Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky zt”l January 8, 1928 – March 18, 2022 was an Israeli Haredi rabbi and posek. He was a leading authority in Haredi Jewish society on legal and ethical practice. Known as the Gadol HaDor (“greatest of his generation”) and the “Prince of Torah”, much of his prominence came through Torah education and advice about Jewish law.

Though Kanievsky held no formal community-wide post, he was the de facto head of the Lithuanian branch of Haredi Judaism, revered as a consummate scholar of Jewish law and tradition, with unimpeachable rulings.

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky zt”l was born in Pinsk, Poland (now in Belarus), to Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known as the “Steipler Gaon”, and Miriam Karelitz (Pesha Miriam: Pesha was added), sister of Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, known as the “Chazon Ish”.

When Kanievsky was six years old, the family moved to Mandatory Palestine. After his immigration, he never left the country, even briefly.He worked hard learning Torah in his youth and was able to elucidate complicated rabbinic teachings as a young adult. During the 1947–1949 Palestine war, Rav Chaim, then a student at the Lomza Yeshiva, served in the Israel Defense Forces, guarding an outpost overlooking Jaffa.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Kanievsky told his followers that the best ways to defeat the virus were to avoid lashon hara (gossiping about one’s peers), to strengthen humility, and to place the needs of others before their own. As a result of the discussion, he was visited, on March 15, by senior police officials who, with great respect, wanted to ask him of the importance of following the orders of medical professionals with regard to the outbreak.