הרב יוסף שלום אלישיב

Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (1 Nisan 5670/1910–28 Tammuz 5772/2012) was the posek hador of the Litvish world, to whose small beit midrash in Meah Shearim the hardest she’eilot of the generation were carried from every corner of the globe. He was born in Shavel (Šiauliai), Lithuania, an only child born to his parents after seventeen years of marriage. His mother’s father was the mekubal Rav Shlomo Elyashiv, author of the Leshem Shevo V’Achlama, and as a boy he served as his grandfather’s sofer when the elder’s eyes grew dim; his father, Rav Avraham, served as rav of Homel. When the family went up to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Meah Shearim, the family name was changed to Elyashiv — his mother’s maiden name — it is told at the counsel of the Chofetz Chaim, so that the family could travel on a single certificate, which Rav Kook helped obtain.

He never sat in a yeshiva: his Torah was acquired alone, in the batei midrash of Yerushalayim. Into his last years he slept three hours a night, from eleven until two, and gave the rest of the day, beyond tefilla and meals, to learning, keeping his distance from public affairs. Rav Kook, with whom the family was close, made the shidduch with Sheina Chaya, daughter of Rav Aryeh Levin, encouraged the match, and was mesader kiddushin at their chupa in 5690/1930; twelve children were born to them. He received semicha in 5698/1938 from Rav Zelig Reuven Bengis, and for decades, from his father’s petirah on, served as rav of the Tiferet Bachurim shul in Meah Shearim, where he davened and said a daily gemara shiur.

In 5711/1950 the chief rabbis, Rav Yitzchak Isaac HaLevi Herzog and Rav Ben-Tzion Meir Chai Uziel, appointed him a dayan in Yerushalayim, after a teshuva of his in hilchot agunot amazed Rav Herzog; he rose to the Beit Din HaGadol, where he sat until leaving the batei din in 5733/1972. From the 1980s he was called posek hador alongside Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and after the petirah of Rav Shach in 5762/2001 he carried the leadership of the Litvish community and of Degel HaTorah, whose public leadership he had joined at Rav Shach’s own request. His mastery showed above all in the sugyot of agunot and mamzerut, and he answered thousands of she’eilot in writing and by mouth; among his known piskei halacha is the issur of disconnecting a patient who has undergone brain death from the machines that sustain him. His haskama opened the charedi world to the Hebrew Schottenstein Shas, from which he himself was often seen learning.

He wrote no sefarim himself; his Torah was gathered by talmidim and family — the six-volume Kovetz Teshuvot, the eighteen-volume He’arot on Shas, Divrei Aggadah on the Torah, and Shiurei Maran HaGrish on masechet Berachot. He was niftar in Yerushalayim on 28 Tammuz 5772/2012, at the age of one hundred and two, leaving some 1,400 descendants. A quarter of a million Jews accompanied him that same night to Har HaMenuchot, where, by his tzava’ah, no hespedim were said save parting words from his son-in-law Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein. His daughter Rebbetzin Batsheva was the wife of Rav Chaim Kanievsky.