הרב נסים קרליץ

Rav Shmaryahu Yosef Nissim Karelitz (18 Av 5686/1926–23 Tishrei 5780/2019) was among the leading poskim of the last generation, founder and head of the great beit din of Bnei Brak. Born in Kosava, in what is today Belarus, to Rav Nachum Meir Karelitz, his mother Batya was the sister of the Chazon Ish. The family went up to Eretz Yisrael in 5696/1936, and he learned in Yeshivat Tiferet Tzion and the Lomza yeshiva, moving to the Ponevezh yeshiva soon after its founding at the counsel of his uncle; his learning was shaped by his uncles, the Chazon Ish and the Steipler. In 5711/1951 he married Leah, daughter of Rav Tzvi Kopshitz of Yerushalayim, a great-granddaughter of Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.

He said shiurim in the yeshiva of Chug Chatam Sofer from 5715/1955 and in the Vizhnitz yeshiva of Bnei Brak from 5718/1958. On his father’s petirah in 5719/1959 he succeeded him as head of Kollel Chazon Ish and as rav of his beit knesset; from 5736/1976 he served as rav of the Ramat Aharon neighborhood, and from 5737/1977 sat on the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah, later that of Degel HaTorah. He was also a member of the rabbinic board of the Maayanei HaYeshua medical center.

In 5728/1968, with the encouragement of the Steipler, he founded the Beit Din Tzedek of Bnei Brak and stood at its head for over forty years. It grew into the largest private beit din in the world, with tens of dayanim sitting daily in several batei din on dinei mamonot, matters of marriage, geirut, and kashrut; among the dayanim he raised are Rav Yehuda Silman and Rav Shevach Tzvi Rosenblatt, rav of Bnei Brak. In 5772/2012 he handed the leadership to his son-in-law Rav Sriel Rosenberg.

His halachah shiurim were arranged into the sixteen volumes of Chut Shani — on hilchot Shabbat, niddah, ribbit, shemitah, Pesach, Yom Tov and Chol HaMoed, and more — and a further sefer gathers his shiurim on hilchot terumot and maasrot in the Rambam. He was niftar on motzaei Simchat Torah, 23 Tishrei 5780/2019, at ninety-three; some hundred thousand accompanied him at his levayah in Bnei Brak, where he was eulogized by his cousin Rav Chaim Kanievsky and by Rav Gershon Edelstein, and he was buried in the beit hachaim on Rechov Chazon Ish.