 Rabbi Azriel was a brilliant young man and by the age of 20 had mastered the entire Talmud in depth.Upon the death of his father in 1931, he was appointed to the faculty of the yeshiva at the young age of 26.The following year, he married Channa (1908–1941), daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Zev Dzikansky, with whom he had three children, Chaim (1932–1941), Avigdor (1935–1941), and Shoshana.