Hesped Of Rav Chaim’s Son, Rav Shlomo Kanievski: My Father Wouldn’t Eat Without My Mother

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi Shlomo Kanievski, the younger son of Rav Chaim Kanievski Zts’l, related personal reminiscences from growing up with his father:

“Abba, how did you leave us so suddenly? Hashem took you without any preparation and with a Misas Neshika. How can we eulogize you? In order to eulogize you one needs to be at a level to comprehend in some way the person that you were,” Rav Shlomo began.

“If we can try and grasp the greatness, the volume of knowledge, the amazing fluency, I can only tell the stories we saw as children: Once, on wintry Shabbos evenings, we used to play with our father. We would read to Abba statements of Chazal according to alphabetical order and he would find the source for them from memory and add more explanations of his own. It didn’t matter if it was Bavli, Yerushalmi, Rambam, Tosefta or Midrashim. This didn’t happen by chance it was the result of toil and tremendous knowledge.

“When my father arrived home at midday after learning all morning in kollel, lunch was of course ready, as my mother would never miss an opportunity to serve a meal,” Rabbi Shlomo said. “But my father was particular never to eat without her; he wouldn’t eat unless she was seated at the table with him. If it took my mother more than a moment or two to sit down to eat with him, Abba would turn around to his stender, open a sefer [holy book] and start to learn.

“These may seem simple things, even minor things, but these were the things we saw with our own eyes,” Rav Shlomo stressed. “These seemingly mundane things expressed the way my father lived, and the devotion he had to the things that really matter.”

"אם אמא לא היתה יושבת ליד השולחן ואוכלת גם, הוא לא היה מסכים לאכול" – הרב שלמה קנייבסקי ספד לאביו ושיתף: "הוא הקפיד לא לאכול בלעדיה". צפו pic.twitter.com/85Yaod1gLM

— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) March 20, 2022

“Abba, you were the father of everyone, you brought many people, including children, closer to Hashem by empathizing with each and every person and saying a good word. When a supporter of Torah or great philanthropist would come to him, he would ask them if they learn, since otherwise all of their money was worthless. He was totally Torah and his goal was always to increase Torah in the Jewish nation and now you have left us alone without anyone to empathize with us or say a good word, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Rabbi Shlom went on to thank his brother for taking care of his father in his last years and asked for forgiveness from his father in the name of the family for not respecting him as much as required “even though you did not understand the concept of kavod.”