I Was There 

Rabbi Naftali Weinberger’s latest book, Rav Chaim: The Life and Legacy of the Sar HaTorah (ArtScroll/Mesorah), is being released next week

Text excerpts and photos courtesy of ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications

When a young man named Naftali Weinberger entered the famed apartment on Rechov Rashbam, he couldn’t dream that the visit would lead to a long, warm, and devoted relationship with Rav Chaim Kanievsky and his entire family. Rav Chaim encouraged him to write the biography of Rebbetzin Batsheva after her passing, and now, as Rav Chaim’s first yahrtzeit approaches, he’s done the same for the Sar HaTorah — gathering a wealth of encounters and reminiscences and retelling them with detail, charm, and longing

IN the mid-1990s, Rabbi Naftali Weinberger was facing a painful challenge, and so the American yungerman sought out Rav Chaim Kanievsky for a brachah.

“While Rav Chaim’s diligence in Torah was legendary, he also opened his home and his heart to all who sought him, and he somehow shared in everyone’s pain and suffering,” says Rabbi Weinberger, whose latest book, Rav Chaim: The Life and Legacy of the Sar HaTorah (ArtScroll/Mesorah), is being released next week in conjunction with Rav Chaim’s first yahrtzeit. “I became close to Rav Chaim after he directed me through my personal issue. He also instructed me to write a sefer on the mitzvah of Shiluach Hakan (sending away the mother bird before taking the eggs) — a segulah for finding a shidduch and having children, two issues that greatly pained him — and from them on, although I don’t reside in Eretz Yisrael, I’d generally come to Bnei Brak four to five times a year.”

Over time, Rabbi Weinberger developed such a unique and close relationship with the entire Kanievsky family that Rav Chaim even encouraged him to write the biography of Rebbetzin Batsheva a”h after her petirah in 2011.