RYG was very frum. His observance of mitzvos and his long sh'moneh esrei revealed a passion for Piety. Yet as a Litvak, he had little use for empty piety.
In one sense he insisted that students master concepts and not be slavishly literal. He did not have much patience with mindless rote repetition of a principle that had not been properly internalized
One statement he used several times reflects this rejection of rigidity:
«Die problem mit du [eich] is ven du zogts Ashrei - du zits't!»
You're problem is that when you say Ashrei you [literally] sit! Meaning don't be so rigidly literal
It occurred to me only decades later that The Rov Z"L read this into the Rambam as normative Halachah. I still wonder today if there was a coded double entendre there somehow.?
Shalom
RRW
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