13th Yahrtzeit of Hagaon Harav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l

Thursday, the 28th of Tammuz, marks the 13^th Yahrtzeit of the Gadol Hador, Hagaon Harav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l.

Rav Elyashiv was the grandson of the great kabbalist Hagaon Harav Shlomo Elyashiv zt”l, author of the sefer Leshem Sh’vo V’achlama, which his grandson, despite his young age, helped in preparing.

Steeped in the world of old Yerushalayim, Rav Elyashiv married the daughter of the Tzaddik of Yerushalayim, Harav Aryeh Levine. One of Rav Elyashiv’s sons-in-law, Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, would become a Gadol Hador in his own right.

Born to his parents, Rav Avrohom Erener and Rebbetzin Chaya Moussa after 17 years of marriage, Rav Elyashiv was an only child. In 1922, following the advice of the Chofetz Chaim, his father changed the family name to Elyashiv, and with the assistance of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchok Kook, they emigrated to then-Palestine.

Rav Elyashiv married Shaina Chaya Levine in 1929. Together they had twelve children; five sons and seven daughters. Tragically, one son was niftar young and a daughter, Rivkah, was killed by Jordanian shelling in 1948. His other daughters all married prominent talmidei chachamim.

For over eighty years, Rav Elyashiv’s daily schedule consisted of 16 to 20 hours of intensive Torah study, and gave shiurim in Gemara and Halacha. He resided in a small apartment on the edge of the Meah She’arim section of Yerushalayim and held no official title as head of a shul, yeshiva, or community. From his tiny abode, he received people from all over the world, answering a multitude of complex halacha shailos, some of which were published in the sefer Kovetz Teshuvos during his lifetime.

In his earlier years, Rav Elyashiv served as a Dayan in the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, achieving a position on its Supreme Rabbinical Court alongside other Gedolim, including Hagaon Harav Betzalel Zolty, Hagaon Harav Yaakov Ades and Hagaon Harav Ovadia Yosef, Zecher tzadikim livracha. He resigned from the Rabbinate in 1972 and abstained from assuming a government position thereafter.

In 1989, at the request of Hagaon Harav Elazar Menachem Mann Shach zt”l, Rav Elyashiv took on a more active role in Jewish public life. Ultimately, Rav Shach, who was niftar in 2001, passed the mantle of leadership to him. Rav Elyashiv became the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party after Rav Shach’s petirah.

Even at the advanced age of 102, Rav Elyashiv remained the paramount leader of the Litvishe community in Israel and elsewhere. Some of his vast knowledge is preserved for future generations in his many seforim, including the multi-volume Kovetz Teshuvos, which Divrei Aggada, a collection of his mussar teachings, Shiurei Maran Elyashiv, Ashrei Haish, and Ha’aros on Shas.