Yosef Sholom Eliashiv
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Rabbi Yosef Sholom Eliashiv (יוסף שלום אלישיב) (b. 1910) is a Haredi rabbi and posek (arbiter of Jewish law) who lives in Jerusalem, Israel.
Presently well into his nineties, he is active and remains the paramount leader of Israel's Lithuanian non-Hasidic Haredi Ashkenazi Jews (sometimes called by the old label of misnagdim) who regard him as the posek ha-dor (Hebrew: "the generation's decisor"), the contemporary leading authority on halakha, or Jewish law.
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[edit] Family
He is a grandson of the famous kabbalist Rabbi Shalom Ben Hayim Haikel Eliashiv (the Leshem) (1841-1925) from Shavel, Lithuania. His father was the noted Rabbi Avraham Elyashiv of Homel. His mother's given name was Chaya Moussa. His late wife was the daughter of Rabbi Aryeh Levin. His sons-in-law are:
- Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, an important posek who lives in Bnei Brak, Israel.
- Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein, the Chief Rabbi of Ramat Elchanan and the rabbi of the Maayanei HaYeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak. Rabbi Zilberstein's wife has passed away, and he has since remarried.
- Rabbi Ezriel Auerbach, the son of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.
[edit] Work and influence
Rabbi Eliashiv served for many years as a dayan (rabbinical judge) in the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, which is notable as most Haredim generally avoid contact with religious institutions associated with the Israeli government. (Rabbi Elazar Shach, specifically urged his followers to avoid becoming government dayanim.) He resigned from the Israeli Supreme Rabbinical Court in 1972 at the time that Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who had previously served as chief chaplain of the Israel Defense Forces, was elected as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel. The two rabbis had several diasagreements and a protracted falling-out regarding interpretations of Jewish law (particularly the mamzer affair in relation to issues of [illegitimate births], and agunot [wives denied a divorce by their husbands]). Rabbi Eliashiv concluded that Rabbi Goren was too willing to bend halakha in high-profile cases in order to garner popularity with the secular Israeli public, and refused to serve under his authority as a dayan. Since his resignation, he has refused to hold any position affiliated with the government.
Rabbi Eliashiv is presently the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party which has representatives in the Knesset (Israel's parliament). He holds great influence over the policies of the party, currently united with Agudat Israel through the umbrella United Torah Judaism list in the Knesset. Degel HaTorah abides by all his rulings and instructions. Similarly, he continues to have great influence over the formal Orthodox rabbinate of the State of Israel, and it is reported that Israel's most recent Chief Rabbis were appointed because of his recommendations.
He does not head a congregation, or a yeshiva, or a community as such, but spends his days in deep Talmudical study, and delivers advanced lectures in Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh at a local synagogue in the Meah Shearim area in Jerusalem where he lives, and receives supplicants from all over the world, answering multitudes of complex Halakhic inqueries.
Most rosh yeshivas ("yeshiva deans") associated with the Agudath Israel of America movement actively and frequently seek out his opinions and follow his advice and guidelines concerning a wide array of policy and communal issues affecting the welfare of Orthodox Judaism.
Among many Torah scholars, he is also regarded as a Kabbalist, but this aspect of his work is almost never publicly revealed.
The Halakhic rulings and insights of Rabbi Eliashiv have been recorded in many books. The multi-volume Kovetz Teshuvos contains the responsa resulting from questions asked of him over the years. His insights on the Torah are in his book called Divrei Aggadah. The material from this book dates to the 1950s. A Haggadah for Pesach including Rabbi Eliashiv's insights and Halachic rulings was recently printed. Another work that published many of his opinions was entitled Yashiv Moshe, but that work included many explanations by its author, which were not necessarily in consonance with the halachic understandings of Rabbi Eliashiv.
[edit] Rulings
Most of Rabbi Eliashiv's opinions in matters of Jewish law have been recorded by rabbis seeking his opinion and are considered to be Daas Torah. This status, not conceptualized in its contemporary form before the 20th century, has been ascribed to the decisions of several other prominent decisors, such as Rabbis Moshe Feinstein and Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. He has not published all his rulings himself (while Rabbis Feinstein and Auerbach mostly did). There is some quiet debate as to why he has chosen not to put all his major rulings into print, and opinion varies that it may be because he has issued some lenient rulings that may anger some to the right of his positions, or that his decisions are of a highly secretive and confidential nature.
As an example of his rulings, in 1999 he was asked if Kollel scholars who engage in outreach work by teaching basic Judaism to secular or assimilated Israelis should still be paid as "full time scholars" even though they must leave the study halls of their yeshivas in order to go out and teach those with a lesser background. Rabbi Eliashiv stated forcefully that it would be a sin to decrease the stipend, as the time taken off was spent on matters affecting the whole Jewish people, and not for the students' own pursuits. By doing so, he "gave [...] recognition to the principle that doing [outreach] work one evening a week is a mandatory obligation incumbent upon every single member of the [...] community.1
Due to some of his positions, he has been involved in several controversies. A notable example is his ban on the use of hair procured from certain Hindu religious ceremonies in the wigs worn by many observant Jewish women as sheitels, a form of head covering.2
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- Note 1: Moshe Schapiro. Halachic Ruling Redefines Role of Kiruv Work in Eretz Yisroel. Dei'ah veDibur, April 21, 1999 (article).
- Note 2: Yosef Shalom Eliashiv. Letter from HaRav Eliashiv. Dei'ah veDibur, June 2, 2002 [1]
