Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz (; 7 November 1878 – 24 October 1953), also known as the Chazon Ish () after a book he wrote, was a Belarusian-born Orthodox rabbi who became one of the leaders of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Judaism in Israel, where he moved in 1933.
Biography Youth
Born in the town of Kosava in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire (today in Belarus). His father, Shmaryahu Yosef Karelitz, served as the town's rabbi. His mother, Rashe Leah, was the daughter of the previous town rabbi, Shaul Katzenelnbogen.
Except for a short period in which he studied in the "kibbutz" of R' Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in Vilna,Eitam Henkin, Chapters in the Biography of Maran the Chazon Ish zt"l – Facts on a Portrait, HaMaayan 223, 5778, pp. 90–101. Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz did not study in a cheder or yeshiva, and apparently was never officially ordained as a rabbi. His Torah education was received from his father and a private melamed named R' Moshe Tuvia. He quotes Torah teachings from this teacher in several places in his writings. According to David Frankel,David Frankel, Zachor LeDavid – Memorial Book, Vol. 2, p. 143. Karelitz said that his father hired a private melamed to keep him away from the company of children his age and idle chatter. For most of his life, he was self-taught. His mother later told Rebbetzin Malka Finkel, wife of Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, that even in childhood he studied with great diligence. According to her, he told her several times that he did not enjoy studying, but he studied out of the recognition that "this is a good thing," hoping that the sweetness would come later.Quoted from her (translated from Yiddish) in: Scheinerman, Ohel Moshe - Bamidbar, p. 697. His brother, Rabbi Meir Karelitz, said in his eulogy that at his bar mitzvah he committed to devote all his strength to Torah. According to a common story, his talents were not noticeable in childhood, though some deny this detail.Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, Toldot Yaakov p. 93. Binyamin Brown accepts both versions and speculates that although he was indeed talented, he was regarded in his environment as average due to his different study method, which did not meet the accepted criteria of yeshiva-style scholarship.Binyamin Brown, The Chazon Ish: The Halachist, the Believer, and the Leader of the Haredi Revolution, Jerusalem 2011, p. 20.
Brown, a scholar of Karelitz’s life and thought, said that there is a noticeable influence of Jewish Enlightenment literature in his writings and also in a few surviving poems he wrote. This influence is expressed in his florid and stylistic writing, and in his strict use of Hebrew free of foreign words, unlike other rabbis of his time.Brown, The Chazon Ish (2011), pp. 21–22 (see there for additional examples). There are no sources for his direct exposure to Haskalah literature, but indirect influence is possible. In contrast, Shlomo Havlin claimed that the evidence for this assumption is anachronistic, since rabbinic literature had always been written in Hebrew, whereas Yiddish literature was then in its heyday.Shlomo Zalman Havlin, "The Chazon Ish", Ktisis 18 (2013), pp. 12–73, at Daat website.
Karelitz was known from a young age as a quiet person. To one of his associates, Yitzhak Gerstenkorn, founder of the city Bnei Brak, he said that in his teens he decided not to utter anything that wasn't fully formed in his mind, but since he tends to write well-formed ideas, it is rare that he has anything to say aloud.Gerstenkorn, Chazon Ish, p. 18, quoted in: Brown, The Chazon Ish p. 21, note 14.
In the year 5651 (1891), his grandfather Rabbi Shimshon Karelitz died. His son, Rabbi Shmaryahu Yosef Karelitz, was absent from the town that day, and the grandsons Meir and Avraham Yeshayahu, aged 16 and 12 respectively, prepared eulogies themselves, which the elder brother Meir read at the funeral.Rabbi Zvi Rotberg, grandson of Rabbi Meir Karelitz, in his name; cited in: Avraham Yissachar Koenig, Genazim u’She’elot u-Teshuvot Chazon Ish, Vol. 2, Jerusalem 2012, p. 23, note 3.
In his youth Karelitzh traveled to study in Brisk. Binyamin Brown also discusses the version that his journey was to Volozhin Yeshiva;Brown, The Chazon Ish, p. 23. Isser Yehuda Unterman said that Karelitz studied in Brisk,Eliezer Steinman (editor), Encyclopedia of the Diaspora: Poland Series, Vol. 2: Brisk-Delita, Tel Aviv: Encyclopedia of the Diaspora Company, 1955, p. 165. did not find his place there and returned home to Kosava. The reason for the trip was to study from Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik of Brisk, who taught in Brisk after leaving Volozhin Yeshiva until his death in 5652 (1892).Y. Segal [=Yehoshua Levin], Reb Velvel: Der Eidel Mann, Bnei Brak 2003, quoting R. Ze'ev Edelman in the name of Karelitz's mother. Several speculations have been raised about his quick return home: from homesickness, to halachic issues (Chadash prohibition, which was treated leniently in Brisk based on the ruling of Rabbi Joel Sirkis, who once served as the local rabbi), and even poor spiritual environment in Brisk.Brown, The Chazon Ish, pp. 23–24 and note 21.Brown 23–24 quotes Karelitz’s nephew, Chaim Kanievsky, whose version combines two explanations. According to him, Karelitz "said that the prohibition of Chadash saved him from bad company he didn’t get swept into." Brown interprets this as referring to the environment in Volozhin Yeshiva where Enlightenment influences were present; but Karelitz’s quote regarding "Chadash" implies the story was in Brisk, where the Bach’s ruling was followed, unlike in Volozhin.
In the year 5661 (1901), several responses under his name were published in the journal "HaPeles", under the pen name "A.Ya.SH. from Kassava [=Kosava]". In one of them he defended the accepted calculation in the Hebrew calendar against a possible objection raised by another rabbi.Brown (The Chazon Ish, p. 28) suggests that the objecting rabbi, who signed with the pseudonym "Rav Ashi", may have been the Karelitz himself (Ashi=Ish), who proposed the objection only to refute it.
In the winter of 5665 (1905) Karelitz stayed for an extended time in the city of Vilna and studied in the kibbutz of Chaim Ozer Grodzinski there. He may have remained there due to travel disruptions caused by the 1905 Russian Revolution, which lasted the entire year.Brown, The Chazon Ish, pp. 29–30, esp. note 43.
Period of Kvedarna
In the winter of 5666 (end of 1905), at the age of 27, he became engaged to Batya (Basha), daughter of Mordechai Bay, a merchant from the town of Kvedarna (Yiddish: Kovidan) in western Lithuania, who was significantly older than him. Exact details about her year of birth, and thus about their age gap, are unknown. According to the author Chaim Grade,Chaim Grade, Milchemet HaYetzer, pp. 135–136. her age was twice his; however, it may be that the fictional character “Machazeh Avraham”, undoubtedly based on the Chazon Ish, is not identical in all its details. The Karelitz family agreed to the match because she was considered an industrious and God-fearing woman, and also because their son Avraham Yeshayahu was known to be a heart patient and stringent in halacha, and was seeking a wife who would take on the burden of livelihood and allow him to study Torah.Brown, Chazon Ish, p. 30, based on Grade. After the "Tna'im” (conditions) were signed, it became clear that the father-in-law would not be able to meet his financial obligations and that the intended bride was older than thought; because of this, the family of the Chazon Ish sought to withdraw from the match, but he refused, arguing that one must not shame a daughter of Israel under any circumstance and once terms were agreed upon, one should not back out.Brown, Chazon Ish, p. 31, based on Grade, Milchemet HaYetzer p. 136. Brown explains this according to the Rema (Even HaEzer 2:1): Brown notes a later letter from the Chazon Ish, in which he advises another, in a similar case, to act accordingly, hinting that he (Karelitz, Kovetz Igrot, Vol. 1, Letter 167).
The wedding took place three months after the engagement, on 11 Shevat 5666 (6 February 1906),Tzvi Iverov, Maaseh Ish, Vol. 1, p. 16. in Kovidan, and the couple made their home in that town. Batya opened a fabric shop there and supported the family, and the Chazon Ish devoted his time to Torah study. Rabbi Avraham Horowitz reports that Batya testified her husband sometimes helped her manage the household accounts,Horowitz, Orchot Rabbeinu (from the life of Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, the Chazon Ish’s brother-in-law), Vol. 1, p. 399. but still, when the Chazon Ish needed something, he had to ask her for money.Horowitz, Orchot Rabbeinu Vol. 1, p. 400; quoted in Brown, Chazon Ish, p. 32. Horowitz also reports in the name of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky that the Rebbetzin, as well as the Chazon Ish’s mother, wore wigs (Horowitz, Orchot Rabbeinu, Vol. 3, note 63).
The Kovidan period is mentioned by the Chazon Ish's biographers as his "golden era", during which he studied Torah undisturbed. He studied in chavruta with the town’s rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Rozin, author of Nezer HaKodesh, and delivered Gemara lessons in the local synagogue. He would be in the beit midrash from early morning until night.Brown (Chazon Ish, p. 33), accepting the descriptions of Karelitz's early biographers. Rabbi Rozin held the Chazon Ish in high esteem and told Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski of him in Vilna. According to Brown, this was the point when the connection between the two men was formed.Brown, Chazon Ish, pp. 33–34, based on Pe’er HaDor, Vol. 1, p. 70. Among his study companions in Kovidan were Rabbi Moshe Ilovitzky, Rabbi David Nachman Koloditzky,Father of author Chaim A. Kolleitz (author of The Seer from Lithuania, a biography of the Chazon Ish) and Rabbi Yitzchak Kolitz, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. and his future brother-in-law Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu Kahan, with whom the Chazon Ish studied Tractate Niddah for a time, and through this connection arranged a match between him and his sister Badana. In Kovidan, the Chazon Ish founded a yeshiva with the local rabbi.Asher Z. Rand (editor), Toldot Anshei Shem, 6562, Moshe Rozin, pp. 123–124 (page=134), New York, 1950
In the year 5671 (1911), the first book in the series "Chazon Ish" was published, on topics of "Orach Chayim", "Kodashim", and the laws of Niddah. The book was published anonymously and only the name of the publisher, his brother Rabbi Moshe Karelitz, appeared on the title page, with no approbations. His books were not particularly popular, likely due to the difficult and concise writing style and the interpretive method that differed from the analytic method common in the Lithuanian Torah world. According to Brown, the difficulty in understanding his words stems from the fact that the author assumes the reader has already studied the sugya with its commentaries and is aware of the difficulties it raises, which the Chazon Ish seeks to solve.Brown, Chazon Ish, p. 34. The Chazon Ish's nephew, Rabbi Eliezer Alpha, once asked him, comparing it to Rabbi Chanokh Eigesh’s Marcheshet, published at the same time: "Your book is hard, and his is easy. And if we're already making an effort, we may as well study the works of the Rashba!" It is told that the Chazon Ish replied: "Once one toils over the Rashba, there’s no need to toil over the Chazon Ish."Iverov, Maaseh Ish, Vol. 1, p. 18.