briefly heading the Volozhin Yeshiva, he served as the rabbi of Brisk (Brest-Litovsk), where his approach flourished. His teachings were primarily transmitted orally by his students and sons, but his novellae were later published posthumously in Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim Halevi. He was a leader of pre-war Eastern European Jewry.