While this posting is different than most of my blog posts, and certainly far more personal, it is about an intimate relationship. Specifically, the relationship between a teacher and his student. In this case the teacher was the Hazon Ish, also known as Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, 1878–1953, one of the most influential rabbis of the 20th century. The student was a teenager by name of Zvi Aryeh, who went on to be known as Rabbi Professor Zvi A. Yehuda, Z”L, AKA my father.
We were not a “yeshivishe” family and did not have pictures of rabbis all over our living room walls. But we did have one picture that had a prominent place on the bookshelf next to many, many volumes of seforim. This picture. which now lives on my piano in our Bet Shemesh living room, was of the Hazon Ish.
While the Hazon Ish has been associated with haredi extremism, the stories our father shared, of a humble, meticulous and pious man, presented a different picture. We kids considered the Hazon Ish our grandfather, because we never really had one. We never met my mother’s father, who died when she was a teenager. My father’s father, our actual biological grandfather, lived in Tzfat, while we lived in Cleveland. Additionally, we got the sense that my father’s relationship with his father, was a complicated one. Only later in life did that make sense to us. Our grandfather, a mystic who was a follower of Rav AYH Kook, was obsessed with the Bet Hamikdash. An architect and engineer who was instrumental in designing and building much of the infrastructure of Tzfat, my grandfather left his young family in 1939 to display his model of the Bet Hamikdash at the World Expo in New York, essentially missing my father’s Bar Mitzvah. My father did not see eye to eye with his father's mysticism and it is likely that my grandmother, who hailed from a prominent Lithuanian family descending from the Netziv of Volozhin, didn't either. When my grandfather later returned to Israel and went to see the Hazon Ish to seek advice about something, he took my father with him. The Hazon Ish interviewed my father, understood that he was an ilui, and asked my grandfather to leave him there with him.
The close, personal relationship between my father and the Hazon Ish spanned several years. When my father left his yeshiva, they continued to correspond. Those letters, some of which were filled with halachik responsa and some which were deeply personal, were kept in a safety deposit box at the bank. Seven years after my father's passing, our family has decided to donate these letters to the National Library.
The reasons for this donation will be explained by my brother, Yechiel Gil Yehuda, at an event marking the occasion of the donation, on Sunday, October 17th at 1pm EST, 8pm Israel time. In addition, Professor Benny Brown and Professor Marc Shapiro will each present a talk.
Please click here for more information and to register. The event is free and open to the public.
Talli Yehuda Rosenbaum, MSc
Individual and Couples Therapist
Certified Sex Therapist and Supervisor
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טלי יהודה רוזנבאום
מטפלת מינית מוסמכת -איט״ם
מטפלת זוגית ופרטנית
www.tallirosenbaum.com
Co-author: I Am For My Beloved: A Guide to Enhanced Intimacy for Married Couples
Co-host of the popular podcast Intimate Judaism