For more information, visit http://www.connectiontogreatness.org/

It’s been hard to miss.

Wherever you live, you’ve probably seen them.

We’re talking about signs and other forms of publicity regarding the mammoth and wide-ranging global “Connecting to Greatness – Lo Yomushu” campaign for Yeshiva Kiryas Melech of Bnei Brak, the yeshiva led by Rav Shlomo Kanievsky.

The outpouring of support for this particular undertaking of hachzokas haTorah has been unprecedented. Wherever Rav Shlomo has gone during his current visit to the United States, he’s been greeted by throngs of people, eager to greet him, receive his brocha, and hear his divrei Torah.

Part of this outpouring is due to the recognition of the Torah royalty that Rav Shlomo represents. His zaides, the Steipler Gaon, Rav Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky, and Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, were gedolei Torah of rare caliber. Rav Shlomo’s father, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, is renowned for his grasp of kol haTorah kulah and for serving as the address for virtually every Klal Yisroel need today, both for the klal and the yochid. Rav Shlomo carries forth that legacy.

Rav Shlomo’s yeshiva is one of the most respected institutions of higher Torah learning in all of Eretz Yisroel.

Yeshiva Kiryas Melech is the yeshiva gedolah of Yeshiva Tiferes Tzion, which was founded by Rav Shlomo’s great-uncle, the Chazon Ish, in 1936. After the Chazon Ish’s petirah, the Steipler became the primary guide of the yeshiva. In 1985, after the petiros of the Steipler and the yeshiva’s menahel, Rav Yaakov Shneidman, Rav Shlomo stepped in to ensure that the yeshiva established by the Chazon Ish with mesirus nefesh would continue to flourish. And indeed it did.

Subsequently, a yeshiva gedolah, named Kiryas Melech, was established and Rav Shlomo served as maggid shiur. He later assumed full responsibility for the financial burden of the yeshiva, following the guidance of his father, Rav Chaim, and his grandfather, Rav Elyashiv, to ensure the growth and vitality of Tiferes Tzion/Kiryas Melech. Rav Shlomo served as rosh yeshiva together with Rav Shmuel Yaakov Borenstein and later with ybl”c Rav Yaakov Carp.

The rabbeim and bochurim of the yeshiva benefit from Rav Shlomo’s breadth of Torah knowledge, his boundless ahavas haTorah, his scintillating shiurim, and his personification of the sterling middos for which his forbears have been known. Under Rav Shlomo’s inspiring leadership, the yeshiva has continued to make its mark, educating talmidim with its trademark approach.

But all of this is at risk today.

The yeshiva is now in dire straits and an emergency campaign is underway to ensure that the kol Torah emanating from Kiryas Melech can continue unabated.

Rav Shlomo would prefer to spend his days between the walls of the yeshiva’s bais medrash, giving shiurim and teaching talmidim, but the financial realities of the yeshiva have forced him to undertake trips abroad, sacrificing in many ways to sustain the yeshiva.

Rav Shlomo has been moser nefesh for Kiryas Melech, giving of his life and his learning for the yeshiva.

The crisis facing the yeshiva is very real. If the needed funds are not raised, the yeshiva will be forced to close or be sold.

This campaign is a special chance for people to step in and have a zechus in hachzokas haTorah. Rav Chaim Kanievsky has committed to daven on behalf of those who extend of themselves to assist his son in this yeshiva-saving campaign.