From Dawn through Dark with Rav Nissim Karelitz
His words are measured and few, but his authority is immense. Rav Nissim Karelitz — appointed by Rav Shach to the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah over forty-five years ago — still maintains a grueling daily schedule. Mishpacha was granted a rare opportunity to spend two weeks in the presence of the gadol, capturing a glimpse of the Torah giant’s interactions with his family, the beis din, and the Klal
by Eliezer Shulman
Rav Nissim Karelitz sits with his head slightly inclined, listening intently to the arguments. Suddenly, he looks up and pins one of the litigants before him with a piercing gaze and asks a question. Silence fills the beis din. Just moments earlier, the walls of the chamber had been shaking from the fierce debate between the two litigants. The dayanim, the scribe, and the avreichim doing shimush had not been fazed by the shouts; they are accustomed to it. But Rav Nissim’s question has stunned everyone into silence.
The litigant to whom the question was posed thinks for a moment and then answers briefly. His adversary’s face pales. The next question is aimed at him, and his response seems forced. Rav Nissim continues to question him relentlessly. As the minutes tick away, the issue under contention slowly becomes clarified, and the debate moves toward a resolution. Before long, a verdict is written. It fills but a few lines, but it is unmistakably clear — a perfect application of the din that emerges from the Torah. The litigants leave, and another pair take their place. A new debate begins, an entirely new sugya, filled with vastly complex details. But the Rav is focused, ready to ask the probing questions that will clear away all the layers of obfuscation.
Forty-three Years of Torah Law
A flight of stairs with a low ceiling, graying walls, and a small plastic sign that reads “Beis Din Tzedek” point the way to the second floor of Rechov Rav Shach 46.
Welcome to the beis din of Rav Nissim Karelitz.
On a wall across from the reception desk is a list of instructions for opening a file: ask the secretary for a form; enter your name, address, and telephone number; and describe the nature of the complaint — damages, monetary claims, unpaid debt, and so forth. That’s all it takes, and deliberately so. Rav Nissim is committed to making the beis din process as painless as possible.
The beis din employs thirty-six dayanim. “Employs” is a theoretical term, because dayanim are unpaid — they don’t even get schar batalah (the amount they could earn if otherwise employed in the hours they devote to the beis din). Most of the dayanim sit on one of ten panels consisting of three judges, adjudicating cases throughout the week in morning and evening shifts. Each panel has its own area of expertise. Most deal with monetary cases, but some handle divorce or conversion. It is the largest nongovernmental beis din, handling approximately 100 cases per month.
The beis din has been active for forty-three years under Rav Nissim’s auspices. He selects the dayanim himself, using criteria known only to him. What is known is that Rav Nissim maintains that a moreh hora’ah must be fluent in all four sections of the Shulchan Aruch. “An expert in one area cannot answer the public’s questions,” he is wont to say. “What will he do if he is presented with a question that he knows nothing about?”
The unique character of the beis din emerges in several rules that Rav Nissim set forth, and that no one has ever challenged. Aside from the rule that dayanim are unpaid, he also instituted that they should sit on the same level as the litigants, rather than on elevated platforms. Beis din employees must be able to handle difficult people. When the beis din’s secretary was hired, Rav Nissim told him, “Embittered people come here, and you must relate to them with great patience.”
Rav Nissim himself sits on a panel of dayanim each Monday. He used to join on Thursdays as well, but after he suffered a heart attack and stroke fifteen years ago, his doctors instructed him to curtail his activities in the beis din and appear only on Mondays — and even then, only from early morning until noon.
“The Wise Man of the Jews”
Few people are privy to the wide array of questions and decisions that require the Rav’s input on a daily basis. They include particularly complex halachic decisions (Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein relates that his father-in-law, Rav Elyashiv, often instructs people to bring their halachic queries to Rav Nissim), as well as important matters brought to him by public figures. (After the recent massacre in Itamar, for instance, Rav Nissim was asked to determine whether Arab laborers should still be employed in chareidi cities.)
Questions also arrive from all over the world. Answers are often delivered in writing, but some questions are answered over the telephone. Family members admit that they can never predict when Rav Nissim will respond in writing and when he will answer verbally.
Answers from Rav Nissim — both in the beis din and to individuals — are short and to the point, and even when he does explain himself, he keeps it brief. “Halachic rulings are not the place for writing shtiklach Torah,” he once explained. In writing, too, in contrast to other batei din whose rulings are issued with lengthy explanations presenting every possible side of the case, rulings from Rav Nissim’s beis din are limited to the most essential details.
Being inundated with sensitive questions is not new to him. Although he maintains a relatively low profile, he has been on the front lines of every issue that the chareidi population has faced for the last half-century, earning the admiration of the gedolim of that era in the process. Already in 5708/1948, the Ponovezher Rav dispatched Rav Nissim to convince then–prime minister David Ben-Gurion to withdraw on the issue of conscription of yeshivah students into the army. In 5714/1954, the Chazon Ish, Rav Nissim’s uncle, was directing halachic inquiries to him, and in 5724/1964, the Ponovezher Rav demonstrated his admiration for the budding gadol by honoring him with siddur kiddushin at a family wedding. Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein, the great mashgiach, would advise chassanim to use Rav Nissim as their rav, posek, and advisor in all marriage-related matters.
Rav Nissim Karelitz has also become a default address for difficult divorce cases where both sides stubbornly refuse to give in and no resolution is in sight. The Rav — whom Rav Shmuel Wosner refers to as “chakima d’yehudai,” the wise man of the Jews — has managed to resolve many such cases.
In the early days of the beis din, Rav Shach once summoned Rav Nissim to his home. He was seated with an emissary whom Rav Elya Svei, ztz”l, had dispatched to discuss the case of a recalcitrant husband. After years of effort by several batei din, the man still refused to grant his wife a get.
“I discussed the matter with the Rosh Yeshivah,” Rabbi Svei’s emissary told Rav Nissim, “and he said that you would be able to procure a get for the woman through your beis din.”
Rav Nissim accepted the assignment. He ordered both husband and wife to appear in his beis din. A long time passed before askanim succeeded in bringing the couple to Eretz Yisrael. He convened his beis din and the two appeared before him. To the askanim’s surprise, the wife refused to sign a shtar borerus, without which a case cannot begin — effectively imprisoning herself for more years as an agunah. The only person who was not surprised was Rav Nissim.
“She’s embittered from her protracted battle,” he explained to the askanim, and instructed them what to say to convince her. The woman agreed to sign.
Rav Nissim entered into a protracted conversation with the husband on mundane matters, acquiring his trust, and only then bringing up the subject of the get. The husband explained his recalcitrance: he wanted to see his children at certain times, and his wife rejected his request. Rav Nissim then listened to the woman’s explanation for her refusal. Over the course of forty-five days, Rav Nissim engaged in lengthy conversations with both sides, and at the end, to everyone’s astonishment, the husband agreed to give the get. From that point on, Rav Nissim’s beis din became involved in divorce cases.
Today, on any afternoon, three separate chambers of the beis din are devoted to divorce cases. In every case, the beis din first verifies that there is no chance of repairing the marriage, and only then do they begin the get process.
Rav Nissim granted us a rare conversation to explain why his beis din is so active in this area. “In general, the sin of going to secular courts is extremely severe, but in divorce cases it’s even worse because it may result in a get obtained through forms of coercion that invalidate the get.
“Coercing a husband to give a get is a complex issue. Once, a Yemenite man had been in jail for ten years for refusing to follow the State rabbinical court’s ruling that he must give a get. They finally asked to bring him to our beis din so that we could convince him to grant his wife a get. He came with a police escort — the only time that happened in our beis din. Ultimately, he gave the get and declared that he was doing so wholeheartedly.”
Resounding Silence
Born on 18 Av 5686/1926 in Vilna, Rav Karelitz was named Shmaryahu Yosef Nissim. His father, Reb Nochum Meir, was the rav of a town near Vilna known as Maisiagala. His mother, Batya, was the sister of the Chazon Ish, Rav Avraham Yeshayah Karelitz, ztz”l. (Through a bureaucratic mishap, his paternal grandfather, who married a Karelitz, ended up with his father-in-law’s surname, so both of his parents were named Karelitz.) He immigrated to Eretz Yisrael with his parents in 5796/1936. The family settled in Bnei Brak, and Rav Nissim attended the local Chinuch Atzmai school. He later learned in Yeshivas Tiferes Tzion, where Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz was one of his rebbeim, and then continued on to Ponovezh.
His wife, Rebbetzin Leah Karelitz, is the daughter of Rav Tzvi Hirsch Kopshitz of Yerushalayim and a great-granddaughter of Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. The family relates that before their engagement, the rebbetzin’s father approached the Chazon Ish and remarked that his daughter’s chassan-to-be barely uttered a word when he attempted to engage him in conversation. “Reticence is a fault that runs in the family,” the Chazon Ish replied, “but you will yet hear a lot from him.”
During his youth, Rav Nissim spent much time with the Chazon Ish and was one of the small cadre of devoted members of his household. When the Chazon Ish fell ill, Rav Nissim was one of the two people who cared for him until he recovered. He absorbed much of his Torah from his uncle, along with his staunch habit of silence. On rare occasions when he does reveal practices of the Chazon Ish, he chooses carefully what to share and what to keep to himself.
To illustrate the depth of the obligation to learn Torah, for instance, Rav Nissim related that after the Chazon Ish suffered a heart attack and began to recuperate, he was extremely weak, to the extent that he was able to utter no more than three words each day. The Chazon Ish devoted those words to disseminating Torah. Each day, when Rav Nissim would come to assist him, the Chazon Ish would dictate three words, which eventually filled an entire siman in his sefer on hilchos tzitzis. When asked which siman it was, Rav Nissim replied that the knowledge wouldn’t benefit others, and he refused to reveal which it was.
When it is necessary, however, he jumps at the opportunity to share the information. When the subject of Chol Hamoed came up at some point, Rav Nissim mentions in passing that the Chazon Ish used to write his chiddushei Torah on Chol Hamoed.
“The Chazon Ish wrote on Chol Hamoed?” I ask in surprise, wondering if I could record that practice.
“Why not?” he answered. “It is absolutely permissible to write chiddushei Torah on Chol Hamoed.”
Handpicked by Gedolim
At the age of thirty, Rav Nissim was appointed as the rosh kollel of Kollel Chazon Ish, with the agreement — or more accurately, at the behest of — all of the Chazon Ish’s prominent students, including Rav Aharon Leib Steinman, Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, and Rav Tzvi Turchin.
The yungeleit who learned in the kollel during Rav Nissim’s early days there recall how rigorous his own sedorim were, but that he never scolded a yungerman for coming late or being absent. Several years ago, Rav Nissim transferred authority over the kollel to his family. They took the opportunity to ask him why didn’t rebuke latecomers. He replied that limud haTorah is not an office job monitored by a punch clock. “An avreich and his family must value his learning, and act based on that,” he said.
One family member pressed the issue, insisting that it would still seem right to dock latecomers’ pay. “An avreich is not a worker on a production line,” Rav Nissim replied, sealing the issue.
Rav Nissim felt a tremendous sense of responsibility for the kollel. When an additional floor was being added to the kollel building, he would go every Friday with Rav Gedaliah Nadel to monitor the progress. Many of Bnei Brak’s older residents recall how Rav Nissim, already a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, would climb up on the scaffolds, examine the progress, and then give the contractors a list of comments. Some didn’t take him seriously at first, but they soon learned that Rav Nissim had an excellent grasp of all matters pertaining to construction. When someone wondered aloud if it was proper for a Torah scholar to engage in such activities, Rav Nissim said, “People have entrusted me with their money, and it is my responsibility to ensure that it is used for the purpose for which it was donated.”
When Rav Nissim turned forty, Rav Shach requested that he join the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. Most of the issues of public concern that were brought before him remain confidential, in keeping with his instructions to his family. Over the course of two weeks that we spent with his family, few details regarding his decisions were revealed.
Accounting for Every Minute
It is said that tzaddikim of old could calculate how they spent each moment of their lives, and Rav Nissim is no different. Despite his advanced age, his schedule is packed, and every minute is accounted for.
Anyone standing outside his house in the Ramat Aharon neighborhood of Bnei Brak can see the lights come on at exactly 3:30 every morning. Peering through the shades, one might see Rav Nissim sitting down and beginning to learn. At around 5:00, depending on whether it is winter or summer, Rav Nissim leaves his house and heads for the shul where he has been learning with Rav Moshe Singer each day for over twenty years.
Rav Singer tells me that at this time of year, they begin learning together at 4:45 and continue until 6:00, when Shacharis begins, and they finish their learning session after Shacharis. “We are now learning Gemara Pesachim in preparation for the upcoming Yom Tov. Before Succos we learn Succah. The time of our learning session depends on the hour of sunrise. Sometimes we finish after Shacharis if we did not complete our learning quota.”
After his learning session, the Rav takes a fifteen-minute walk on his way home. His evening walk lasts for half an hour. During both, he remains absolutely silent. Family members used to try to take advantage of that “downtime” to ply him for stories about the Chazon Ish, but Rav Nissim told them that the doctor had instructed him to relax during his walks, which, he feels, entails not speaking altogether.
Upon returning home, he rests for exactly forty-five minutes and then rises (without an alarm clock) and eats breakfast. He sticks to the exact menu dictated by his doctor, with almost all his food prepared at home. The rebbetzin produces homemade cheese from milk delivered from Beit Chilkiah or Tifrach, which he has with a special type of bread, a cup of milk, and a vegetable salad (brought from a private farm). The menu never changes, and any suggestion of change is rejected on the grounds that “this is what the doctor ordered.” Only the rebbetzin sits with him at breakfast; no one else is permitted in the vicinity. They do not speak while they eat, as dictated by halachah. After the meal, before bentsching, they converse for a few minutes.