Long early letter fully in his Holy hand & signature, 16 lines, 1972. 28.2 Cm.
"Leshana Tova he should be written and sealed…. About your questions, you ask Torah questions in practice, and in my humble opinion, ‘I am not fit for teaching at all, and according to the Halacha, I am forbidden to give specific rulings on matters that are not explicitly stated, ‘ and I write only a leaning opinion and not for practical application.
Regarding what you heard about Torah lesson, it seems that there was a mistaken report."
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.
The recipient, Jerusalem-born Gaon Rabbi Ephraim Greenblatt (1932-2014), was the leading disciple (Talmid Muvhak) of Rebbe Moshe Feinstein.
Searching for a capable candidate to lead the struggling Orthodox community in Memphis, Rebbe Moshe selected the 20-year-old Rabbi Greenblatt, who would remain in Tennessee for the next six decades. Rabbi Greenblatt is mentioned countless times in his teacher’s Igroth Moshe, while his own responsa, Rivevoth Efraim (10 volumes), have become a staple of the American rabbinic bookshelf.
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Lot #259