Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv

Early years

Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt"l was born on April 10, 1910, in Shavel (Šiauliai), Lithuania. His father was Rav Avrohom Erener, Chief Rabbi of Gomel (Homel). His mother, Chaya Moussa, was a daughter of the great Kabbalist Rav Shlomo Elyashiv (1841–1925), known as the Leshem after his sefer Leshem Shevo V'Achlamah. Rav Yosef Shalom was an only child, born after seventeen years of his parents' marriage.

The Chofetz Chaim of Radin urged people to seek out the Leshem. He said: “Although in Olam Hazeh, this world, we can see him and come close to him, in Olam Haba, the next world, who knows if we'll merit such an opportunity?”

In 1922, when Rav Yosef Shalom was twelve, the family planned to emigrate to Eretz Yisroel with the help of Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Kook, Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisroel. On the advice of the Chofetz Chaim, his father took the family name of his own father-in-law, Elyashiv, so that the family could travel on one immigration certificate.

In 1929, on the suggestion of Rav Kook, Rav Yosef Shalom met Sheina Chaya, daughter of Rav Aryeh Levin, the Tzaddik of Yerushalayim, and married her. They had five sons and seven daughters.

Torah and leadership

For many years Rav Yosef Shalom served as a dayan (judge) in the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and rose to its Supreme Rabbinical Court. Among his close colleagues on the beis din were other great Torah scholars: Rav Betzalel Zolty, Rav Yaakov Ades, Rav Eliezer Goldsmidt and Rav Ovadia Yosef. He resigned from the Rabbinate in 1972 and afterward took no government position, although he held great influence over rabbinic appointments and other important matters in Eretz Yisroel.

In 1989 Rav Elazar Menachem Mann Shach, the rosh yeshiva of Ponevezh and the undisputed leader of Torah Jewry in Eretz Yisroel, asked Rav Yosef Shalom to take a more active role in public life. Soon afterward Rav Shach, whose vision and hearing had almost entirely failed, handed the leadership over to him. In that same year Rav Yosef Shalom was named spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, a party within the United Torah Judaism list in the Knesset, and the party abided by every ruling and instruction he gave. Most of the roshei yeshiva connected with Agudath Israel of America consulted him regularly, followed his guidance, and sought his opinion on a wide range of communal issues.

Despite his influence, Rav Yosef Shalom held no official title as head of a congregation, yeshiva or community. His home was a small apartment at the edge of the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Yerushalayim, and he gave shiurim in Gemara and Shulchan Aruch in a shul in that area. Questioners from around the world came to him with complex halachic questions. Most Ashkenazi Jews regarded him as the leading halachic authority of his time, and he was also the preeminent leader of the Lithuanian community in Eretz Yisroel and abroad.

For more than eighty years after his wedding, his daily schedule included between sixteen and twenty hours of intensive Torah study. Although he suffered several illnesses throughout his life, he overcame them and kept up his schedule of learning and davening and his involvement in every concern of Klal Yisroel. He also cared deeply for poor and neglected families in Eretz Yisroel, and he helped the Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess Salant charity fund in every way he could.

Teachings and seforim

Many of his halachic rulings and sermons were recorded by his talmidim in several seforim. His multi-volume Kovetz Teshuvos contains responsa on questions that were put to him over many years. His ethical remarks on the Torah, some of them dating to the 1950s, were gathered and published as Divrei Aggadah.

Later years and passing

Even at the age of 102, Rav Yosef Shalom remained active in the community, and all of Klal Yisroel davened for his continued health and strength to carry on his holy work of learning, tefillah and communal service. He passed away in Yerushalayim on 28 Tammuz 5772 (July 18, 2012). His passing was a great loss to the Jewish people.

He and his wife had twelve children, and one son died young of an illness. His daughters married prominent talmidei chachamim. Bat Sheva, the eldest, married Rav Chaim Kanievsky of Bnei Brak. Sarah's husband was Rav Yisroel Yosef Yisroelson, who headed the Bar Shaul Kollel in Rechovot. Ettil married Rav Elchonon Berlin, rav of the Achva shul, and Shoshana married Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein, the Chief Rabbi in Ramat Elchanan, Bnei Brak.

Leah married Rav Azriel Auerbach, son of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, who served as his father-in-law's right-hand man. Gittel married Rav Binyamin Rimmer, rosh yeshiva of the Tshebiner Yeshiva in Yerushalayim and also of Kiryat Melech Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Rivkah, a seventh daughter, was killed in 1948 by Jordanian shelling.