Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk רבי חיים סולובייצ'יק מבריסק

Rabbi Chaim taught at Volozhin alongside the Netziv, and after the yeshiva closed became rabbi of Brisk (Brest-Litovsk). His method is to analyse a rabbinic dispute not by hunting contradictions between texts but by defining concepts precisely: what exactly is the obligation, the act or the prohibition at hand, and where exactly the sides differ.

This way of learning spread through the Lithuanian yeshivot and remains dominant in them; his novellae on the Rambam are studied together with the Rambam himself. He was also known for extreme demands on himself in charity: the doors of his house in Brisk stood open to the needy. His descendants are the Brisk dynasty, including Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.