Mourning Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky zt”l

Mourning Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky zt”l

It’s Purim in Jerusalem and my son just told me that Rabbi Kanievsky passed away an hour ago.
I assumed my son had seen some Purim news. A not-funny joke.
Rabbi Kanievsky dead? That’s like saying the Sun won’t rise tomorrow. Or the Pacific Ocean dried up overnight.
May Rabbi Kanievsky be an advocate in the Heavenly Realms for the world as these scary, unstable times, which now seem so much more scary and unstable without Rav Kanievsky presiding over the Jewish world as an unmoved constant of holiness and Torah.
Here is a story I shared a few years ago about Rav Kanievsky and his Rebbetzin’s Shabbos candles:
“At one point the Kanievsky home was being repainted and the area where the Rebbetzin’s Shabbos candles were lit required a fresh coat of paint.
“Yet her husband, Rav Chaim, told the Rebbetzin to please tell the painters not to paint the area of her Shabbos candles despite the fact that the wall was black and soot stained.
“Rav Chaim explained that the wall blackened from the special mitzvah of the Rebbetzin’s candle-lighting is a most beautiful adornment and symbol for their home, one to be left by posterity and not removed.” (Rebbetzin Kanievsky, Artscroll)
May Rav Kanievsky’s memory be a blessing. Shushan Purim, I think, will never feel the same again.

One comment

  1. The world is a darker place now.
    The only other time I remember feeling this way is after HaRav Ovadia z”tl passed away.
    Who will lead Am Yisrael now? The only teaching that gives some comfort is Chazal: a big Rav does not pass away before there is another to take his place (I don’t remember the exact quote).

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