HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein, the son-in-law of HaGaon HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, z’tl, participated in the large atzeret zicharon that was held in Yeshivas HaRan in Ramot on Sunday evening, on the 11th yartzheit.

During his remarks, HaRav Zilberstein spoke about the time that he was serving as a maggid shiur in Yeshivas Lucerne in Switzerland. When he first moved there, he was approached by a Christian judge who wanted to know HaRav Elyashiv’s opinion on a prisoner who was sentenced to death but later lost his sanity – was it still appropriate to carry out the death sentence? The judge had asked Christian and Muslim scholars, but to no avail, and now wanted to know if a chacham b’Yisrael had an answer for him.

HaRav Zilberstein said that with astounding hashgacha pratis, before he had left Eretz Yisrael and traveled to Switzerland, he had spent Shabbos by his father-in-law, z’tl, and saw him put a sefer in the bookshelf with a special bookmark. Curious, he pulled out the sefer and saw it was the שו”ת צפנת פענח which spoke about this exact shaila -regarding a man who was chayav misas Beis Din and then lost his mind – is he put to death or not. And he takes the view that since he can’t confess, he can’t be put to death without a confession like an animal. And HaRav Elyashiv, z’tl, wrote on the page in his handwriting that the sefer Emek HaHalacha disagrees on this issue.

HaRav Zilberstein told this to the Christian judge who was astounded that there’s no issue that’s not addressed by chachmei Yisrael and made a decision regarding the prisoner in question based on what HaRav Zilberstein told him.

HaRav Zilberstein elaborated that “HaRav Elyashiv, z’tl, sat in his home in Mea Shearim and marked something on the page of a sefer and the matter was publicized throughout the world and the chamei umos ha’olam acted according to it – what a Kiddush Hashem this was.”

Below is a video of HaRav Elyashiv’s son, HaGaon Rav Binyanim Elyashiv, marking his father’s yahrtzeit:

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)