Rav Shmaryohu Yosef Nissim Karelitz

Early years

Rav Shmaryohu Yosef Nissim Karelitz zt"l, known throughout his life simply as Rav Nissim, was born on 18 Av 5686 (1926). His father, Rav Nochum Meir Karelitz, was one of the eminent talmidim of Kelm and Slabodka, a talmid of the Chofetz Chaim in Radin, and very close to Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky. In Lithuania he served as Rav of Maišiagala, near Vilna, and he was a brother-in-law of the Chazon Ish.

It is told that soon after his birth the child was in great danger and survived miraculously. It was therefore instructed that he be named Nissim, even though the name was uncommon among Ashkenazim. At his bris he was called Shmaryahu Yosef, after his grandfather, Rav Shmaryahu Yosef Karelitz, the Rav of Kosava and father of the Chazon Ish, and Nissim for the miracle. For the rest of his life he was known mainly by the name that recalled his survival.

As a boy Nissim attended cheder in Kosava, where he absorbed the heritage of the Karelitz family. When the authorities began to force parents to send their children to Polish schools, his father decided, when Nissim was ten, to move the family to Eretz Yisroel. They settled in Bnei Brak and were reunited with the Chazon Ish, who had arrived there about two years earlier, in Tammuz 5693 (1933).

Nissim entered Yeshivas Tiferes Tzion, where one of his rebbeim was Rav Michel Yehudah Lefkowitz. He quickly became one of the outstanding students, growing in Torah and yiras Shamayim and showing fine middos.

Torah and leadership

Rav Nissim grew very close to his uncle, the Chazon Ish. He came to him often for advice, slept in his home for a long period, and learned with him frequently. He also studied with his other uncle, the Steipler. His lifelong involvement with halachah, and with passing it on to future generations, was shaped by the Chazon Ish, with whom he consulted on every area of halachah.

Rav Nissim later related that he once accompanied the Chazon Ish on an outing, and they used the time to speak in learning. A ben Torah approached and spoke to the Chazon Ish about a matter in Maseches Bava Basra. On the way home the Chazon Ish remarked that he would need to review the masechta, and Rav Nissim decided to watch how he did it. As soon as they arrived, the Chazon Ish began to learn, and a day and a half later the page open in his Gemara showed that he had finished all 176 daf. Rav Nissim also related that on the yahrzeit of his father and mother, the Chazon Ish would learn all of Maseches Chullin in their memory.

Rav Nissim told another story about a walk with the Chazon Ish shortly after an illness. They walked slowly the whole way, and when they arrived the Chazon Ish remarked that had they stood still they would never have arrived. Rav Nissim thought he was being given mussar, but understood it better some time later. After a heart attack the doctors forbade the Chazon Ish to speak for six weeks. When he could manage a few words, he motioned to Rav Nissim to take his notebook, and Rav Nissim wrote down three words one day, a few more the next. In the end these words became a se'if katan in the sefer Chazon Ish on Hilchos Shabbos. He lived what he always taught, that one may not be idle from toiling in Torah.

Rav Nissim also learned in Yeshivas Lomza, and when the new Ponevez Yeshivah opened, he began attending its shiurim on the advice of the Chazon Ish. In 5711 (1951), again on the Chazon Ish's advice, he married Rebbetzin Leah, daughter of Rav Tzvi Hirsh Hakohen Kopshitz and great-granddaughter of Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, the Rav of Yerushalayim. The Rebbetzin was a devoted helpmate and a model of modesty. She gave herself to raising their children and then to their grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even a fifth generation, many of whom are Torah scholars and marbitzei Torah. She passed away in 5775 (2015).

After his marriage Rav Nissim continued to learn in Kollel Ponevez. When his father passed away, his uncle, the Steipler Gaon, appointed him to head Kollel Chazon Ish in his father's place. He later became Rav of the Ramat Aharon neighborhood of Bnei Brak, and he served as Av Beis Din of the city for more than fifty years. He also served on the halachic council (Vaad Halacha) of the Maayanei Hayeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak.

Alongside his harbatzas Torah in yeshivos and kollelim, Rav Nissim was one of the renowned morei horaah. In 5728 (1968) he established a beis din in his home in Bnei Brak. It has several panels of dayanim and deals with many areas of halachah, including monetary disputes, divorces, conversions and kashrus, among them the Otzar Beis Din during Shemittah, which was known especially for its wine and grape juice.

Rav Nissim was known for his greatness in Torah, his modesty and his remarkable histapkus b'muat (contentment with little). He constantly fled from honor, yet in his beis din he firmly upheld truth and peace and did not hesitate to give clear rulings. In the years after the Chazon Ish, Rav Elazar Shach was regarded as the leading figure of the generation, and in time Rav Nissim became one of the most highly respected leaders of the Torah world.

Teachings and seforim

Much of Rav Nissim's Torah, shiurim and halachic rulings are presented in his seforim. Chut Hashani, in thirteen volumes on Orach Chaim and Yoreh De'ah, includes volumes on Hilchos Shabbos, Yom Tov, Pesach, Niddah and Ribbis, on Even Ha'ezer siman 21, and on Hilchos Shemittah Veyovel. Shiurei Hagra"n collects his shiurim on the Rambam's halachos of terumos and maasros.

Later years and passing

About six years before his passing Rav Nissim fell ill, and in recent months his condition worsened. On Erev Yom Kippur he was hospitalized, and on Simchas Torah his condition took a drastic turn for the worse. At the close of Yom Tov in Eretz Yisroel, in Tishrei 5780 (2019), he passed away at the age of 93, surrounded by family and talmidim.

The levayah took place in Bnei Brak on Tuesday. Tens of thousands filled the streets as it set out from Rosenheim Street in Ramat Aharon. Rav Shimon Galei recited Tehillim, passuk by passuk, followed by kabbalas Ol Malchus Shamayim. Hespeidim were delivered by his son, Rav Avraham Yeshayahu, Rav of the Heligman shul, by Rav Gershon Edelstein, by Rav Baruch Dov Povarsky, and by his sons-in-law, Rav Sariel Rosenberg and Rav Mendel Lubin.

After the hespeidim, Bnei Brak Mayor Rabbi Avraham Rubinstein announced that, in accordance with the Rav's wishes and with the agreement of the gedolei Torah, his son-in-law Rav Mendel Lubin would succeed him as Rav of the Ramat Aharon neighborhood. The levayah then continued to the Ponevez Cemetery, where Rav Nissim was buried beside his Rebbetzin.

Legacy

With his passing the generation lost a giant in Torah and yiras Shamayim, a marbitz Torah and halachah, and a dayan who merited to serve the Chazon Ish both as a nephew and as a talmid.