R. Binyamin's thesis: AZR is the emblem of simplicity, and living proof that not only the geniuses are bound to act:
"He is the very prototype of Bialik's poem on the 'humble of the world,' who are 'sparing in words and abounding in splendor'… 'Not in the thunder' — nor with axes and hatchets. He, at the least, will not thunder. He will almost plead." R. Binyamin, "Alexander Ziskind Rabinovitz: With Simplicity and Naturalness," Ben-Yehuda read/30206.
His one weapon against evil: education and enlightenment — "a single torch: reason, the luminary within man, his moral sense… all of them arrayed against the darkness, against the dominion of Satan and his crew." And the root: "Man is born to labor. That is the secret, that is the truth. Hence the natural bond with the labor movement."
The personal moment R. Binyamin chose out of "decades" of acquaintance:
"A night of rain. He carries the great volume of the Gemara under his arm and walks to the synagogue (a shack in those days) for the lesson. The two of us huddle on the way under the corner of a roof against the rains. He consults me about the translation of a single foreign term… Never had I felt such closeness of soul as in that hour." Ibid. "Outside a fierce rain streamed down, and here in a dark corridor stood an old, good-hearted man pouring out his talk so pleasantly. With the Gemara under his arm…".
"S.Y. Agnon came in to see me… among other things he let fall this remark: 'The old man does his work. Every single day he translates a few pages of Anna Karenina. He is already at page forty.'" Ibid.
In time AZR abandoned the Tolstoy translation in favor of translating Bacher (the legends of the Tannaim) — a choice R. Binyamin applauds:
"Well did AZR do in leaving Anna Karenina to her own devices and turning to Bacher. Anna will be gathered up by whoever gathers her. But Bacher — not everyone who wishes to claim that name may come and claim it." Ibid. (Compare "AZR the Translator.")
But the simplicity is deceptive — AZR is also complex:
"He is both simple and complex. He loves simplicity but not cheapness… He is both devout and yet does not reject the new. He rejects only the bad; the bad he will not accept, but the good he accepts wherever he finds it." Ibid.
Here is a defining anecdote: when A.M. Guntzer of Berlin asked, "Can it be? A socialist compiling a book of Shulchan Aruch laws?", AZR answered with a question of his own:
"And how do you know that Moses our teacher was not a socialist? The young people who study the laws of the Shulchan Aruch — better that they learn from a handsome book, handsomely ordered… that too serves the public good." Ibid. And Yaakov Rabinowitz observed: in his social stories he is "the man of the hard and wrathful gaze," while in his preaching and in his aggadah he is "all kindness and mercy."
R. Binyamin, the third partner, supplies rare details on the AZR–Brenner alliance:
"There was a great love between him and Brenner, and it seems to me that during a grave illness he went through at the time, he appointed Brenner his guardian. Yet this quiet, easygoing man could also be quite hard, standing on his principles in the tent of literature." Ibid.
Hence the editorial dynamic: AZR signed "Yizkor" alone as editor "even though in practice the work was done mainly by Brenner and in part by me"; and so too with "Yefet" — "Brenner yielded to him, but insisted that he alone sign… in the spirit of 'blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.'" And nonetheless, "all these disagreements and even frictions were free of any personal note… in the personal sphere we were free of any blemish." (See "AZR and Brenner".)
The reason for his aliyah, in his own words, as he told R. Binyamin:
"Sixteen years I labored in the Talmud Torah; some four thousand pupils took instruction from my mouth… I shall go to the Land of Israel… there I shall see my nation crowned in the glory of old age, and in the strength of youth." Ibid. (AZR in his own words).
And in the eulogy (5706/1945), a farewell befitting his life:
"And he merited something more: a simple funeral, a Jewish funeral, without fanfare… in his death as in his life. Walking humbly… And may he yet merit the closing note: a simple headstone. For that let every pious man pray." Ibid. (Kfar Etzion, 16 Tishrei 5706).