Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz
Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, also known as the Chazon Ish after his magnum opus, was a Belarusian-born Orthodox rabbi who later became one of the leaders of Haredi Judaism in Israel, where he spent his final 20 years, from 1933 to 1953.
Biography
Youth
Born in the town of Kosava in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father, Rabbi Shmaryahu Yosef Karelitz, served as the town's rabbi. His mother, Rashe Leah, was the daughter of the previous town rabbi, Rabbi Shaul Katzenelnbogen, who left his position for the rabbinate of Kobrin.Except for a short period in which he studied in the "kibbutz" of R' Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in Vilna, 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. The Chazon Ish quotes Torah teachings from this teacher in several places in his writings. According to David Frankel, the Chazon Ish related 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. 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. 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.
Nevertheless, Brown, a scholar of the Chazon Ish’s life and thought, claims 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. 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.
The Chazon Ish was known from a young age as a quiet person. To one of his associates, Yitzhak Gerstenkorn, founder of the city Bnei Brak, he explained 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.
In the year 5651, 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.
In his youth the Chazon Ish traveled to study in Brisk. Binyamin Brown also discusses the version that his journey was to Volozhin Yeshiva, but this seems mistaken, in light of testimony by Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman that the Chazon Ish studied in Brisk, but 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. Several speculations have been raised about his quick return home: from homesickness, to halachic issues, and even poor spiritual environment in Brisk.
In the year 5661, several responses under the name of the Chazon Ish were published in the journal "HaPeles", under the pen name "A.Ya.SH. from Kassava ". In one of them he defended the accepted calculation in the Hebrew calendar against a possible objection raised by another rabbi. These were, as far as is known, his first printed words.
In the winter of 5665, the Chazon Ish stayed for an extended time in the city of Vilna and studied in the kibbutz of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski there. He may have remained there due to travel disruptions caused by the 1905 Russian Revolution, which lasted the entire year.
Period of Kvedarna
In the winter of 5666, at the age of 27, he became engaged to Batya, daughter of Mordechai Bay, a merchant from the town of Kvedarna 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, 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. After the "Tna'im” 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.The wedding took place three months after the engagement, on 11 Shevat 5666, 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, but still, when the Chazon Ish needed something, he had to ask her for money.
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. 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. Among his study companions in Kovidan were Rabbi Moshe Ilovitzky, Rabbi David Nachman Koloditzky, 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.
In the year 5671, 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. 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."
Due to the blood libel against Mendel Beilis and the Beilis trial, during which the defense submitted to the Russian court expert testimony disproving the blood libel in both private and general terms, Rabbi Karelitz, then age 34, wrote a treatise published in his letters collection under the title "To a Foreign Minister". In this treatise, of which only the initial parts survived, there are twenty-six short chapters, in which he surveys the Jewish outlook regarding the sanctity of human life and seeks to prove that ritual murder contradicts the fundamental principles of Judaism. Brown speculates that the missing parts of the treatise were never written, as it eventually became clear to him that his words would not receive the court's attention.
Period of World War I
Stoybtz
During the course of Eastern Front, the Imperial German Army occupied large swaths of historical Lithuania, and many residents from battle areas fled their homes and became refugees. The Chazon Ish and his wife, like many Jews of Kovidan, also fled to Russian-controlled territory and settled in the town of Stoybtz. Batya Karelitz opened a fabric shop in Stoybtz as well, and the Chazon Ish continued his studies.Although the Chazon Ish opposed holding a rabbinic post all his life, when the town’s rabbi, Rabbi Yoel Sorotzkin, was forced to leave by Russian orders, the Chazon Ish unofficially replaced him at his request, until he returned. According to another version, the residents begged Rabbi Karelitz to take the position after Rabbi Sorotzkin left, but he refused. According to one source, the Chazon Ish declined to bear communal responsibility, except in one case, when he joined efforts to restore the local mikveh that burned down in a fire. That fire is described in a rare heading to one of the Chazon Ish’s commentaries on Tractate Kelim:
Rabbi Shmaryahu Greineman recounted that when a plague broke out in town and the members of the chevra kadisha feared burial due to contagion, the Chazon Ish took it upon himself to bury the dead out of respect for the deceased. As a provocative act, he took one of the corpses on his shoulders and carried it to the cemetery, which caused the chevra kadisha members to return to their role. He later explained that his rationale was that if the dead were not buried, the entire town would be in mortal danger.
In Stoybtz, the Chazon Ish hosted a group of young Jewish refugees in his home, among them Mordechai Shulman, who later founded Slabodka Yeshiva and was one of his close associates. Among the exiles to Stoybtz were also students of the Mir Yeshiva, along with their mashgiach Rabbi Yerucham HaLevi Leibowitz, and a connection was formed between them. There are recorded cases of students from the Stoybtz area who came there to converse in Torah with the Chazon Ish.