Yosef Dov Soloveitchik was the author of Beis Halevi, by which name he is better known among Talmudic scholars. He was the great-grandson of Chaim Volozhin.

Chaim of Volozhin was a rabbi, Talmudist, and ethicist. Popularly known as "Reb Chaim Volozhiner" or simply as "Reb Chaim", he was born in Volozhin when it was a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He died there while it was under the control of the Russian Empire.