Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886-1969)
"I am dreaming; but, I am not asleep..."
Rav Yosef Kahaneman became Moreh D'Asra of Ponevezh at the age of 33, and served in that capacity for over 20 years, and was beloved, revered and respected by many, even those beyond his community (elected to the Lithuanian parliament!) After surviving the War and suffering the loss of his family and Kehillah, The Rov immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1940 and lead a spiritual revolution, building Kiryat HaYeshiva in Bnei Brak and Batei Avot orphanages.
Bnei Brak was often refered to as the city of The Chazon Ish & Rav Kahaneman- the "Ish Chazon"
He was a creator and builder of Torah, a Gaon and Rosh Yeshiva; a community leader, visionary and fundraiser; the head of Lithuanian Jewry and the epitome of Mesiras Nefesh & Ahavas Yisrael.
While still in Europe, The Ponovezher Rov was offered the opportunity to assume leadership over a number of prestigious Torah communities: Grodno, home of his Yeshiva & teacher, HaRav Shimon Shkop zt'l; Dvinsk, to fill the position of HaRav Meir Simcha zt'l, the Or Somayach; Frankfort, Germany, to fill position of HaRav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt'l; The Rabbinical Seminary of Berlin, founded by HaRav Ezriel Hildesheimer zt'l, wanted to appoint him Dean and head of all the orthodox rabbonim in Germany.
Excerpts from Hesped by Dayan Rav Moshe Swift
(Originally appeared in the Jewish Observer and is also available in book form in the ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications Judaiscope Series.)
"I speak not as a member of the Rabbinate of this country or as a member of the Bais Din. I speak as a talmid of the Ponevez Yeshiva when it was still in Ponevez, Lithuania. My relationship with the Ponevezer Rav goes back 43 years, when he first visited England in 1926, and he urged me and persuaded my parents to send me to Lithuania. I was, I believe, the first English born student to leave these shores to become a yeshiva bachur in Ponevez. For a short while I stayed in his home. I saw his wonderful family life, it was majesty; I saw him among his students, it was royalty; I saw him among his ba'alei batim, it was loyalty; and I saw him among his colleagues, it was dignity. I saw him in many parts of the world. He was a man without a name, he was known only as the Ponevezer Rav.
He was like an angel, someone with a mission. He was adored and idolized. I saw people run after him in the streets to kiss his hand. He was an unusual man, a rare type. I had a feeling when I was in his presence that there was something angelic about him. He had indomitable energy, for over twenty years he lived with only one kidney and was under a strict diet. He hardly enjoyed a full meal, he hardly slept four consecutive hours. His mind was alert, his love for people, Ahavas YisraeI, was indescribable. He had an insatiable appetite for Torah and his love for Eretz Yisrael was like the prophets in Temple times. Like Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel who kissed the floor of the Temple, every grain of sand was holy to him. He was the real "Zionist." He lived for it and he died for it. To him, the link with Israel was not the language, it was the Jew himself.
To see him was to see a living embodiment of G-d, Israel and Torah combined in one ...
The Rabbis say that Moshe Rabbeinu was promised that he would never be forgotten, because down the ages the prophet's voice could be heard, "Remember the Torah of Moshe my servant." Yet when Moshe died it was only a section of the people who wept for his passing. "The Children of Israel wept for Moshe." The Ponevezer Rav was compared to Aharon the Kohen Gadol. He wore not only the crown of Torah, he also wore the crown of Kehunah. When Aharon died the Torah says, "The whole House of Israel wept."
Until I met him I never understood what the wisest of all men meant in his Song of Songs when he broke out in ecstasy and spoke of the cholas ahava, the sickness of love. He was literally sick all his life with the love of his fellow Jew.
In one of my heated arguments with him in the United States when, as was his loving nature to embrace every Jew, I said to him, "You come and go, but we have to struggle here and disentangle ourselves from the entanglements in which these men involve us." He looked at me with his angelic eyes and said, "A Yiddishe Neshamah. These people are sick." I retorted and I said, "You love too much. You love like Yitzchok Avinu whose eyes were so dim that he could see not wrong, not even in Eisav."
He was the greatest Oheiv that I have ever known. The Rabbis say that when Isaac was bound to the altar the angels cried and the tears dropped from their cheeks directly into Isaac's eyes from so far away. The Ponevezer Rav felt the pain of another Jew from miles away. He was indeed a patriarch.
I can think of no rabbinic figure since the Chofetz Chaim - whose pupil he was and who inspired him in his life's work - whose name was so worldwide and who was so internationally known as the Ponevezer Rav.
A thousand men...could not achieve what one Ponevezer Rav was able to do: the Torah he built, the orphans he comforted, the widows he helped, the mouths he fed - the students he taught, tens of thousands, may well be countless all over the Jewish world, [and] he exercised a benign influence.
When the Rabbis portray the death of Moshe Rabbeinu, they speak of the Almighty eulogizing his passing with the words Mi Yakum Li Im Miraim, "Who will rise up for Me against these evildoers?" There are two ways of translating these words. The world needs two types of rabbis: One, who will rise up against evildoers, tell them of their wrongs, condemn them when necessary, reproach them. There is another way, too, to be an advocate for them: to say, forgive them for they are ignorant. The Ponevezer Rav was of the second type. The angels cried and they said, HaChochmah Mei'ayin Timtza. I translate that as meaning that wisdom may come "mei'ayin", from nowhere, if yeshivos are built and Torah is studied and every effort is exerted and every muscle is strained . . . This was the Ponevezer Rav.
The heavens wept, and said, Avad Chasid, a pious man is gone. The stars and the planets, and the sun and the moon wept, and said, Lo Kam K'Moshe, no one has arisen like Moshe. This to me is the personification of the Ponevezer Rav. Everybody seems to cry at his passing. In our generation there was none like him. He fed two thousand mouths a day. He was in the process of building seventeen yeshivos.
V'Yamot Yoseif V'Kol Echav V'Kol HaDor, And Yoseif died, and all his brothers, and all that generation - with the death of this great Yoseif there moves out into history an entire epoch of that generation and of his brethren. He was the last of all the Lithuanian Rabbis. Of seven hundred rabbanim, he was the only one who was saved for us from the annihilation of Lithuania. The Rabbis say that when Moshe died, not only did the people weep, not only did Yehoshua weep, the Almighty wept too. A great light has been extinguished...In paying our humble tribute to this great master and teacher, this angel among men, this giant among humans, it is a challenge to us to maintain and to double our efforts in maintaining the institutions that he built and was in the process of building, and never to forget our own responsibilities to [all] Torah institutions."
{Read the full Hesped here )
*Yasher Koach to Rav Hanoch Teller, for his masterful work, Builders which includes chapters on the life & times of The Ponovezher Rav.