JERUSALEM — Tons of of 1000’s of Israelis gathered on Sunday on the funeral of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a religious chief in ultra-Orthodox Judaism, in one of many largest public gatherings in Israeli historical past. Rabbi Kanievsky died on Friday, aged 94.
Estimates recommended that 400,000 to 750,000 mourners attended the funeral or crammed close by streets, balconies and rooftops, hoping to get as shut as attainable to the rabbi’s bier. The crowds shut down not solely Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox enclave on the jap fringe of Tel Aviv the place the rabbi lived, but additionally massive elements of central Israel, the place tons of of faculties stayed closed on Sunday, the primary day of the Israeli workweek, to forestall college students from being caught in visitors jams.
The estimated crowd numbers have been nonetheless in need of the 850,000 who have been stated to have attended the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, one other ultra-Orthodox chief, who died in 2013.
However the dimension of Rabbi Kanievsky’s funeral on Sunday however mirrored the veneration with which he was held by Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews — or Haredim, because the neighborhood’s members choose to be recognized.
Rabbi Kanievsky had no formal function, however he was broadly thought of a pacesetter of the so-called Lithuanian Jews, a non-Hasidic stream of ultra-Orthodox Jewry that has roots in Jap Europe. Lithuanian Jews type roughly a 3rd of the 1.1 million Haredim in Israel.
Because the authorities tried to minimize the chance of a stampede on Sunday, Israeli army rescue groups have been positioned on standby at a close-by stadium. Earlier than the funeral, commentators and officers feared a repeat of a disaster at a spiritual pageant in northern Israel final March, when 45 Haredi worshipers have been crushed to dying.
A quiet man with a wispy white beard and wrinkled pores and skin, Rabbi Kanievsky was revered for his encyclopedic information of Jewish legislation and scripture. His household stated he had learn spiritual texts for as much as 17 hours a day because the Thirties.
That relentless scholarship established his status as a serious sage, main tons of of 1000’s of individuals to look to him for normal religious recommendation on each the profound and the banal. Every single day tons of of individuals would line up outdoors Rabbi Kanievsky’s home to hunt his steering on issues like pressing medical and political points and even what family home equipment they need to purchase.
Born in 1928 in what’s now Belarus, Rabbi Kanievsky moved to what grew to become Israel earlier than World Battle II — making him one of many final bridges between the European Haredi communities that have been decimated through the Holocaust and the brand new Haredi world that emerged in Israel after the institution of the state.
Rabbi Kanievsky’s illustrious household heritage additionally added to his status: His father and uncle have been thought of venerable spiritual sages, recognized respectively because the Steipler and the Chazon Ish, lengthy earlier than he rose to prominence himself.
The Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, paid tribute to the rabbi in an announcement earlier than a cupboard assembly on Sunday. “The identify of Rabbi Kanievsky will probably be remembered as an necessary a part of the Torah historical past of the individuals of Israel,” Mr. Bennett stated. “The son of the Steipler and the nephew of the Chazon Ish, he continued of their path, after the Holocaust, within the Land of Israel, preserving the Torah world of the destroyed communities of Europe.”
In later life, Rabbi Kanievsky was thought of to carry important affect over an Israeli political social gathering, Degel HaTorah, which represents elements of the Haredi neighborhood within the Israeli Parliament and has performed a key function in a number of Israeli governments over the previous three many years.
In the course of the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, the rabbi grew to become a villain to many secular Israelis when he ordered his followers to not shut their faculties, at the same time as an infection charges rose disproportionately among the many Haredim. That call helped set off one of many greatest showdowns in Israeli historical past between secular and non secular Jews.
However Rabbi Kanievsky later reversed his stance and issued a number of statements encouraging his followers to stick to coronavirus restrictions and to be vaccinated.
Rabbi Kanievsky’s insular and ascetic life led to frequent questions from secular Israelis in regards to the extent to which he understood the world on which he pronounced.
His household stated he was so centered on Talmudic research that he didn’t know brew tea or the identify of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Rabbi Kanievsky’s grandson and gatekeeper, Yaakov Kanievsky, stated that the rabbi was solely answerable for his pronouncements and worldview.
However the rabbi’s information of breaking information was however largely filtered via his grandson, who would shout transient bursts of data into Rabbi Kanievsky’s ear earlier than fastidiously posing the inquiries to which he gave his fateful solutions. Mr. Kanievsky was additionally tasked with deciphering the rabbi’s generally inaudible responses, giving him affect over each what the rabbi knew of the world, and likewise how he responded to it.
Throughout a short encounter with a New York Occasions reporter final yr, Rabbi Kanievsky registered the journalist’s presence solely after his grandson spoke loudly in his ear. Then the rabbi shortly returned to his spiritual texts.
The dying of any Haredi chief often prompts a debate a couple of successor. However in Rabbi Kanievsky’s case, the query is much less urgent as a result of he’s survived by one other main Lithuanian cleric, Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, 98, who was already thought of to carry equal weight within the Haredi world.
Myra Noveck contributed reporting.