Jude posts: “In his book “Making of a Godol” Rabbi Nathan Kamenetsky (son of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky a’h) depicts the Lithuanian sages “wrestling with the lures of secular life.” This two-volume book was published privately by Rabbi Kamenetsky in a limited edition of only 1,000 copies. The $40 copies are now being auctioned off for hundreds of dollars. For those of you dying to read it, the library at the Jewish Theological Seminary has acquired it. So has the library at Yeshiva University, though their copy is apparently sitting on a closed shelf. ”
In his third lecture on Rabbi Yisrael Moshe Hazan (19th Century rabbi in Rome) for Torah in Motion, Rabbi Marc B. Shapiro says:
The passage that got the book banned was that it said Rav Ahron Kotler [as a young man sent love letters to his future wife]…
According to R. Kamenetsky, when Rav Ahron Kotler was engaged to the daughter of Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, he sent her love letters.
Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer got upset with. This is the sort of hassan (son-in-law) he has?
Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer speaks to the Alter of Slobodka Nosson Tzvi Finkel. The Alter says of Ahron Kotler, “Don’t fear Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer. We will all suffer for Rav Ahron’s frumkeit (excessive Jewish religiosity).”
The Kotler family got upset and the book was banned.
