The following is a letter from Rabbi Kivelevitz .
Shalom Ubracha-
Over twenty-five years ago, I listened with rapt attention as Professor Haym Soloveichick eulogized his father. He said the Rambam,Maimonides, was the Girsa DaYankusa of his father, which the prodigy grew up memorizing like nursery rhymes, with all of Mishna Torah etched in his memory and flowing easily from his lip. However,it was in that other Moshe, Nachmanides, that the elder Soloveichick discovered his intellectual approach and soul.
It can be assumed that Rav Soloveichick's flowering as the premier Talmudist of our times was built in great part by contrasting the words of each of these Medieval teachers in areas they had both worked on, or where Ramban levels his often withering criticism of Rambam's position. There are scores of examples throughout Shas,and in particular in the work Nachmanides dedicated to staking his disagreements with his Egyptian counterpart-Hasagos to the Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvos. In his classic towering Perush on Chumash,Ramban forcefully attacks many of Rambam's explanations of mitzvos and interpretations of biblical events.
In the coming weeks, we can together discover anew these diamond like gems of codification, inquiry analysis and poetic barbs that issued from these giants.....-armed with the salient texts, and buoyed by an enthusiasm to discover, I relish the prospect of learning with you.
