Rav Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz zt"l
הרב אברהם ישעיה בן שמריהו יוסף קרליץ זצ"ל
Cheshvan 15 , 5714
Rav Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz zt"l
Rav Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, the Chazon Ish, was educated by his father, the Av Bais Din in Kosova, Poland (near Grodno). His first work on several parts of the Shulchon Aruch was published anonymously in Vilna in 1911 under the title Chazon Ish, by which name he became known. He moved to Vilna about 1920 and moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1933, settling in Bnei Brak. Upon his arrival in Eretz Yisrael, he devoted vast amounts of time and energy to Seder Zero’im, which deals mainly with laws pertaining to the Land, to answer the many Halachic problems inherent to a life in Eretz Yisrael consistent with Torah.
Stories of Rav Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz zt"l
Rav Avraham Chaim Brim related the following stories about the Chazon Ish zt”l:
The Chazon Ish said about himself that, due to sickness and a weak constitution, he never studied as much Torah as he wished he could. Nevertheless, he admitted that whenever he did study, he did so to the point of utter exhaustion and sheer collapse! In fact Rav Mordechai Shulam related that when he used to study Torah with the Chazon Ish, the seder limud (study session) always ended only once the Chazon Ish dropped from fatigue. When they recommenced it was only because he had regained enough strength to go on! One time, as they studied, the Chazon Ish grabbed a fruit and bit into it, beginning to eat without reciting a beracha. He later explained that he had studied and pushed himself to such a point of exhaustion that he felt he had no strength whatsoever even to recite the beracha [because the way the Chazon Ish recited a beracha took some time!] before waiting and had he not eaten he felt his health might have been in a state of emergency.
Whoever knew the Chazon Ish could testify that when he quotes from another sefer and apologizes, saying he is paraphrasing because he does not have access to that sefer, this does not mean that he did not have a copy in his home, nor does it mean that he did not have a copy in that very room. It could even have been right there in his room on the bookshelf – but he simply did not have any strength left at that time to get up and take it! This means that as the Chazon Ish was writing about some of the deepest, most difficult sugyas (topics) in Torah, he had exerted himself till he was at such a point of weakness and exhaustion that he did not even have the strength to get a sefer from the bookcase and look up a source. He truly embodied and fulfilled the teaching that the Torah is only miskayem (enduring) in one who literally kills himself over it – memis atzmo aleha!
Rav Mordechai Shulam once found the Chazon Ish in bed with his feet on the pillow and his head at the foot of the bed. The Chazon Ish excused himself, saying that had he had enough strength left before collapsing into bed to know which way was which, he would have used that strength to study more Torah.
The Chazon Ish remarked that he could only recognize the difference between cold and heat before he delved into a sugya; once immersed in Torah, he could no longer differentiate. Furthermore, he once commented that any taste in food and even any feelings of hunger were only distant childhood memories, because today he was so immersed in deep study and learning that he had simply forgotten these matters altogether and they no longer existed for him. He explained that nowadays when he felt so weak and sick that he would faint and collapse, that signaled to him that he should eat – but only to regain his strength to learn more, not because he felt hunger! (Marbeh Chaim p. 27-28)
The Chazon Ish was once visited by a Jew who asked him if he should take a job in a working environment where his coworkers were not coreligionists and not G-d-fearing Shomrei Torah and Mitzvos at all. He explained it was clear to him that this work environment would not cause him to transgress any prohibitions, not even DeRabbonon. However, he feared that such an environment might cause him a certain detachment or kerirus (cool attitude). The Chazon Ish answered him in his characteristic way: “Kerirus is Yehorag Ve’Al Ya’avor! – Cold detachment is so bad it would be better to allow oneself to be killed than suffer it!”
When the Chazon Ish visited the Kosel and the Old City, together with Rav Osher Zelig Margolios, he stopped at the famed Yeshiva of the Mekubolim, Beis E”l, where he sat studying by heart in dveikus and remarked when he departed, “It is a great zechus to visit such a holy Beis Medrash of the Rashash, where great, holy Tzaddikim studied and davened with the secrets of Hashem – sod Hashem liyerei’ov!”
There in the Yeshiva is a side room where a hole leads down a stairway to a wide courtyard where a cavern is found. In this cavern, the Tzaddikim meditated in hisbodedus (seclusion), using yichudim and kabbalistic prayers and devotions. The Chazon Ish entered that room, descended those stairs, entered that cavern and declared, “This is truly a good place for hisbodedus.” There are those who claim that what happened in that cavern was that the Rashash, together with the Chida and Rav Chaim DiLaRoza fasted three days straight, davened, engaged in yichudim, rolled in the snow and attempted to hasten the end of days and the coming of Moshiach. After three days, they heard a heavenly voice declare, “My sons, you are forbidden to hasten the end; I must separate you so that you three do not remain as a group. I decree that one of you must go into exile!”
The three Tzaddikim drew lots and so it was that the Chida sold his possessions and left for Livorno, Italy, where he lived out the rest of his days. (Based on Rav Pe’alim and Chibas Yerushalayim as cited in Moron HaRashash, p. 241–244)
The Chazon Ish used to say that there were three giants of mussar who excelled in emuna: In Rav Eliyohu Eliezer Dessler we see his greatness in emuna of mind, in Rav Eliyohu Lopian we see his greatness in emuna of the heart, and in Rav Chatzkel Levenstein we see that he had emuna in his hands – he had experiential emuna, the kind you can touch and feel with your very hands! (Otzros Rabbeinu Yechezkel, p. 23)
Segulos of Rav Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz zt"l
May it be Your Will, Hashem, our G-d and G-d of our forefathers, that You have mercy on my son [name of son] son of [mother’s name], and direct his heart to love and fear Your Name, and to be diligent in the study of Your holy Torah. May You remove from before him all circumstances that may deter him from diligent study of Your holy Torah and may you make ready all the conditions that will bring him/her closer to Your holy Torah.
