Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky on Sherlok Holmes

 https://mishpacha.com/lead-like-a-lion/

He tells me about his entrance to the world of practical halachah; the Chullin shiur given by the rosh yeshivah, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky. “He came in the first day of the zeman and asked “Did anyone here ever read mysteries?”

The bochurim nodded.

“How come Sherlock Holmes was always able to crack the mystery and Watson, nebach, was always oblivious? It’s because Sherlock Holmes knew how to look for clues; he noticed things, not only what was there, but what wasn’t there.”

The bochurim were captivated. “Now, you have to realize that every word in Torah is a mystery. There are clues everywhere; a hashmata, an extra word, a change in lashon. That’s how we reach a conclusion.”

“That,” Rabbi Levene concludes, “is greatness. A litvish rosh yeshivah, a tzaddik, a gaon, who discovered a means of connecting with American bochurim and wasn’t afraid to use it.”