Mystical Beginnings

The story of Rav Chaim and Rebbetzin Batsheva is the story of a remarkable couple’s joint journey, both of whom were born into illustrious but vastly different families.

It’s the story of a journey with many stations and turning points; the alleys of the Old Yishuv in Yerushalyim, the correspondence of a hidden Lithuanian kabbalist with the Ben Ish Chai in Baghdad, and a Russian chassidic family’s decision to send their child to Novardok. It’s a look inside the reality of greatness-in-formation. And it’s a story of middos, fierce ahavas Torah, and the total dedication that created the couple the world flocked to on Rechov Rashbam.

The roots of the Kanievsky shidduch began almost a century before, with the birth of a child who grew to become Lithuania’s most prominent mekubal, Rav Shlomo Elyashiv — known as the Leshem, after his groundbreaking kabbalistic work, Leshem Shevo Veachlama (the names of three of the stones on the Urim VeTumim) was published.

As illustrated in a brief anecdote retold by Rav Sraya Deblitzky ztz”l, a renowned mekubal and posek  from Bnei Brak, even great luminaries of that generation revered the piety and Torah wisdom of the Leshem.

He related how Rav Eliyahu Dushnitzer (later the well-known mashgiach of the Lomza yeshivah in Petach Tikvah) was once taking leave from his rebbi, the Chofetz Chaim, before heading out to the city of Shavel (Siauliai) on an important mission. After he had already traveled quite a distance, he turned around and spotted the Chofetz Chaim’s son-in-law running after him. “My father-in-law asked me to relay an important message,” he said to Rav Eliyahu. “Once in Shavel, do your utmost to visit the mekubal Rav Shlomo Elyashiv. In This World we can see him and get close to him, but in the Next World, who knows if and when we will be able to do so.”

Some more insight to the Leshem’s unusual mastery in Kabbalah comes from correspondence recorded by Rav Tzvi Hersch Ferber, a prominent rav who lived in London in the early 1900s, and merited a degree of closeness to the Leshem. (His brother, Rav Mordechai Ferber, was a son-in-law of the Leshem; presumably this was how he was introduced to Rav Shlomo.) Rav Tzvi Hersh recorded several interactions with the Leshem in a letter penned to Rav Shlomo’s son-in-law.

In the letter, he describes how he asked the Leshem why he did not attach any letters of approbation to his sefer. The Leshem responded that the only person alive at the time who was both fluent in Nigleh (the revealed parts of the Torah) and in Nistar (the “hidden,” kabbalistic parts of the Torah) was the Ben Ish Chai (Rav Yosef Chaim) of Baghdad. The Leshem revealed to Rav Ferber that he had sent his manuscript to the Ben Ish Chai and subsequently received a letter in return, though he wouldn’t disclose its contents. He did, however, share with Rav Ferber the letter’s opening line: “To the Ari Bemistarim (the hidden lion) …” In this salutation, the Ben Ish Chai alluded to the fact that the Leshem was relatively unknown to the general public at the time.

Rav Sraya Deblitzky adds that the Ben Ish Chai and his sons reportedly made the blessing of shehecheyanu when the manuscript was finally printed as a sefer and reached Baghdad. Several decades ago, I heard from a close talmid of Rav Yehuda Ades (rosh yeshivah of Kol Yaakov and a scion of a rabbinic kabbalistic family) that the Leshem heard this only much later on in life, when his health was waning. In response, he said, “If I had known earlier on that the Ben Ish Chai would so appreciate my sefer, I would have been moved to write more seforim on Kabbalah, but now it is too late.”

It is likely that the reverence accorded to the Leshem was a determining force in the future Elyashiv-Kanievsky shidduch. In fact, while the Steipler stemmed from a chassidic background, he did not wear a shtreimel. But he was overjoyed to receive the Leshem’s shtreimel as a gift from Rav Chaim, who received it from Rebbetzin Batsheva’s grandfather Rav Aryeh Levin after their marriage. (The Leshem himself began wearing a shtreimel upon arriving in Yerushalayim, as per the minhag of the litvish Yerushalmi Prushim.) The Steipler wore this shtreimel every Shabbos at Shalosh Seudos.

The Chazon Ish, who was the main force behind Rav Chaim’s shidduch, held the Leshem in great reverence, calling him the “last true mekubal on earth.” While he himself was not known to have delved into Kabbalah, a recently discovered account tells a different story.

Rav Yisrael Singer of Har Nof, who passed away in 2020, was a longtime talmid and chavrusa of the Chazon Ish.  After his passing, the Hebrew language Yated Neeman printed a joint interview with Rav Singer ztz”l and Rav Dov Landau. In the interview, Rav Singer shared that he had lived for a certain period in the Chazon Ish’s home and found kabbalistic works near his bed. (The Chazon Ish was known to have learned lying in bed because of severe exhaustion). He says the Chazon Ish was displeased and did not allow him to learn from these seforim.

(A similar attitude was adopted by Rav Chaim himself. A weekly pamphlet titled Divrei Siach that detailed Rav Chaim’s daily schedule tells of a locked box in Rav Chaim’s home that contained kabbalistic works. Only Rav Chaim had the key, and he would have to climb on a ladder to reach the box.)

In any event, the Chazon Ish’s reverence for the Leshem was surely a crucial factor in prompting him to pursue the shidduch between his nephew and protégé and the Leshem’s great-granddaughter.

Better to Be Hidden

There was another link that contributed to the union of the Kanievsky and Elyashiv families: Rav Aryeh Levin, the great talmid chacham steeped in both the revealed and hidden parts of the Torah, and who had “discovered” the Leshem.

The Leshem arrived in Yerushalayim in 1924. In the two years before he passed away, he kept mostly to himself, and few knew of his greatness. But Rav Aryeh Levin, known as “The Tzaddik of Yerushalayim,” became extremely close to him.

Several years after the Leshem’s passing in 1926, Reb Aryeh published a small pamphlet that included basic information about the life of his revered rebbi. Fifty years later, Rav Sraya Debiltzky published another small pamphlet which contained much of the information from Reb Aryeh’s original pamphlet, while also adding a brief overview of the Leshem’s contribution to kabbalistic literature. It’s thanks to these two tzaddikim that we have even a sketchy portrait about the Leshem and his life story.

Born in 1841 in Zagory, Lithuania, to Rav Chaikel and Sasira Gita Elyashiv, Reb Shlomo left home at an early age to learn from the rav of Minsk, Rav Gershon Tanchum Pozniak, who was recognized as one of the gedolei hador. Under his tutelage, Reb Shlomo completed the entire Shas. His involvement in Kabbalah, however, began only after his marriage to Batsheva Ester Fein from Shavel in northern Lithuania, a major Jewish center at the time.

After his marriage, he moved to his wife’s hometown, where he continued to learn in solitude. He quickly realized, though, that he needed a less-distracting atmosphere to grow in his studies, and with his wife’s consent, he took their only son with him and moved to Telz, where he lived for ten years. It was in Telz that he met Rav Yosef Reizen, the rav of the city, who taught him the basic foundations of Kabbalah.

The Leshem later revealed that he also studied Kabbalah under another tzaddik in Telz, who was totally hidden from the public. He recounted that upon seeing this tzaddik’s face he immediately realized that he was learned in Kabbalah and asked him to teach him. The tzaddik acceded and taught him during the late-night hours, but the Leshem never revealed his name.

Rav Yosef Leib Bloch (rosh yeshivah of Telz and known as the Maharil) testified that the Leshem’s proficiency in Kabbalah was due to his intense prayers to understand this difficult part of Torah, shedding many tears on the way.

Upon returning to Shavel after a long period of exile, the Leshem continued to learn the entire day, wrapped in tallis and tefillin. Rav Ferber recalls visiting the Leshem in Shavel after his return, and says he actually trembled upon seeing him in this state of holiness. It was during this period in Shavel that the Leshem authored his magnum opus titled Leshem Shevo Veachlama.

Rav Aryeh Levin writes that something strange occurred when the Leshem wrote his manuscript. He suffered from a weak right arm and usually experienced difficulty when writing. However, when writing his kabbalistic works, he wrote at a mesmerizing pace, unnatural even for a healthy human being. He commented to Rav Ferber that he felt he had received Divine assistance when writing these works.

The Leshem continued to author kabbalistic works until the age of 50, after which he only reviewed and corrected his existing manuscripts. Eventually, he began dreaming of moving to Eretz Yisrael, a wish that only materialized when he was 81 years old. With the active intervention of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, who had studied Kabbalah with him in Lithuania, the Leshem made aliyah with his daughter and son-in-law, Chaya Musha and Rav Avrohom (Levinson) Elyashiv (he adopted his father-in-law’s surname because of legalities at the border), and their only son, Yosef Shalom.

In 1926, two years after moving to the Holy Land, he passed away. Several reliable witnesses testified that an unearthly sight appeared in the sky during his burial on Har Hazeisim. Some described it as an amuda d’nehora (a pillar of fire), while others said it was a type of a rainbow that had never been seen before over Yerushalayim.

No Interruptions

Rav Avraham Elyashiv was known as the Homeler Rav after the Eastern European town in which he had served as a rav. Before that, he had learned in Radin under the Chofetz Chaim, and he eventually authored seforim on Shas titled Bikurei Avraham. Upon arriving in Eretz Yisrael, he dedicated himself to teaching Torah specifically to working boys who didn’t have the safety of a proper spiritual infrastructure. He named his initiative, and subsequently the beis medrash where they learned, Tiferes Bochurim. Located near the shuk of Meah Shearim, it still exists today, and Reb Avraham’s son, later known as the posek hador Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, faithfully delivered a Daf Yomi shiur there to working men for many decades. It was only during the last years of his life that the shiur was packed every night with yungeleit and talmidei chachamim wishing to hear the gadol hador, who otherwise never spoke in public.

Today Tiferes Bochurim houses a prestigious kollel headed by Rav Elyashiv’s son, Rav Binyamin Elyashiv, a gadol in his own right who has authored multiple volumes titled Yad Binyamin on the mesechtos relating to Kodshim.

Young Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who was quiet and reserved by nature, didn’t easily integrate into the local Yerushalmi chinuch framework, and preferred to learn privately with his father. Aside from learning with his father, he mainly studied by himself, a practice he continued until his old age.

Listeners who merited to hear Rav Elyashiv’s sing-song for hours on end described a unique style of learning. While solo learning is usually characterized by a monotonous repetition of the words of the Gemara and interrupted by pauses for contemplation, Rav Elyashiv’s style was to reenact a scenario as if he were learning the sugya with another person. He would say things to himself like, “You ask me how this can be, I will answer you the following….”

Nevertheless, when Rav Yehuda Ades asked him if he should adopt a similar method of learning, Rav Elyashiv discouraged him from doing so, saying that there were times he felt he would collapse due to the lack of a social circle.

Reb Lipa says the reason Rav Elyashiv learned in a small, locked shtibel until his old age, and not at home, was due to his wife’s soft heart. She had a hard time turning away petitioners in need of the Rav’s advice and psak. After her petirah, when family members took turns “guarding the fort,” they were generally stricter and did not allow for any interruption whatsoever, and Rav Elyashiv began learning at home, where he no longer had to fear unwanted interruptions.

While still a bochur, Yosef Shalom received semichah from Rav Zelig Reuven Bengis, the av beis din of the Eida Hachareidis of Yerushalayim. As he neared marriageable age, one man kept a close eye on him.  Rav Aryeh Levin, as previously mentioned, was a close confidant and talmid of the Leshem. As a regular visitor to the Elyashiv home, where Yosef Shalom had assisted his grandfather by writing parts of his sefer on Kabbalah for him, Rav Aryeh had firsthand knowledge of his rebbi’s grandson’s greatness in Torah and hasmadah, and wanted him as a match for his daughter Shayna Chaya.

Once again, the great personality of the Leshem opened doors for his descendants.

Born into Royalty

The rarefied meeting place of halachah and Kabbalah that was the Elyashiv home would produce one half of the legendary Kanievsky couple. Preceded by one older brother, Rebbetzin Batsheva was their oldest daughter (another six girls and four boys followed), born in 1932.

Rav Elyashiv and his rebbetzin merited 12 children, two of whom were niftar in infancy: Rivka, who was hit by a Jordanian shell in 1948, and Yitzchak, who died from illness. The rest of their children all made their mark as outstanding Torah scholars and rebbetzins. The oldest was Rav Shlomo ztz”l, followed by Rebbetzin Batsheva. Next came Rebbetzin Sara Yisraelson (wife of Rav Yosef), in whose home in Bnei Brak we had the zechus of meeting with her son, Rav Lipa. Following Rebbetzin Yisraelson, in birth order, were Rebbetzin Dina Ettel, wife of Rav Elchanan Berlin; Rebbetzin Aliza Shoshana, the first wife of Rav  Yitzchok Zilberstein; Rebbetzin Leah, wife of Rav Ezriel Auerbach; Rav Moshe; Rav Binyamin; Rav Avraham ztz”l; and Rebbetzin Gita, wife of Rav Binyamin Rimmer.

In the pre-Bais Yaakov days, Batsheva and her sisters learned in the Altshuler school, an open yet frum girls’ school in Yerushalayim. While she trained as an accountant, she apparently never worked in this capacity, but worked instead as a secretary for the religious Zionist school  Maaleh until her marriage.

Rebbetzin Batsheva was renowned for her total dedication to the needs of others, which may have stemmed from the influence of her grandfather Reb Aryeh. From a very young age, she accompanied him on many of his visits to the prisoners of the underground who were holed up in the famous Kishle detention facility (now housing the local police station at the entrance to the Old City) and elsewhere. During the Israeli War of Independence, Reb Aryeh would go to every hospital in Yerushalayim, Batsheva as his faithful assistant, and record all of the names of those killed during the fighting, in order to alleviate the problem of potential agunos. She also assisted her grandfather in many other acts of chesed, helping widows, the sick, and the poor.

A Chassid in Novardok

In the early 1900s, several thousand miles away from Yerushalayim, another family was traversing a journey of its own, albeit spurred by tragic circumstances. Rav Chaim Peretz Kanievsky was serving as a shochet in a small Ukrainian town named Toshon when he suddenly was left a widower at the age of 60. Having borne three daughters from his first wife, he still hoped to have a son, and he subsequently remarried. His second marriage to Brachah, who was considerably younger, yielded three sons, the oldest of whom was Yaakov Yisrael, who would grow up to be the Steipler Gaon. After Rav Chaim Peretz passed away (when the Steipler was just 11 years old), Brachah was left with no feasible way to care for her children,  so she returned from Toshon to her hometown of Hornosteipel in order to receive assistance from her close relatives who were living there.

Rav Chaim Peretz himself was a full-fledged chassid of the famed Rav Mordechai Dov of Hornsteipel, a prominent rebbe from the Chernobler dynasty with thousands of admirers and chassidim. In fact, the Steipler was named after the Rebbe’s grandfather, Rav Yaakov Yisrael of Cherkas, who was the founder of the Hornsteipel dynasty. The Steipler himself continued to observe many chassidic minhagim throughout his life, such as davening according to Nusach Ari, refraining from eating gebrochts on Pesach (he was matir neder for this in the last year of his life in fear that he would not be able to eat a shiur of matzah otherwise due to his health situation), and wearing a gartel during davening. However, he did not compel his children to follow these minhagim.

How did a chassidic young boy from Hornsteipel become the leader of the yeshivah world in post-war Eretz Yisrael? The answer lies in his mother’s dire financial situation after her husband’s passing. Unable to feed her children, she accepted an offer from a shaliach of the Novardok Yeshiva to take in her son, hoping he would be fed there in addition to receiving a yeshivah education. The Steipler enrolled in Novardok at the tender age of 12, and celebrated his bar mitzvah within the walls of the yeshivah.

Despite his youth, the Steipler’s stature was quickly acknowledged in Novardok, and he was even granted an exemption from learning mussar due to his great thirst for Torah. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz told of how he once visited his uncle Rav Avraham Yaffen, the rosh yeshivah in Novardok (Rav Chaim was a grandson of the Alter of Novardok and Rav Yaffen a son-in-law), and asked Rav Yaffen to show him the best boy in the yeshivah. Rav Yaffen responded that this boy is the greatest genius, this other boy is the biggest masmid, but the best boy in the yeshivah is Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, as he is the biggest mevakesh.

At a certain point, the yeshivah was facing intense opposition because of its emphasis on mussar. In an effort to prove that the yeshivah still maintained a high level of learning, Rav Yaffen asked Yaakov Yisrael, who was still a bochur, to write a sefer on a complex topic. He agreed and authored Shaarei Tevunah. Initially the yeshivah intended to fund the project, but their financial plight precluded them from doing so. Ultimately, the Steipler himself had to circulate and sell the sefer in order to cover his publishing costs.

When the sefer found its way to the eyes of the Chazon Ish, who was a young man himself at the time, he immediately inquired if the author was still single. Upon hearing the affirmative, the Chazon Ish suggested the shidduch between his sister Pesha Miriam Karelitz, the daughter of the Rav of Kosseva, and the sefer’s author. Thus, the chassidic boy from Novardok joined one of the prominent families of Lithuania in 1927.

After his marriage, the Steipler resided in Minsk and served as a maggid shiur in a branch of the Novardoker yeshivah in the city. Then a friend from his days as a bochur in Novardok, Rav Matisyahu Shtzigal, confided his dream of opening a branch of Novardok in Eretz Yisrael and appointing the Steipler as rosh yeshivah. This dream was realized in 1934 when the Steipler made aliyah with his only son, Shemaryahu Yosef Chaim (Shemaryahu Yosef after the Steipler’s father-in-law, and Chaim after his own father), and took over the leadership of Beis Yosef in Bnei Brak, the Novardoker yeshivah that Rav Shtzigal had indeed established.

The Pieces Come Together

After moving to Eretz Yisrael, the Steipler enrolled his son in a cheder in Bnei Brak, but as his tremendous diligence became apparent, he quickly transferred to a yeshivah ketanah when he was just ten years old. At the age of 16, following a short period learning under his father in Yeshivas Beis Yosef, he transferred to the famed Lomza yeshivah in Petach Tikvah, run by the city’s chief rabbi, Rav Reuven Katz.

In a letter written then, Rav Katz testified that Rav Chaim was fluent in three sedorim of Shas with Rishonim and Acharonim. During his years in Lomza he traveled back to Bnei Brak for Shabbos in order to learn with the Chazon Ish.

Rav Menachem Cohen (head of the Hebrew Mishpacha’s rabbincal board) would travel with Rav Chaim during these weekly trips, and the two young boys would test each other on the sugyos they’d learned. Rav Cohen says Rav Chaim’s well-known reserve and seriousness were evident already then.

The Steipler’s analytic approach to learning differed from Rav Chaim’s goal of absorbing vast amounts of information, as is apparent by contrasting any chapter in the Steipler’s Kehillas Yaakov with any chapter from one of Rav Chaim’s seforim. While at first the Steipler worried about how his son would progress in learning, the Chazon Ish calmed the Steipler’s fears and suggested that he allow Rav Chaim to follow his own path to greatness.

Decades after various events and life paths were set in motion — the Leshem’s arrival in Eretz Yisrael, Rav Aryeh Levin’s connection to him, and in turn the Chazon Ish’s reverence for the towering mekubal — all these factors came together to produce a shidduch that would give light to the world.

The Chazon Ish began looking for a shidduch for Rav Chaim when he was quite young — Rav Chaim himself instructed his offspring to marry before the age of 20, as per the Gemara in Kiddushin 29b — but things did not go smoothly.

Reb Lipa shares some insider family information. “It was very difficult to find a shidduch for Rav Chaim,” he says. “People do not realize that at the time Rav Chaim was so solely focused on learning and gaining mastery on the entire Torah that he simply lacked social skills. Although many talmidei chachamim respected his Torah knowledge, they were wary to marry off their daughter to such a “disconnected” persona.

“The Chazon Ish, who spearheaded the efforts to find his nephew a suitable match, knew that he must find two crucial elements before suggesting a shidduch to Rav Chaim. The first was sterling middos. The Chazon Ish was of the opinion that middos are hereditary (see Derashos HaRan Derush 5) and was in awe of Rav Aryeh Levin’s famous character traits. He knew one of Reb Aryeh’s progeny could be a match for Rav Chaim.

“Secondly, he was certain that any other father-in-law would object to Rav Chaim’s acute social reserve and eventually try to ‘fix’ the young boy. Knowing Rav Chaim for many years, the Chazon Ish knew that this approach would destroy Rav Chaim. He decided to seek a father-in-law who respected Torah learning and knowledge above everything, and he found this in Rav Elyashiv.

“The Chazon Ish heard about Batsheva’s sterling middos and chesed,” continues Rav Lipa. “The Chazon Ish was certain that Batsheva was the right match for Rav Chaim. He would therefore send his nephew Rav Shmerel Greinerman on regular visits to the Elyashiv home in Meah Shearim, suggesting the shidduch time after time. It reached a point that when Rebbetzin Elyashiv would spot him from afar she would sigh, ‘Here he comes again, why don’t they leave her alone? She is still young….’ ”

Faced with the Elyashivs’ reluctance, the Chazon Ish realized he would have to impress Rav Elyashiv with Rav Chaim’s mastery of Torah.

Reb Lipa recalls: “Rav Elyashiv once revealed how the Chazon Ish convinced him of Rav Chaim’s Torah knowledge of Torah. He told Rav Elyashiv that Rav Chaim was ‘Me’ein HaRogotchover,’ that he was a reflection of the Rogatchover Gaon. Rav Elyashiv told me that he was surprised that the Chazon Ish went so far in this comparison. He himself did not believe there was anyone living in this generation that resembled the Rogatchover. However, as time went by, he began to realize what the Chazon Ish meant.”

Rav Elyashiv eventually consented to the shidduch, but, says Rav Lipa, things weren’t easy for the Rebbetzin in the beginning. He describes how the newlywed Rav Chaim would visit his in-laws’ home in Meah Shearim, which was teeming with sons and daughters, none of whom were married at the time.

“Rav Chaim would sit himself on one of the beds with a large Gemara in his hands and shteig away, as if no one else was around,” Rav Lipa says. This was difficult for Batsheva, who has such an outgoing personality and would befriend any woman she came into contact with.

As seen in the letter cited above, Rav Elyashiv was determined to help his daughter, who was living in Bnei Brak with her new husband, far from home. He suggested that she try to connect with her mother-in-law, Rav Chaim’s mother, stressing that he knows she is good-natured and might be able to help with Batsheva’s concerns. Rav Elyashiv was careful to end off the letter with “Warm regards to your husband, the gaon Rav Chaim,” showing his daughter his appreciation of his son-in-law’s Torah greatness.

This pattern wasn’t new. Rebbetzin Elyashiv experienced similar challenges upon her marriage to Rav Elyashiv, who was also a single-minded masmid. Then it was Rav Aryeh Levin (Rav Elyashiv’s father-in-law) who solved matters by paying daily visits to his daughter to alleviate her loneliness.

Even later in life, Rav Chaim maintained a disconnection from mundane matters. Reb Lipa goes so far as to testify that Rav Chaim did not recognize some of his own close relatives. In fact, Rav Chaim identified people by the seforim that they authored and not by their names. When these people would enter his room, he would simply state their sefer’s name instead of their own name.

Nevertheless, while Rav Chaim would remain reticent, Rebbetzin Batsheva drew him out. Fueled by the steadfast middos tovos and patience that she inherited from Rav Aryeh Levin, she blended her outgoing personality and boundless chesed with his vast Torah knowledge and a koach to give brachos. Together they became a couple that inspired a generation with Torah and chesed like no other.

While the early days were a challenge for both of them — Rebbetzin Batsheva having to readjust her social expectations vis-a-vis her husband and Rav Chaim, kindhearted as he was, having to figure out the new language of a wife and family — Rav Chaim cared deeply for his wife and they had a long and happy marriage. Rav Chaim held her in such high regard that one year, as he was going with his sons to buy an esrog, he exclaimed with pain, “Oy! I forgot to ask Mommy for a brachah that I should be zocheh to find a good esrog!”

Even as they became increasingly public figures, the Rav and Rebbetzin were famous for the mutual respect and care they showed each other. The Rebbetzin carefully attended to his needs, but also shared him with the public. Thousands of women were attracted to her, and she channeled their problems to Rav Chaim for his advice and blessings. On his part, Rav Chaim would not even taste his afternoon meal until the Rebbetzin had finished seeing women and could sit down with him. The heartwarming video clips of their joint daily Birchos Hashachar have also made the rounds worldwide, testifying to their close and devoted relationship and joint dedication to avodas Hashem.

A story circulating after Rav Chaim’s petirah highlights the strong neshamah bond that evolved between Rav Chaim and the Rebbetzin. Most of the Rebbetzin’s many siblings lived in Yerushalayim, and attending their simchahs, which meant a lot to her, meant a significantly long bus ride there and back. Rav Chaim himself would generally refrain from attending family events that would disrupt his extremely rigid learning schedule, which he famously termed, “my chovos.” While the Rebbetzin was preparing for one of these outings, she sensed a certain uneasiness on Rav Chaim’s part before her departure. Although Rav Chaim didn’t ask her to stay, the Rebbetzin sensed that he didn’t want her to leave. When she asked him about it, he told her that her mere being in his presence enhanced his learning greatly.”

Unfiltered Access

Shortly after Rav Chaim’s marriage, Rav Elyashiv requested that he talk in learning with a bochur suggested to the Elyashiv’s second daughter, Sarah. Yosef Yisraelson was a refugee who had reached Eretz Yisrael after spending the war years in exile in Siberia. A grandson of the tzaddik Rav Tzvi Hirsch Gutman, who voluntarily assumed responsibility to procure the food needed for Rav Elchanan Wasserman’s talmidim in Baranovitch, Yosef was orphaned during World War II and was raised in Siberia by his stepmother. Upon his arrival in Eretz Yisrael, he quickly established himself as a prized talmid in the Ponevezh yeshivah in Bnei Brak.

Rav Chaim gave his approval to the shidduch, and a lifelong friendship evolved between the two brothers-in-law. As opposed to Rav Chaim, Rav Yisraelson was extremely sociable and  would be one of the only people in the world to carry on long conversations with Rav Chaim.  Reb Lipa remembers the weekly Shabbos night visits Rav Chaim and Rebbetzin Batsheva paid to the Yisraelsons.

Before he was thrust into the limelight, Rav Chaim would occasionally sit down on a random stone fence in the street nearby the Yisraelson home.

Rav Yosef Yisraelson’s son, Rav Lipa Yisraelson, had the rare privilege of growing up in the close vicinity of three giants. A grandson of Rav Elyashiv and a nephew of Rav Chaim, he was also an upstairs neighbor of Rav Aharon Leib Steinman in the four-family unit on 5 Chazon Ish Street.

He’s gifted Klal Yisrael with many volumes of works dedicated to the Torah and middos of these gedolim. His most recent release is the seven-volume Siach Ish, which records the Torah of Rav Elyashiv and Rav Chaim on the entire Yom Tov cycle of the Jewish year.

Rav Chaim was known to have promised that rockets would not fall in Bnei Brak, and Reb Lipa once asked Rav Chaim how he could promise such a thing. Rav Chaim responded with an atypically lengthy answer.  “First of all, the Chazon Ish said so in his time,” he told his nephew. “Secondly, there is so much Torah in Bnei Brak it simply must bring about heavenly protection. Thirdly, I don’t listen to all of the scary news so I’m calmer than others and can calm others down. And finally, if I’m proven wrong, so people will stop coming to me, which is also fine.”

Reb Lipa related a story that he heard from Rav Hillel David, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America. On his visits to Eretz Yisrael, Rav David would frequently come to the Kanievsky home to talk in learning with Rav Chaim. One afternoon, after Rav David sat with Rav Chaim talking in learning for several hours, Rav Chaim told Rav David that he wanted to invite him to his son’s wedding. When Rav David asked when the wedding would take place, Rav Chaim calmly responded, “Tonight, and we are leaving to the chuppah soon, so please come to the wedding.”

But while Rav Chaim was usually a bulwark of serenity, he related to the need to clarify Torah issues with unusual intensity. Reb Lipa recalls how his father once sent him to Rav Chaim with a question related to a certain source that his father was searching for. Reb Lipa approached Rav Chaim after vasikin, while he was taking off his tefillin; Rav Chaim responded that the source was a midrash but he didn’t recall exactly which one.

Reb Lipa assumed Rav Chaim would look into it and get back to him, but to his surprise, Rav Chaim wouldn’t leave the shul until he located the midrash.

In a similar vein, one night after Maariv, Reb Lipa gave Rav Chaim a brand-new set of seforim he had just printed based on the sichos and mussar of Rav Elyashiv’s paternal grandfather, Rav Moshe Arener, a talmid of Rav Yisrael Salanter. The next morning, after vasikin, Rav Chaim jokingly called over Reb Lipa and told him, “I did not sleep at all last night and it was your fault.”

Unsure of how he had disturbed Rav Chaim’s sleep, Reb Lipa asked for an explanation. “You brought me three beautiful seforim last night,” Rav Chaim responded. “I just had to finish them right then and there, so I didn’t sleep at all!”

A century-long chain of intersecting lives

1841 Birth of the Leshem

1899 Birth of the Steipler in Toshon

1910 Birth of Rav Elyashiv

1924 Arrival in Eretz Yisrael of the Leshem and Rav Elyashiv

1927 Marriage of the Steipler with the sister of the Chazon Ish

1928 Birth of Rav Chaim to the Steipler and his rebbetzin in Minsk

1930 Marriage of Rav Elyashiv to daughter of Rav Aryeh Levin

1932 Birth of Batsheva to Rav and Rebbetzin Elyashiv

1934 Arrival of the Steipler and family in Eretz Yisrael

1951 Marriage of Batsheva to Rav Chaim Kanievsky

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1005)