Rav Chaim took those chovos far more seriously than many others take their monetary debts
Ihad not intended to write this week about Maran Harav Chaim Kanievsky ztz”l. I feel unworthy of doing so. True, at a certain level, there is no one worthy of writing about him. But nevertheless, some are more unworthy than others.
His determination to truly know kol haTorah kulo, not as a figure of speech for someone who knows a very great deal, but as an actual reality, was unique in our generation, and likely for many generations preceding. And I have no connection to that, nor to the discipline and determination that gave rise to such vast knowledge.
When my nephew Rabbi Eliyahu Rosenblum asked me whether I would be interested in hearing his perspective on Rav Chaim, however, I jumped at the chance. From his first year in Chevron yeshivah, Eliyahu began addressing sh’eilos in learning to Rav Chaim. At one point, he was sending an average of 20 sh’eilos a week, until he received a message that Rav Chaim could not write to him a thousand letters a year. He feared that he had angered Rav Chaim, but was assured that Rav Chaim only wanted him to cut down a bit on his letters, and he would always be prepared to discuss all his sh’eilos in person when he came to Bnei Brak.
My nephew long ago took Rav Chaim as a model for his own learning, covering vast ground in Torah with annual chazaros. But above all, he is a deep thinker, whose take on a wide variety of matters always provides me with an original perspective. I offer that perspective now only as an addendum to last week’s superb overview of Rav Chaim’s achievements and personality.
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