Only three people paid tribute to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky yesterday. They spoke directly to the Haredi public, but there were some educational, humane messages that it would be a shame for others to miss.
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Here they are:
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Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein mentioned that Rabbi Kanievsky was not born a genius. He simply repeated what he learned over and over again, from a young age. The boy Chaim invested and labored and made an effort, and thus became "Rabbi Chaim," a man who probably knew the Torah better than all of us in this generation. You are not born Rabbi Kanievsky, you become one, and this is true in every field.
The main way to achieve such excellence is to utilize time. Rabbi Zilberstein explained how when thousands of people began coming to him to be blessed each week, Rabbi Kanievsky began to address each of them with the abbreviation "B"H, an acronym for blessing and success. And so the blessing itself taught another message - about the importance of every second in his eyes.
His son, Rabbi Shlomo Kanievsky, was moved by personal stories of childhood games with his esteemed father, and revealed a glimpse into the relationship between his father and his late wife, Batsheva. For years, the two of them would rise at the crack of dawn and say the dawn blessings together that open the day. He says blessing after blessing and she replies Amen, then she says a blessing, and he replies Amen again and again.
Yesterday, the son said that every time his father came home at noon, he made sure not to eat lunch without his mother by his side.
If she hadn't arrived yet and was sitting next to him at the table, he wouldn't start eating. And if she was late, even for a minute and a half, he would of course open a book in the meantime and study until she arrived.
They didn't go out to the B&B or to a cafe, but it was their special quality time.
Rabbi Gershon Edelstein repeated two words that characterized the deceased, and that we should learn from him: "self-criticism.".
The demand for improvement and correction is relentless. We must constantly think about how to behave better toward others, how to study better, how to be a better husband and father and neighbor and friend.
In order not to sink into routine and to develop self-criticism, one must study Torah and morality (he recommended that everyone find a book that interests them, that will have a positive impact on them) because the goal in life is not to flow, but to grow. Not to pass the time, but to be constantly renewed and refreshed.
This, he says, is also the true way to be happy.
It was pretty amazing to hear a 98-year-old man eulogize his 94-year-old friend yesterday.
