Very interesting letter fully in the Holy hand & signature of Maran Sar Hatorah.
"Be’ezrat Hashem 28th of Nisan, 5790
To our dear friend, Rabbi Dardik Shlit”a
After a warm welcome, I hereby confirm that I have received the sum of four thousand dollars to distribute on Purim after Chatzot. It was divided among the poor, as discussed, so that the donors fulfill the mitzvah of giving Matanot LeEvyonim properly. May God bless all those who participate and engage in this righteous act Brucniyus & Gasmiyus, and may they succeed in all their endeavors.
With friendship and blessings,
Chaim Kanievsky”
6.5 X 17cm.
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.
