Letter of recommendation on behalf of the Gaon Rabbi Aharon Yosef Atik. In the Holy hand of the Gaon Maran Rabbi Nissim Karelitz. Underneath Maran Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky adds four lines in his Holy hand & signature. Underneath Maran Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman added his Holy signature.
Bnei Brak, 1998. On official letterhead of Yeshivat Kolel Avreichim Chazon Ish.
Maran the Gaon Rabbi Shmaryahu Yosef Nissim Karelitz (1926-2019) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and posek who served as the chairman of the beis din tzedek of Bnei Brak. In his youth, he studied in the Ponevezh Yeshiva. He also studied with his uncles, the Chazon Ish and the Steipler.
Maran Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky was born in Pinsk, Poland (now in Belarus), to Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known as the "Steipler Gaon", and Miriam Karelitz (Pesha Miriam: Pesha was added, sister of Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, known as the "Chazon Ish".
When he 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.
His father gave him explicit instructions to devote his time exclusively to learning, and not to giving shiurim (lectures), which he followed.The only known exception was in the year after his father’s death, when he would give a complex shiur in Talmud Yerushalmi in his father’s memory. He stopped immediately thereafter, claiming it took away time from learning. The amount of time it took him to prepare each lecture was five minutes.
Maran was known to study Torah 17 hours each day. He received thousands of visits every year at his house on Rashbam 23, from Jews seeking religious and halakhic advice. He was widely believed to have had Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit)
He died at his home in Bnei Brak on March 18, 2022, at the age of 94. Around 750,000 mourners attended his funeral on March 20, 2022, making it one of the largest funerals in Israeli history.
Maran Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman was born in Brisk in Lithuania where he studied in a yeshiva. Because of the fear of conscription into the Polish army, he traveled to Switzerland in the summer of 1938 together with his friend Moshe Soloveichik, to study in the Montreux Yeshiva. This move right before the Holocaust proved to be the miracle of survival for these two great Torah figures that impacted the whole generation which built the Torah world in our times – Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik in Zurich, from where he led the Torah world in Europe and Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman in the city of Bnei Brak. In 1945, he ascended to Eretz Israel, and after a short while was asked to serve as head of the Chafetz Chaim Yeshiva in Kfar Saba. Later, he moved to Bnei Brak and was appointed head of the Ponovezh Yeshiva Litze’irim. Many Torah leaders and famous rabbis and heads of yeshiva were his students during the 60 years he taught Torah.
At a young age, he was already esteemed as an outstanding Torah scholar and the Chazon Ish bestowed upon him much honor. With the passing years, he became famous as one of the leading yeshiva heads. He headed Kollel Ponovezh, the Orchot Torah Yeshivot and Ge’on Ya’akov. His home was a focal point for many yeshiva heads in Israel, who consulted with Rabbi Shteinman in matters of education and in leading the Torah world.
From the mid-1990s, his leadership was evident in all matters of the Charedi public and Torah world: establishing and supporting networks of kollelim for young men, support and assistance to fundraising campaigns of charity and chesed organizations, leading the Chinuch Atzma’I and Va’ad HaYeshivot and Degel HaTorah. In 2012, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky published a historic letter in which he writes: "The leadership of the generation is now in the hands of Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman" and he noted that Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman is the successor of the path and leadership of Rabbi E.M. Shach and Rabbi Y.S. Elyashiv.
24.6 cm.
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