Jump to content

Yosef Shalom Elyashiv

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rabbi
Yosef Shalom Elyashiv
יוסף שלום אלישיב
Elyashiv at home
Personal life
Born(1910-04-10)10 April 1910
Nisan 1, 5670 AM (Hebrew calendar)
Šiauliai, Russian Empire
(later Lithuania)
Died18 July 2012(2012-07-18) (aged 102)
Tamuz 28, 5772 AM (Hebrew calendar)
Jerusalem
Children12, including Batsheva Kanievsky
Parent(s)Avraham Elyashiv
Chaya Moussa Elyashiv
Signature
Religious life
ReligionJudaism
DenominationOrthodox Judaism
Jewish leader
PositionPosek
OrganizationDegel HaTorah

Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (Hebrew: יוסף שלום אלישיב‎; 10 April 1910 – 18 July 2012) was a Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish rabbi and posek (arbiter of Jewish law) who lived in Jerusalem. Until his death at the age of 102, Rav Elyashiv was the paramount leader of both Israel and the Diaspora Lithuanian-Haredi community, and many Ashkenazi Jews regarded him as the posek ha-dor, the contemporary leading authority on halakha, or Jewish law.[1]

He spent most of his days engaged in Talmudical study, and delivered lectures in Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh at a local synagogue in the Meah Shearim area in Jerusalem where he lived.[2][3] He received supplicants from all over the world, and answered the most complex Halakhic inquiries.[1]

Biography

[edit]

Elyashiv was the son of Avraham Elyashiv of Gomel, Belarus, and Chaya Mushka, daughter of Shlomo Elyashiv.

Born in 1910 at Šiauliai, he moved with his parents to Mandatory Palestine in 1922, aged 12.[4] He was an only child, born to his parents after 17 years of marriage.[5]

At the suggestion of the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook, Elyashiv married Sheina Chaya (died 19 June 1994), a daughter of Aryeh Levin.[5] Kook also conducted the wedding.[6]

The couple had five sons and seven daughters. When he died he had approximately 1,400 descendants, including two sixth-generation descendants.[5][7][8][9]

Death

[edit]

In February 2012 he was admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit of the Jesselson Heart Center due to an acute condition of edema of the lungs and congestion in the heart. He died on 18 July 2012, aged 102,[10][11] and was buried on Har HaMenuchot after a late-night funeral procession attended by an estimated 250,000 people.[12][13]

Leadership

[edit]

Elyashiv began his rabbinic career as a judge in the government's religious court system, and was a protégé of Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi.[14] In the early 1970s, he left the state court system.[6]

In 1989 he joined the newly-established religious political party Degel HaTorah at the invitation of its spiritual leader Elazar Shach.[15]

Time referred to Elyashiv as the predecessor of Aharon Leib Shteinman as Gadol Hador ("leader of the generation").[16]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "RABBI YOSEF SHALOM ELYASHIV". Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  2. ↑ Ettinger, Yair (March 2010). "The Invisible Hand". Haaretz. Archived from the original on March 22, 2010.
  3. ↑ "The Invisible Hand". Haaretz. Archived from the original on September 14, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  4. ↑ Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy; Shar, Jeremy (8 February 2012). "Rabbi Elyashiv, 101, in critical condition". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 "Harav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv shlit"a". Chazaq. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  6. 1 2 Friedman, Matti (18 July 2012). "Rabbi Elyashiv, a relentless Torah scholar whose strict rulings sought to resist modernity". Times of Israel. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  7. ↑ "דור שישי לרב אלישיב - בחייו". 24 May 2009.
  8. ↑ נחשוני, קובי (24 July 2012). "כל יומיים: צאצא נוסף לרב אלישיב". Ynet.
  9. ↑ Deitch, Ian (18 July 2012). "Yosef Shalom Elyashiv Dead: Revered Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Rabbi Dies At 102". Huffington Post.
  10. ↑ Ettinger, Yair (18 July 2012). "Rabbi Elyashiv, Venerated Leader in Ultra-Orthodox Community, Dies". Haaretz. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015.
  11. ↑ Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy; Shar, Jeremy (18 July 2012). "Leading Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv dies at 102". The Jerusalem Post.
  12. ↑ "In Photos: 250,000 Attend Funeral Of Rav Elyashiv Zt'l". Vos Iz Neias?. 18 July 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  13. ↑ Sharon, Jeremy; Siegel, Judy (19 July 2012). "250,000 mourn Rabbi Elyashiv at J'lem funeral". The Jerusalem Post.
  14. ↑ "נתמנו ארבעה דיינים חדשים לבית הדין הרבני הגדול". www.nli.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2025-09-11.
  15. ↑ "⁨קוב יום, קוב *Ol, אשר הוא לא ש״ס ולא אגו׳⁩ — ⁨⁨חדשות⁩ 10 אוקטובר 1988⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים". www.nli.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2025-09-11.
  16. ↑ "Aharon Leib Shteinman, Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Leader, Dies | Time". Archived from the original on 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2017-12-12.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yosef_Shalom_Elyashiv&oldid=1368380427"