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Why didn’t the chofetz Chaim let anybody take pictures of him.
Many tzadikim were (and are) against being photographed.
Your face shows your spiritual level at the time, some people don’t like that.
Another reason is that it says in the ???? ?????? …?? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ???? … ???? ???? ???? ????…
Do you really believe the Chofetz Chaim thought he was a celebrity worthy of being photographed? For most of his life, photography was fairly expensive, and it was a sign of your importance that you posed for a photographer (remember he lived in the period where war pictures were frequently of corpses since no one else would sit long for the slow film of the day – exposures were often more than a minute).
Akuperma, he died in 1933, when photography was widespread and cheap (the Kodak Brownie camera existed in one form or another starting in 1900).
He was probably afraid people would worship it.
yehudayona – I’ve been in Radin. Indoor plumbing is more widespread today than photography was then, yet many there seemingly didn’t know it.
R’ Yaakov Bender once said over that when R’ Moshe Feinstein zt”l used to go to a bungalow colony in the summer, kids would line up and take pictures of him. Someone tried to stop them, and R’ Moshe wouldn’t let him. He said, “Better they should have my picture on their wall than a baseball player!”
In the Chofetz Chaims time taking a picture was a big deal, people would dress up and go to the photograher. Video was even a bigger deal.
Today its nothing, almost everyone has a camera / video camera in their pocket and it costs nothing to show it as you dont have to develop it
It is interesting to note, the Chofetz Chaim in Shem Olam which he writes about 4 inventions one being the Camera.He explains it was created to enhance our emunah.
I believe it’s quoted from the Yaavetz that allowing your portrait to be drawn can cause Sheidim to attack you. I would assume the same holds true for a camera and that this is the reason why.
It is al pi sod. i dont know the mekor, but this is what i have heard. One should not leave an image of oneself in the world after 120. Therefore the Steipler, the previous Toldos Aharon Rebbe and many others were makpid not to have their photos taken. Apparently, after the Steipler found that there were many pictures of him around, he was no longer makpid on it.
Rav Ovadia Yosef (Yechaveh Daas 3:63) based on Zohar and Arizal not to.
Funny unrelated story: In Camp Kol Torah which is located on Telshe Cleveland grounds, one year a boy surprised Rav Gifter by jumping in front of him and taking a picture. The next day the kid dropped his camera, exposing all of the film. The following year, several friends and I lined up outside his apartment when he comes home from Mincha to shake his hand and take his picture. We nervously looked at him and the Rebbetzin who smiled and told us that she wanted to see the pictures later. He looked up, smiled and said “Well, it looks like a lot of people want their cameras to break!” We all took pictures and spoke with him for a few seconds. He asked me why I came to him now, two weeks into camp. I stammered out that I didn’t see him before (accidentally saying “you” instead of the honorific “the Rosh HaYeshiva”) which wasn’t quite true. To which he replied in his usual jovial manner that it’s impossible I haven’t seen him before. Big zechus.
Frumnotyeshivish, people came from all over to Radin to meet the Chofetz Chaim. It’s inconceivable that none of them had a simple box camera. ZD, as I pointed out, photography was not a big deal for quite some time before the Chofetz Chaim’s petira.
I have personally seen a photograph of the Chofetz Chaim.
when you take someones picture it captures a piece of their soul. the more pictures you let people take the less you retain. that is why nearly all celebrities are so soulless. so someone who values their soul would not allow himself to be photographed.
lol Squeak, I enjoyed your point about celebrities.
The real picture of the Choftez Chaim appears in the top line of YWN.
There is an entire book of photographs of Gedolim, I think it took the author 10 years or so to do it
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