החזון איש

Rav Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz (11 Cheshvan 5639/1878–15 Cheshvan 5714/1953), known for all generations as the Chazon Ish after his series of sefarim — in whose title his name is hinted, "Ish" standing for Avraham Yeshayahu — was among the gedolei hador and the foremost poskim of the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in Kosava in the Grodno region, where his father, Rav Shmaryahu Yosef Karelitz, was the rav. Apart from a period in the kibbutz of Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in Vilna, he never learned in a cheder or yeshiva: he received his Torah from his father and a private melamed, and for most of his life taught himself, never taking formal semichah and never holding rabbinic office. His first printed words appeared in 5661/1901 in the journal HaPeles, in defense of the accepted calculation of the Hebrew calendar.

In 5666/1906 he married Batya (Basha), daughter of a merchant of Kvedarna (Kovidan) in Lithuania. She kept a fabric shop and carried the burden of parnasah so that he could sit and learn, and he was in the beit midrash from early morning until night, learning bechavruta with the town’s rav, Rav Moshe Rozin — years his biographers call his golden era. In 5671/1911 the first volume of Chazon Ish appeared, on Orach Chaim, Kodashim, and hilchot niddah, published anonymously and without haskamot. When his nephew remarked that the sefer was difficult — if one must toil, why not toil in the Rashba? — he answered: once one has toiled in the Rashba, there is no longer any need to toil in the Chazon Ish.

The First World War drove him to Stoibtz and then to Minsk. In Stoibtz, when a plague broke out and the men of the chevra kadisha feared to bury its victims, he carried a meit to the cemetery on his own shoulders for the honor of the dead — and the chevra kadisha returned to their task. From 5680/1920 he lived in Vilna, where he grew close to Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski and further volumes of his work were printed, while he learned in near-total seclusion, at times toiling over a single mishnah in Mikvaot for months.

His pesika (rulings) on matters of shabbat observance relating to modern day conveniences, are widely held today. He wrote teshuvot on the international date line and how Jews in far lands should manage the daily luach-particularly relating to davening times and shabbat. Today many haredim in eretz yisrael only purchase “Chazon Ish” etrogim for Sukkot. He had strict tradition on defining the species of a Citron tree, and even had trees planted in a grove near Bnei Brak so that his tradition could continue.

In 5693/1933 he went up to Eretz Yisrael, where he spent his last twenty years and, though he held no office to the end, was accepted as a manhig and posek of charedi Jewry and one of the shapers of its path in the Land. He was niftar on 15 Cheshvan 5714/1953. The sefarim of the Chazon Ish are learned and cited to this day, both in the understanding of the sugyot of the Talmud and in psak halachah.