Why are Women Obligated in all of the Mitzvot of the Seder

[From Rav Aviner's Commentary on the Haggadah]

Question: Why are women obligated in all of the Mitzvot of the Seder, when these Mitzvot are time-bound and women are exempt from time-bound Mitzvot? 

Answer: They also experienced this miracle (Pesachim 108a-b).  Here are two explanations for this answer.  According to Tosafot, women are obligated because they were also in Egyptian Exile and were redeemed.  According to Rashi, women are obligated because the Jewish People were redeemed on account of the righteous women of that generation.  The first soldier in the struggle against Egypt was Miriam.  "And I sent before You Moshe, Aharon and Miriam" (Michah 6:4).  "You have three great leaders" (Ta'anit 9a).  Miriam taught Torah to the women (Aramaic translation to Michah ibid.).  She was born during the most difficult time for the Nation of Israel.  She was therefore named "Miriam" based on the Hebrew word "Merirut" meaning "bitterness."  The Egyptians decreed that every baby boy was to be thrown into the river.  Amram, the leader of Israel, despaired and separated from his wife, Yocheved.  He said: "Why should we bring more children into the world to be killed by the Egyptians?"  The entire Jewish People followed his lead and separated from their wives.  This would have certainly destroyed the seed of Israel and we would have been defeated without a fight.  Everyone yielded except for one six year old girl – Miriam.  She said to her father: "Your decree is worse than Pharaoh's.  He only made a decree against the boys, but you made a decree against the boys and the girls!"  She succeeded in convincing her father; he remarried his wife, and all Israel followed his lead and did the same.  At the remarriage of her parents, Miriam danced with her little brother, Aharon, who was two years old.  When Moshe was born, Amram was again concerned and wondered if perhaps he acted imprudently.  Miriam, however, was confident that there would be a solution and, indeed, Moshe's salvation came in an unexpected way.  Even before this event, Miriam showed herself to be a warrior.  The Jewish midwives, Shifrah and Pu'ah, who saved the Jewish People, were Yocheved and Miriam.  Even though Miriam was young, she helped her mother.  Yocheved was called "Shifrah" because she made the child beautiful ("meshaperet" which is similar to "Shifrah") and cared for him.  Miriam was called "Pu'ah" because she spoke ("Po'ah" which is similar to "Pu'ah), sang songs, and hugged him.  When Pharaoh asked Yocheved why his decree to kill the baby boys was not followed, Yocheved evaded the question and said that the Jewish women are skilled at giving birth without a midwife.  Miriam, however, spoke brazenly to Pharaoh, "She stuck out her nose at him and said: Woe to the man from whom G-d comes to take retribution.  He was filled with anger against her and wanted to kill her.  Yocheved attempted to pacify Pharaoh: "Do not pay any attention to her.  She is a baby and does not know anything" (Shemot Rabbah 1:13).  Miriam obviously understood everything, and she began to organize a rebellion ("Meri" which is similar to "Miriam") among the Nation of Israel.  Our Sages relate how the women established a powerful underground in Egypt.  They would encourage their husbands, give birth in the fields under apple trees, "I roused your love under the apple tree" (Shir Ha-Shirim 8:5), and raise their children in secret.  They stubbornly continued to become pregnant and give birth, until they reached six hundred thousand.  Including the elderly, woman and children, they reached a few million.

At a much later time, during the donations to the Mishkan (desert sanctuary), the women brought copper mirrors as a donation.  At first, Moshe Rabbenu refused to accept them, since they were used to focus on the external beauty of women.  "Grace is false and beauty is vain, a woman who fears Hashem, she should be praised" (Mishlei 31:30).  Moshe was repulsed by the mirrors because they were used by the evil inclination.  The Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to him: "Accept them, because these are the most precious to me.”  Through these, the women created legions of Jewish children in Egypt.  These mirrors were not objects of the evil inclination, but of the awe of Hashem.  The daughters of Israel beautified themselves with them in order to entice their husbands who were exhausted from the back-breaking work.  When Pharaoh decreed that the men would sleep in the field and the women in the city, the women heated up food and brought food and drink to their husbands.  They would comfort them and say: We will not be enslaved eternally. Hashem will redeem us in the end.  They took the mirrors, and each one would look in the mirrors with her husband and entice him with words…as it says, 'I roused your love under the apple tree,'" and this is how they had children.  These mirrors are therefore called "legions of mirrors" ("Marot Ha-Tzovot"), because in their merit, legions ("Tzeva'ot") of Israel were born (see Rashi to Shemot 38:8).

Therefore, do not be surprised that after the splitting of the Red Sea, after the Song at the Sea of Moshe Rabbenu, "Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aharon, took the drum in her hand, and all of the women followed her with drums and dances" (Shemot 15:20).  They knew that the redemption was on account of their merit, the merit of the righteous women.  They danced, they overcame the laws of gravity, they floated in the air, and they were freed from the physical reality of the land.  When they left Egypt, they did not even bother to prepare leavened bread, yet they packed drums among their belongings out of the faith that a great salvation would occur and the chance would come to play music to the Master of the Universe, Redeemer of Israel.

How to do your Pesach Cleaning Cheerfully in Less than One Day

Going away for Pesach

If you are going away for Pesach and will not be at home during the entire holiday, you can be lenient and not clean for Pesach.  You should sell all of the Chametz (leaven) in the house, including all of the crumbs -- but not just the crumbs on their own, because that would have no halachic value.  It is possible, however, to sell the food in the cabinets and closets including the "Chametz dirt."  If someone is staying in your house, you need to clean the rooms which will be used.  The remaining unused rooms must be closed off with tape, and you must sell any Chametz that is in them.

There is still the question of how to fulfill the Mitzvah of Bedikat Chametz (the search for leaven).  If you arrive at your Pesach destination by the fourteenth of Nisan, perform the search there.  If you arrive on the morning of the fourteenth, you should clean well and check a small room, i.e. the entrance way and not sell the Chametz in that room.  You must also perform the search for Chametz, with a blessing, in the rooms in which you will live during Pesach - if no one else has done so.

Chametz smaller than a "Kezayit" (the volume of an olive)

Chametz which is less than a "Kezayit" may obviously not be eaten, but it is not included in the Torah prohibition of "Bal Yeira'eh" and "Bal Yimatzeh" (Chametz may not be seen or found on Pesach – Shemot 12:19, 13:7) (Responsa Igrot Moshe, Orach Chaim 1:145).  Regarding the Mishnah Berurah's statement (Sha'ar Ha-Tziun 451:6) that Chametz which can be seen is included in the prohibition of "Chametz She-Avar Alav Ha-Pesach" (using Chametz that has spent Pesach in a Jew's possession) -- the fact is that if it was included in the sale of Chametz, there is no problem (see Mishnah Berurah 142:33 and Chazon Ish, Orach Chaim 117:15).  A "Kezayit" is 27 cubic centimeters - 3 centimeter square or a little over a square inch.  Usually, only rooms in which children are allowed to bring sandwiches or cookies are likely to contain such big pieces of Chametz.  A room in which people do not walk around with food does not need to be cleaned at all.  Incidentally, you must take care not to hide pieces of Chametz which are larger than a "Kezayit" before "Bedikat Chametz," in case one of the pieces should get lost.  That way, you do not find them, you will not need to bother much to hunt for them, and you can rely on the "Bittul Chametz" (declaring Chametz ownerless) that you do after the search (Responsa Yechaveh Da’at 5:149).

Bedikat Chametz

Start "Bedikat Chametz" in a place where Chametz was used, so the blessing will apply to it.  Only search for Chametz in places in which there is a reasonable chance of finding it.  It is nearly impossible for Chametz which is a square inch to be hidden inside a book!  If there is a chance that the book has Chametz in it, then it must be thoroughly checked. Most books, however, do not need to be cleaned or checked. Cleaning and checking a sample is sufficient. It is customary not to place books that have not been checked for Chametz on the table during Pesach.  Everybody knows their kids' habits. Peek, and open here and there.  Regarding crumbs in the corners of the house: 1. They are not a "Kezayit."  2. They are inedible to a dog.  If there is bread behind a cabinet in an unreachable place, nobody will get to it on Pesach and it is as if it is buried -- just as you do not have to search under stones or under the house's foundations, since nobody will take Chametz from there.  

Educating Children

If you want to do a spring cleaning, this is certainly possible, but not before Pesach – this is not the appropriate time.  Pesach vacation is for taking trips, playing with the kids, being happy, dancing and preparing stories for the Seder.  A woman works hard all year long: "They enslaved the Jewish women with back-breaking work" (play on Shemot 1:13).  If the husband is on vacation too, this may be a good time to leave him with the kids, and give the wife a vacation!  That is what vacation is for – not for working like a donkey and scraping floors.  You can take trips, enjoy yourself, and arrive at the Seder rested in order to make a beautiful Seder and inspire the children.  If a woman wants to work like a donkey, and be a kind of slave, she is permitted to do so, but it is not good educationally.  She should be free in order to play with the kids.  We left the slavery of Egypt, and it was not to enter into our own slavery!  We do not have anything against house cleaning, but you should spread it out over the course of the year – each few months clean another room.  This is not the time for projects of cleaning and arranging.  In any event, when the Seder arrives there will still be disorder and cleaning that has not been completed.

If a woman is happy with suffering, she is allowed and it subtracts from the suffering of "Gehinom": Any suffering in this world is deducted from the suffering of "Gehinom."  If someone desires, this it is legitimate, but not before Pesach.  The month of Nissan is a happy month.

Husband's Help

Question: Does a husband have to help his wife?

Answer: A husband does not have to help his wife nor does a wife have to help her husband.  Rather, the two of them have to clean together since this is a shared home, and theirs is a shared life as well.

Children's Clothes

There may be cookies in your kids' pockets. Even the crumbs must be removed, since a child may put his hand into his pocket and then into his mouth.  You only have to check the clothes you will be wearing that season.  It is unnecessary to check any clothes that are put away and will not be worn now, such as winter clothes.

Question: Is it possible to simply wash them in a washing machine?

Answer: Running the clothes through a washing machine will not necessarily get rid of all of the crumbs.  The clothes must be checked.

Toys

Toys must also be checked.  However, you may put some or all of the toys away, and buy new toys as a present for the holiday!  This serves a double purpose of saving work and making the children happy.

Bathroom Cabinets
These may contain Chametz, such as wheat germ oil and alcohol derived from wheat.  What a waste to clean it.  Close and tape the cabinets and include it in the sale of Chametz.

Couches

You have to check between the pillows.  It is an interesting experience to find lost objects.

Books

There is no need to clean them, just do not put them on the table on which you eat.  The custom is not to check books for the crumbs that remain in them, but to rely of the nullification (Haggadah Chazon Ovadiah of Ha-Rav Ovadiah Yosef, p. 21).  Clean the books which you will want to read at the table on Pesach, or clean a few books for Pesach.

Dining Room

You do not have to clean everything, just the place where people eat, i.e. the chairs and the table.

Chairs: If the chairs are clean, there is no need to clean them.  If the kids throw cereal or other things on them and they do not look clean, clean them with a wet rag.

Table: There are two options: 1. Kashering with boiling water.  2. Covering with several layers of plastic and cloth tablecloths.

High Chair

If it is plastic, it may be immersed in a tub with boiling water and cleaning agents. Clean the cracks with a stiff brush. It is unnecessary to take the chair apart, because whatever is in the cracks and holes is inedible to a dog.

Kitchen

This room must be thoroughly cleaned and not one crumb of Chametz left. A crumb is not nullified even in a thousand times its volume. 

Dishwasher

It is preferable not to Kasher a dishwasher. You can do the dishes by hand as in previous generations.  It is also possible to use disposable dishes.  

Question: Is it at all possible to clean a dishwasher?

Answer: It is possible, but it is a lot of work; there are a lot of rubber parts and connections.

Oven

If you do not have a self-cleaning oven, it is best not to Kasher it. Seal the oven and buy baked goods or buy a "wonder-pot" which allows you to bake on a stove.

Stove

Grates: Clean and cover the grates with as much aluminum foil as possible.  Use aluminum foil that is thick enough not to tear, but thin enough to bend and shape.  What a waste of time and effort!  The best thing is to use special Pesach burners.

Burners: There is no need to clean them; they get burned up in the course of use. Bottom Pan (where everything falls): In general, if some food falls into it, we do not pick it up, and it is considered "treif;" nevertheless, put aluminum foil on it. 

Knobs: Wipe them clean.

Refrigerator

Clean it, but it does not have to be a lot of work. Of course, defrost the freezer (if you have an older model which does not defrost automatically) and clean it. It is best to eat up all Chametz before Pesach, but if expensive Chametz food products are left over, i.e. frozen foods, they may be wrapped up well, labeled "Chametz," stored in the back of the freezer/refrigerator and included in the list of Chametz sold before Pesach.  

If you have an old refrigerator with cracks or crevices in the door which is difficult to clean, do not use its inner shelves, but cover them with plastic. Similarly, you must clean the door's rubber part well. If it is old, sometimes it is easier to replace it.

Food Pantry

Do not clean.  It is a waste of time.  Seal, put sign or sticker not to use and include it in sale of Chametz.

Cabinets of dishes, utensils, pots and pans

Dishes, shelves, and drawers that will not be used on Pesach may be sealed, and need not be cleaned.  There are those who are strict to clean even the things which are used for Chametz, but one can be lenient on account of three reasons, each of which would be enough:

1. We sell all the crumbs together with the sale of Chametz.

2. The dishes are clean -- nobody puts a dirty dish away in the cabinet.

3. Even if there is "Chametz dirt," it is definitely less than a "Kezayit."

By the way, sometimes it is easier to paint than to clean. You can paint the corner of the kitchen where food flies using a water-based paint and the gas grates using aluminum paint. 

Microwave

It can be Kashered by not using it for twenty-four hours, cleaning it for five minutes and boiling water in it for half an hour. All food cooked or baked in it on Pesach should be placed in a covered utensil.

Counters  

It is possible to cover them with thick aluminum foil, and then there is no need to Kasher them at all; just wipe them with a rag. Sometimes it is complicated to cover, and then one can Kasher it. Where there are holes, pour floor bleach in them and then pour water from an electric kettle which is still boiling.  It is good for two people to do this: One to pour and the other to unplug.

Sink

Regarding the kitchen sink, there are a few solutions:

1. Do not put anything into the sink on Pesach, and wash the dishes in the air.  This, however, is unrealistic.

2. Put a plastic bin inside. Just make sure there is still a direct flow down the drain.

3. Thoroughly clean and Kasher the sink like the counters.

Toaster

It is impossible to clean a toaster, but there is no need. Put it in the cabinet of sold Chametz. 

Mixer

You have to do "Hagalah" (Kashering by dropping into boiling water) for the bowl and blades. As for the body of the mixer, wrap it in plastic -- making sure not to block the air holes. The best thing is to buy a cheap hand-mixer for Pesach.

Kashering dishes

This is a tremendous amount of work. It is preferable to buy new dishes.  True, it is expensive, so buy a few things each year. As for pots, it is possible to buy cheap aluminum ones which are okay for just seven days. There are cheap plastic plates as well as cheap cutlery.

Car

You have to clean it. Take out the mats and gather the "Chametz dirt" – there is no need for a vacuum cleaner -- and clean the compartments and containers. There is no need to pour water or dismantle the seats. In general, there is no need to dismantle anything with screws. Any way you look at it -- if the Chametz is accessible, you can take it out without a screwdriver, and if it is not accessible, it will not come out on Pesach either.

Chumrot - Being Strict

If you know that you are being stricter than Halachah requires, and you choose to be strict, you deserve a blessing.  And if you accepted a stricture on yourself and now you want to stop, the way to do that is to do "Hatarah" (getting the vow annulled). But if you thought that a particular act was the actual Halachah, and now you realize it is a stricture, you do not need a "Hatarah."  If you have a strong desire to clean a lot, you deserve a blessing, especially for Pesach, "whoever is strict deserves a blessing."  You should not, however, force a stricture on yourself, but accept it with love.  

Summary

In light of what is written above, it should take about an hour for the dining room, two-three hours to Kasher the kitchen, and another hour to clean the rest of the house. In short, about one day!

All the rest of the cleaning jobs are either strictures or just made up.  When we work hard, we use up our energy and get mad at the kids. You have to educate the kids -- but not to educate them to be aggravated: "I told you not to go into this room anymore! Why did you go in?! Eat on the porch! Eat standing up! Don't touch!" The whole kitchen looks like it was overturned by vandals; the husband and kids are trembling in fear in some corner and eating; the mother looks at them like a drill sergeant; there's anger between husband and wife. This is preparation for Pesach?! This is educating the kids?  This is definitely not setting a positive example!  Our memories of Pesach should not be of a reign of terror.

If you clean together with the kids, that is great, but it must be a happy adventure.  First of all, you have to clean what you must – taking half a day – and after that if you want to do other things, you can clean with happiness and joy.  Clean, sing, pour water and "you will clean with joy from the wellsprings of salvation" (based on Yeshayahu 12:3).

The Rama rules in the Shulchan Aruch: "Every person should sweep his room before Bedikat Chametz, and check his pockets for Chametz, and the pockets or cuffs where you sometimes put Chametz also need to be checked" (Orach Chaim 433:11) The Mishnah Berurah (#46) adds: "It is the custom to sweep the whole house on thirteenth of Nisan, so that it will be ready to check immediately after nightfall on the fourteenth."  This custom is enough. Beyond that, "whoever is strict deserves a blessing" -- as far as Pesach goes, but not as far as the kids go.

It is understood that I am not forcing my opinion on anyone.  I am simply stating my humble opinion with explanations.  Whoever accepts the explanations will listen and whoever does not accept them will not.  I heard most of the practical suggestions about how to shorten the cleaning from women themselves.  It is possible that a woman has a strong desire not to shorten this work, and just the opposite, she finds joy in it.  That is okay.  Even she will benefit from all of the above, because she will not feel pressured that she might violate the Halachah, but rather she will clean with satisfaction and tranquility.

The essential point is the distinction between Chametz, which there is an obligation to clean with all the severity of the Halachah, and dirt – which should obviously be removed, but not necessarily before Pesach.  You can spread out the work of removing dirt over the whole year, so that we and our families do not suffer before Pesach.  I am not advocating poor housekeeping.  We should stand before Chametz with awe and fear, but not all dirt is Chametz.  Do not treat Chametz cavalierly, G-d forbid, but at the same time, not everything that is accepted as Pesach cleaning is directed at Chametz.

Have a kosher and happy Pesach.  We should ensure that we have a HAPPY Pesach and a KOSHER Purim (!).  We should arrive at the Seder night neither tired nor aching but happy, so that this night will be a powerful experience for the kids, and a great source of faith in Hashem, the Redeemer of Israel.

"Dirt is not Chametz and children are not the Pesach sacrifice!"

Ha-Rav Ha-Gaon Meir Soloveitchik ztz"l: The Loyal Gaon of Beit Brisk

[Eulogy delivered in the Yeshiva]

Ha-Rav Ha-Gaon Meir Soloveitchik ztz"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk in Yerushalayim, has ascended on high.  Ha-Rav Meir ben Ha-Griz – the "Brisker Rav" ben Reb Chaim Mi-Brisk ben Beit Ha-Levi.

In Brisk, they learn quietly, without publicity and noise.  Furthermore, their Rabbis fear publishing their Chiddushim and Piskei Halachah on account of their perfectionism.  Rav Meir was therefore not famous and was certainly not known by the media.  But in Torah he brought incredible blessing.    

Rav Meir was born in the year 5689 in the city of Brisk.  He was the youngest son of the Brisker Rav.  When he was 12 years old, he succeeded in escaping the Holocaust with his father and five brothers and sisters.  His mother and other siblings perished.  

In his youth, he was already extremely close to his father.  After learning in Talmud Torah Eitz Chaim in Yerushalayim, he learned for long hours with his father.  The Brisker Rav referred to him as "My Prodigy".

He then learned in his father's Yeshiva and learned the Brisker Method of learning Torah in depth and with great toil.

The Brisker Method already began with his great grandfather, the Beit Ha-Levi.  His grandfather, Reb Chaim, improved upon it.  Some say that at that time of the Enlightenment, Reb Chaim saved thousands and even tens of thousands from leaving the Yeshivot through his analytic method of learning Gemara.

This method is based on understanding the underpinnings of a Sugya, its foundations and precise definitions, thus allowing one to understand the different opinions, not just in the Sugya being discussed, but in many different Gemaras.  There are various ways to arrive at the root of a Sugya.  For example: "Tzvei Dinim" (two laws) – whereby a law can be shown to consist of two or more parts, only one of which might apply in a particular case.  Or, alternatively: "Cheftza Ve-Gavra" – wherein a particular law applies to a person or to the object which the person is using.

Ha-Rav Herschel Schachter, one of the Roshei Yeshiva of Yeshiva University, related that when he learned Issur Ve-Heter with Ha-Rav Yosef Soloveitchik, "Suddenly, the pots and pans, the eggs and onions, disappeared from the laws of meat and milk, the salt, blood and spit disappeared from the laws of salting.  The laws of Kashrut were taken out of the kitchen and removed to an ideal halachic world… constructed out of the complexes of abstract concepts".

There were great Rabbis, however, who did not fully agree with this method.  For example Ha-Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg wrote in a letter that when he was in Berlin, he once asked Ha-Rav Yosef Soloveitchik, who was greater the Vilna Gaon or Reb Chaim Mi-Brisk?  He answered that regarding understanding, Reb Chaim is greater than the Vilna Gaon.  Rav Weinberg disagrees.  He says that the Gra searched for the Peshat, while Reb Chaim's logic and reasoning did not always mesh with the wording of the Gemara and Rambam.  Reb Chaim was in and of himself a new Rambam and not a commentator of the Rambam.  Rav Weinberg said the same to Ha-Rav Moshe, Rav Soloveitchik's father (see also Shut Seridei Aish 2:144).

Ha-Rav Weinberg's words, however, are not necessarily correct.  As is known, in our Yeshiva, Ha-Rav Yosef Solovetichik, son of Ha-Rav Aharon of Chicago, son of Ha-Rav Moshe, taught for many years.  He would deliver a lengthy daily Gemara Shiur which lasted three to four hours, in which he explained the Gemara, Rishonim and finally the words of Reb Chaim.  It then became clear to the listener that Reb Chaim's words were not an addition here or even a change, but rather were found within the words of the Sugya itself.  When Lamdanim in the Yeshiva raised difficulties, Rav Yosef would answer patiently and explain things properly.  This is like what people say in the name of Reb Chaim: I do not interrupt the Gemara, I learn the Gemara.

This method of learning in fact conquered the Yeshiva world.  And when Ha-Rav Yosef Soloveitchik arrived in Israel as a candidate to be the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Maran Ha-Rav Kook directed Rabbenu Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah to attend all of his Shiurim in order to taste the Brisker Method. 

Ha-Rav Herschel Schachter writes that when he was married, Ha-Rav Moshe Feinstein attended the wedding and sent him three of his books as a gift (Shut Igrot Moshe, Orach Chaim Volume 1, Yoreh Deah Volume 1 and Dibrot Moshe on Baba Metzia Volume 1).  Reb Moshe wrote the inscription in the Dibrot Moshe – his commentary on the Gemara, and not in Shut Igrot Moshe – his Teshuvot.  The books were brought to Rav Schachter by Ha-Rav Michal Shurkin, who learned in Reb Moshe's Metivta Tiferet Yerushalayim, and attended Rav Yosef Soloveitchik's Shiurim as well.  Rav Shurkin explained to him that Reb Moshe was particular to inscribe the Dibrot, because he held that Shiurim in the Dibrot were of much greater importance than the more famous and popular Teshuvot in the Igrot.  Reb Moshe exerted great effort and toil on the Shiurim and spent many hours preparing them, in contrast to the Teshuvot, which came easily to him (Divrei Ha-Rav p. 207).  The Dibrot Moshe however are not generally learned in Yeshivot.  Some explain that there are two reasons for this: 1. The explanations are extremely long.  2. Reb Moshe did not learn according to the Brisker Method, which is the accepted Method in Yeshivot.          

There is a saying "Before the Giving of the Torah and after the Giving of the Torah", i.e. Reb Chaim of Brisk is a sort of Giving of the Torah.  This is obviously an exaggeration, but the method expounded by Reb Chaim is the one used in Yeshivot today.  The same is true in many Zionist Yeshivot, since Ha-Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, who served as Rosh Yeshiva of Har Etzion, and who was the leading student of his father-in-law, Ha-Rav Yosef Soloveitchik, planted the Brisker Method here.

This was the method of Ha-Rav Meir ztz"l.  After years of learning in Kollel, he began to serve as Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk in the neighborhood Zichron Moshe in Yerushalayim, where he taught Torah to hundreds of students with pure Yirat Shamayim. 

The Mishnah in Kiddushin (41a) says that it is possible to perform certain Mitzvot through an agent.  But the Gemara there adds that it is greater for one to perform a Mitzvah on his own.  The Magen Avraham (251:2) brought in the Mishnah Berurah (250:3) says that this applies to all Mitzvot.  This was a fundamental principle of Ha-Rav Meir Soloveitchik.  He would strive to perform every Mitzvah on his own without relying on others.  Even when he was elderly, he would walk each year to a spring in Yerushalayim to take "Mayim Shelanu" to bake Matzot.  And the same was true for every Mitzvah and for teaching Torah.    

Ha-Rav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtel writes that one needs greatness to serve as a sort of bridge which connects there and yet leads to here.  For example, Yaakov Avinu transferred everything he had from one side of the river to the other (See Eim Ha-Banim Semeichah 3, 48).  Only unique individuals were able to serve as a bridge to reestablish the Yeshivot from Europe in Israel.  And these Yeshivot are blossoming here to an even greater extent than they did there.  As a continuation of the Brisker dynasty, Ha-Rav Meir succeeded in receiving the Torah from his father, Ha-Griz, and bringing it here.

May the soul of Ha-Rav Meir ztz"l be bound up with the bonds of the living with all of the Tzadikim and Geonim.