The passing of one of the most revered Rabbis of our generation went by almost unnoticed!

 The other week, the drummer of a band called The Foo Fighters died. I knew of the band because I'm very into music of all kinds. Didn't know who the drummer was though. I doubt that too many people did. But that news went around the world quickly. Within a day of his passing, hundreds of millions of people heard the news. To some, his passing was upsetting. To be honest, it meant nothing to me. I'm not happy when a good person dies. I assume that he was but I really have no idea, nor do I plan to invest any time on finding out. 

A few days later a scandal broke out on the Academy Awards. I'd be shocked if you didn't already hear about actor Will Smith smacking actor/comic Chris Rock on stage in front of the whole world. Chris made a joke in bad taste (something they all do sooner or later) about Will's bald headed wife who suffers from alopecia (a disease where women lose their hair).  It was vile to watch. The video was replayed millions of times all over the internet and on TV. It wouldn't surprise me if the number of people who watched it or know about the incident, is in the billions. 

I don't know what kind of serious impact the drummer of Foo Fighters, Will Smith, Chris Rock or the Academy Awards has on humanity but I suspect that's it's close to zero. 

On the other hand, a couple of weeks ago someone passed away who had a huge impact on humanity, especially the Jewish World.  His name: Rav Chaim Kanievsky.  Did you hear about that?  Unless you are part of the orthodox Jewish community, I'd be surprised if you did. 

I thought as a blogger and a Jewish activist who seeks to inform the world on important issues, I'd make a point to talk about him. For all of us who care about keeping the Jewish religion alive, this was devastating news! Since I don't know a lot about him, my sister who used to live in the religious city called Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, where the rabbi once humbly lived and who she and her family had sought advice and blessings from over the years, wrote the following about him:

Amidst the clamour of the world, the passing of one of the most revered Rabbis of our generation went by almost unnoticed by most of us. Harav Chaim Kanievsky, passed  away on Purim 2022.  The funeral was attended by  approximately 600,000 people.

Rav Chaim was incredibly knowledgeable in Jewish learning.

From a young age he invested his energies in Torah study.

Each year, he studied and reviewed the entire Jewish Bible, the Babalonian and Jerusalem Talmud, Midrashim, the entire code of Jewish law as written by Maimonides, and the Shulchan Aruch.

All of this he learned together with numerous commentaries on all of the above writings.

In fact this year, he completed his yearly cycle of learning, right before his passing, at the age of 94.

He had all these books essentially stored  in his memory, verbatim.

He was one of the few human beings in our times who was able to master such a vast amount of Torah knowledge.

He was also extremely pure in all of his ways.

For the last 35 years, people from all over the world streamed to his door daily, seeking his advice and blessings.

From his purity of mind, knowledge of Torah and closeness to Hashem, he merited what is called "ruach hakodesh":

the ability to see and foresee what is beyond the grasp of most people.

A famous example was in the Gulf War of 1991, when Iraq was bombing Israel and threatening to send war heads of poison gas.  The Israeli government handed out gas masks to every citizen.

Rav Kanievsky promised that there would be no use for the gas masks, other than for Purim costumes.

The amazing fact is that there were no gas attacks and that the war ended abruptly on Purim, so as he predicted regarding the use of the masks...

Another story regarding Harav's "ruach hakodesh" was told over by Rabbi Chanania Cholak, the well-known founder of Ezer Mitzion.  This enormous charity organization provides medical services, equipment, counselling and meals to thousands of sick people and their families, without charge or for a nominal fee.  On one occasion, Rabbi Cholak asked Rav Chaim to bless a long list of ailing people with a speedy recovery.  The Rav blessed all but 4 names on the list.  Very surprised, Rav Cholak investigated the enigma, and discovered that these 4 people had already died.

There are countless stories of this type.

These two can easily be validated.

Harav Yaakov Yisrael Lugasi explains that Rav Chaim was not just a "wonder worker."  Rather his ability to "work wonders" stemmed from his great faith in Hashem, and belief that nothing is beyond Hashem's power.  

He tells over the following anecdote.

An American family with minimal means moved to Israel.  They purchased a small apartment, and eventually needed to expand.  They found a rennovator who agreed to take on the job and asked for their hard-earned savings in advance.  In the guise of generousity he took from them only 119,000 shekels out of the 120,000 they had saved. 

Now he proceeded to break down the walls as a preparation for the enlargement.

But from then on, he never returned, and the American searched for him in vain.

This American came to Rav Chaim to seek advice.  What was he to do?

Rav Caim, proclaimed:

You have been left with 1,000 shekels.

You will rennovate your apartment on a budget of 1,000 shekels.

An so it came to pass that one day  the American received a knock on the door.

A man inquired, "I have seen your apartment standing unfinished for a while.  Why?"

The American explained his plight.  The man offered:

"I will make a deal with you.

I am a rennovator by profession, but I am new in this neighborhood.  I am willing to rennovate your home for 1,000 shekels on condition that you bring me publicity.

And so it was that the rennovator invested 160,000 shekels from his own pocket in a most beautiful rennovation,

for a mere fee of 1,0000 shekels.

For Rav Chaim, this was no wonder.

Hashem can do anything.

May we all take inspiration from this great man.

What a beautiful tribute to the Rav!  BTW, do you know the significance of the 600,000 people who attended his funeral is?  It's the same number of Jews who received the Torah at Mount Sinai!

To Rav Chaim Kanievsky and others like him, Torah study was life. In an age where sadly so many Jews have lost their way and worse, look down on religious leaders like him, it's high time that we give them the respect and honour they deserve!