Who is Rav Shlomo Kanievsky? Is he being groomed to be the next Godol HaDor?

Home Forums In The News Who is Rav Shlomo Kanievsky? Is he being groomed to be the next Godol HaDor?

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  • #1732628
    DovidD
    Participant

    How come we haven’t much about Rav Shlomo Kanievsky until now? There seems to be a push to get his name out, where is that coming from?

    #1732911
    Joseph
    Participant

    No one is groomed to be. Gedolei HaDor are self-made.

    Who is “pushing” his name?

    #1733494
    apushatayid
    Participant

    I will assume he is a tremendous gaon and tzadik., However, you are hearing of him because there is a need to fundraise, andit has become fashionable in these times to use gedolim as marketing props. If his last name would be Katz or Joseph and not Kanievsky, they wouldnt be using him.

    #1733508
    Yussel
    Participant

    Because we live in the age of “Gadol Hador” “Sar Hatorah” “Poseik Hador”. Our generation has a nearly pathological need for these figures so we can worship them and give up any individual responsibility for ourselves. No need to do anything when you can have the Gadol Hador decide everything for you.

    #1733518
    Joseph
    Participant

    Halevi we all had the zchus that the Godol HaDor decided everything for us.

    #1733789
    yrechnitz
    Participant

    It’s not a push.

    He is visiting America to raise money for his yeshiva.

    His illustrious yichis just goes to show his worthiness and that of his cause.

    The fact that he is a massive tzadik and talmid chacham, and was raised by R’ Chaim, might say something about his gadlis.

    #1733796
    5ish
    Participant

    How can anyone write such cynical things???

    I try not to stick my nose where it does not belong. Probably the regulars here know I am a Lubavitcher. However, who reads about someone who is the son of a unique Gaon, the descendant of righteous people and gaonim such as HRH”G R’ Elyashiv, The Steipler Gaon, R’ Aryeh Levin, etc. someone who is following in the footsteps of the Chazon Ish, and the thing you look to say is he is a prop? Chalillah v’Chas. Oy Lanu!

    This is truly disgusting.

    #1733918
    apushatayid
    Participant

    His FATHER is used as a prop for tzedakos. He is the face of several well known tzedakas. That is an undisputable fact. THAT is the REAL bizayon hatorah.

    #1733944
    Uncle Ben
    Participant

    Yussel; Which other ages have you lived in that you can compare with?

    #1733950
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    “….Halevi we all had the zchus that the GodolHaDor[ah] decided everything for us…”

    One of the rare occasions that I totally agree with Joseph…..

    #1733969
    Neville ChaimBerlin
    Participant

    “No one is groomed to be. Gedolei HaDor are self-made.”
    Except every Chassidishe Rebbe ever. I don’t think it would be totally inaccurate to say the yeshivish world is also moving more towards being yichis-based.

    #1733973
    Yussel
    Participant

    UNCLE BEN:

    DOes a person have to have lived through a particular historical period in order to know anything about it? If that is the case then we can take ALL works of History and biography and throw them on the trash heap.

    #1733999
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Except every Chassidishe Rebbe ever. I don’t think it would be totally inaccurate to say the yeshivish world is also moving more towards being yichis-based.

    That’s a gross exaggeration for chassidim, and an even grosser one for roshei yeshivos.

    Not that yichus doesn’t have an impact, but there are plenty of cases where the son isn’t worthy and therefore doesn’t take over, and by roshei yeshivos, even where they do take over, that doesn’t mean they are considered a gadol. That has to be earned.

    #1734001
    Yabia Omer
    Participant

    Yussel is 100% correct. But it should be noted that all these titles are a contemporary, Ashkenazic invention. Utterly meaningless and artificial.

    #1734022
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Even within the Sephardeshe tzibur, it doesn’t hurt if your tate was considered the gadol hador (aka R Yosef Sr. vs. R’ Yosef Jrs. )

    #1734060
    Neville ChaimBerlin
    Participant

    “Not that yichus doesn’t have an impact, but there are plenty of cases where the son isn’t worthy and therefore doesn’t take over”
    So what? It goes to a nephew or grandson who is more qualified, not to some random, best-qualified candidate with zero family connection.

    The point is, it isn’t decided by looking at the entire population and picking out who the most learned and qualified is. It’s decided by looking at the portion of the population with the right yichis (a much smaller number of people) and then seeing who’s most qualified. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it’s kind of silly to pretend it’s not true.

    #1734146
    Joseph
    Participant

    Neville: There is strong halachic basis to favoring the child of the deceased rabbi in appointing his successor.

    #1734239
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    it’s kind of silly to pretend it’s not true

    What’s silly is to pretend that anyone claims yichus isn’t a factor at all.

    #1734253
    Neville ChaimBerlin
    Participant

    “Neville: There is strong halachic basis to favoring the child of the deceased rabbi in appointing his successor.”
    Yasher koach. Thanks for helping me disprove your original statement.

    “What’s silly is to pretend that anyone claims yichus isn’t a factor at all.”
    Joseph did.

    #1734266
    zahavasdad
    Participant

    Neville: There is strong halachic basis to favoring the child of the deceased rabbi in appointing his successor.

    The greatest king of Judea King Hezekiah, had a son who was the Worst Manasshe

    #1734268
    Yabia Omer
    Participant

    Wasn’t one of the reasons that R’ Elazar ben Azarya was chosen as Nasi because he was meyuchas to Ezra?

    #1734271
    Joseph
    Participant

    Neville, you’re confusing two things. Gedolei HaDor do not come about from yichus or from succeeding one’s father. But an appointed position such as town rabbi or Rebbe can be succeeded. But the latter does not make one a Godol HaDor.

    #1734919
    Neville ChaimBerlin
    Participant

    “Gedolei HaDor do not come about from yichus or from succeeding one’s father.”

    I think the rest of us are in agreement that this point is silly and untrue.

    #1734925
    baal shita
    Participant

    All who spoke with such bizayon are what the Gemara in sanhedrin says are apikorsim as to when u speak bizayon on a talmid chacham and FYI he KNEW not read shas already by 13 – 14 and r Chaim endorsed him alooooot

    #1734926
    motchah11
    Participant

    Yussel, what you’re saying is ridiculous. In every generation the Yidden have looked to their leaders, the gedolai hador, the poskim. The Rambam lists the gedolai hador from Moshe Rabbainu until iirc Rav Ashi.

    #1734950
    Joseph
    Participant

    “Gedolei HaDor do not come about from yichus or from succeeding one’s father.”

    I think the rest of us are in agreement that this point is silly and untrue.

    Neville, I don’t think anyone claims “Godol HaDor” is an inherited position.

    You’re again confusing Godol HaDor with town rabbi or Rebbe.

    #1734972
    Neville ChaimBerlin
    Participant

    Nope. Just accepting the reality that every person called a “gadol” happens to be descended from a previous “gadol.” You’re allowed to think that’s total coincidence, and I’m allowed to call you silly for it.

    #1734987
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    It’s not exclusively true, although it is common. And it’s not surprising that a gadol b’Torah would be a gadol b’chinuch too, or that someone who grew up surrounded by gadlus should be more likely to become a gadol.

    #1734988
    catch yourself
    Participant

    YO,
    R’ Elazar Ben Azarya was chosen because he had Zechus Avos (which, it was hoped, would protect him from whatever K’peida Rabban Gamliel might have), but not because he had “rights” to the position. It should be noted that he was approximately four hundred years removed from Ezra.

    #1735002
    Joseph
    Participant

    Neville — Which Gedolim are the father’s of the following Gedolim: Rav Aharon Schechter, Rav Yisroel Belsky, Rav Moshe, Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Yitzchok Scheiner, Rav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Rav Yitzchok Hutner, Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, etc.?

    #1735083
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    I don’t know about the others, but R’ Dovid Feinstein zt”l (Rav Moshe’s father) was huge.

    To play devil’s advocate, it’s much harder to find in the last few decades. But you’re right, there are definitely well known gedolim whose fathers were not.

    #1735095
    zahavasdad
    Participant

    Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, son is Rav Shmuel kaminetsky
    Rav Aharon Kotler’s grandson is Rav Malkiel JKotler
    Rav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg grandchildren are Gedolim
    Rav Yisroel Belsky Son in law is very well known

    The Second world War changed the dynamics a bit as the whole communities were uprooted from Europe and many Gedolim did not survive the war so there had to be new leadership, but that is no longer the case

    #1735247
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Yes, we all know there are some well known roshei yeshivos whose fathers and or grandfathers were gedolim, but it’s by no means exclusive.

    There are some gedolim who don’t have famous sons, and some famous roshei yeshivos whose fathers and grandfathers were not so we’ll known.

    #1735648
    Neville ChaimBerlin
    Participant

    “Yes, we all know there are some well known roshei yeshivos whose fathers and or grandfathers were gedolim, but it’s by no means exclusive.”

    Then name some of the exceptions that are around today. Nobody is disputing that the European generation was more merit-based.

    My original post was that the Litvish world is moving towards being yichus based. The fact that Joseph had to use previous generations as examples proves my point better than it proves his.

    #1735662
    Yabia Omer
    Participant

    ! התורה לא נקנית בירושה

    #1735669
    Fafdichune
    Participant

    I hate when people use the work “groomed”. It always makes me think of a poodle!

    #1735670
    Joseph
    Participant

    Neville — Count how many current members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah have a father who was one of the Gedolei HaDor and how many do not.

    #1735736
    Neville ChaimBerlin
    Participant

    “Neville — Count how many current members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah have a father who was one of the Gedolei HaDor and how many do not.”

    Why bother? Not every member is colloquially known as the “gadol hador” so it has nothing to do with this discussion.

    #1735793
    Joseph
    Participant

    Neville — I don’t know about “the” Godol HaDor, but all the members of the Moetzes are Gedolim. So my previous point stands.

    #1735818
    zahavasdad
    Participant

    Joseph

    When was the last time your wisdom was asked of who the next Gadol HaDoor should be?

    #1735844
    Yabia Omer
    Participant

    Gadol HaDor is a not a thing. It’s a contemporary, Litvish invention. And even if it existed, who decides who is and who isn’t the Gadol. Isn’t it possible that there was some unknown person who was greater in Torah than, say, R Elyashiv or R Ovadia when they were alive?

    #1735892
    Uncle Ben
    Participant

    Yabia: Is it possible that there is a chest of gold buried underneath your house? If there is, should everyone who doesn’t know about it refer to you as a millionaire?

    #1736027
    motchah11
    Participant

    @yabia: As I posted above, there have been gedolai hador ever since Moshe Rabbainu. The Rambam lists the leaders of each generation from Moshe Rabbainu to Rav Ashi. There’s nothing contemporary about it. It is a fact, and a pivotal fact in Yiddishkeit. It was here in every generation.

    #1736065
    Yabia Omer
    Participant

    Notice how it stopped at Rav Ashi? Why is that? In those days the leaders were unquestioned and they were at a very high spiritual level. We have so many factions today plus they are nowhere near the level of the Amoraim, much less Moshe

    #1736227
    Neville ChaimBerlin
    Participant

    “Gadol HaDor is a not a thing. It’s a contemporary, Litvish invention”

    And yet you use Chacham Ovadia as an example. It’s a globalism thing now that we have mass communication. By the way, I believe “posek hador” was said in regards to the Chasam Sofer, so it’s not totally new. The only thing new today is the concept of it applying internationally, which is played up much more on YWN than is the reality.

    #1736247
    Joseph
    Participant

    You will not find the phrase “posek hador” used anywhere in any meaningful way. The Tzitz Eliezer uses it all over the place in his titles, and either the Teshuvos Maharshal writes it among the titles to the Ramah, or the Teshuvos Ramah about the Maharshal. I forget. But in any case, the title connotes no halachic status.

    Rav Moshe isn’t always the final word in America either. Roshei Yeshiva and Poskim, such as Rav Hutner, Rav Eli Meyer Bloch of Telz, the Debreciner Rav, the Chelkas Yaakov and others, sided with the Satmar Rebbe over Rav Moshe regarding the obligatory size of a mechitzah in a shul, and/or the permissibility of artificial insemination, which were the two big disagreements that those Gedoim had in halacha. It was indeed Rav Hutner who approached the Satmar Rav asking him to write a refutation to Rav Moshe’s psak about the Mechitzos.

    Godol is a relative term; it means someone who stands out among his generation in greatness, which is measured in terms of Torah knowledge, and righteousness. There is no measurable threshold beyond which you are categorically a “godol”, like there is when a person gets a medical degree and becomes a “doctor.” Being that the term is relative, different people apply it to different levels for people, and even among those who are commonly referred to as Gedolim, they are not all the same. Rav Shach was a Godol, but he was not the Chazon Ish, for example.

    #1736249
    Yabia Omer
    Participant

    Yes Sephardim adopted many of the meshugas of their Ashkenazic brethren.

    #1736336
    Joseph
    Participant

    Yabia:

    After World War II the Ashkenazic Gedolim and Yeshivos built up the Sefardic children and community in Torah, Rabbonus and Yiddishkeit until the Sefardim were able to establish their own strong yeshivos and chareidishkeit.

    #1736341

    Yabia Omer,
    False but ignorant
    start with one

    When they were being Maspid Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan at his Levaya 1896, They mourned
    him as the Rashkabaha”g
    When the Darshan was asked [Translated] How come he wouldn’t call him gadol hador?
    response was “Because Reb Yehoshua Leib is alive [in Yerushalayim]”!

    #1736343
    Yussel
    Participant

    Yabia Omer:

    You might as well be talking to a wall for all the good it will do you. The “worship” of “gedolim, poskei hador, sar hatorah” etc demonstrates the truth of what the Rambam wrote in the Moreh about the difficulty of weaning people off Avodah Zarah.

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