27 Adar · Yahrzeit
Rav Shlomo Elyashiv - Baal HaLeshem
Rav Shlomo Elyashiv - Baal HaLeshem (1841-1925).
Yahrzeit - 27 Adar
Resting place - Har HaZeitim, Jerusalem
He was a great kabbalist whose vast knowledge gave rise to several kabbalistic works, including "Drushei Olam HaTohu" ("Deah") and "Hakdamos V'Shaarim" ("HaKadosh").
Rav Shlomo Elyashiv (1841-1928) was born in the town of Zhagare, in the far north of Lithuania. His ancestors include King David, Rashi, the Maharal of Prague, the great kabbalist Shimshon of Ostropol who was killed by Khmelnitsky's Cossacks, and the Vilna Gaon...
It is known that as a boy he studied Torah under his father's guidance until age 13, then studied for 6 years in Minsk, in the yeshiva of the outstanding Talmudist Gershon-Tanchum Binyamin (1812-1881). At the age of twenty he married Batsheva-Esther, daughter of D. Fine, a wealthy merchant from Shavli (Šiauliai). Rav Shlomo was immediately offered the position of rabbi of the half-Jewish town of Shavli, but he declined, citing an "insufficient level" — and set off with his wife for Telshe (Telšiai). Rav Shlomo studied for 10 years in the kollel of one of the most renowned yeshivas — to this day — the Telshe Yeshiva.
He then returned to Shavli and, as they say, led a "secluded way of life," occupying himself only with Torah and refusing any official positions. Wrapped in his tallit and tefillin, he studied in his room all day and most of the night. According to the testimony of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook (1865-1935), who used to come to Shavli at night to study with the rav from the books of Rav Chaim Vital: "before beginning to study Kabbalah, Rav Elyashiv thoroughly studied the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, the codes of halachic authorities of various generations, and many books of mussar (ethical teaching), then the kabbalistic works of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, and only afterward the Zohar and the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) with the commentaries and explanations of the Vilna Gaon, and finally he penetrated into the mysterious garden — into the hidden meaning of the writings of the Arizal."
The Chofetz Chaim (1838-1933) was 3 years older than Rav Shlomo. He often came to Shavli and would say: "In this world one should use every opportunity to be near him, for who knows whether, in the World of Truth, we will even be able to approach the level of the Heavens where his soul will dwell? We all act in the lower world, hoping to have an effect on the higher worlds — but he acts directly in the higher worlds, every path of which is well known to him."
This man held no official positions, yet the greatest sages and chief rabbis of various countries would travel to see him. Itzele Petersburger, Rav Yitzchak Blazer (1837-1907), Chief Rabbi of St. Petersburg, the closest disciple of Rav Salanter and one of the leaders of the nation, would come to the modest room in Shavli to study, seek advice, and exchange wisdom...
Rav Shlomo saw the meaning of his life solely in comprehending and fulfilling the will of the Creator — for otherwise, why are you sent to this Earth? He who knew the "paths of the higher worlds," and who, had he wished, could have used them to achieve much on earth — simply had no interest in such things. What the Almighty gave him was enough. Like his ancestor the Vilna Gaon, he avoided using practical Kabbalah even in situations that appeared critical.
During World War I, the Russian authorities practiced the exile of "unreliable elements," which, in a poor country at war, put the lives of the exiled in danger. "These Jews sympathize with the Germans!" — which, incidentally, could well have been true, since the Kaiser did not organize pogroms and was not a patron of the "Union of the Russian (German) People";
even the word "tsar" was mistranslated as "tsar" [German for "scar"] — trouble indeed.
In 1915, the 75-year-old rav, together with the entire Jewish community of Shavli, was given just 15 hours to be exiled deep into the empire; he only managed to bury his manuscripts — which, miraculously, were found after the war by volunteers from the Jewish community of Riga and somehow sent on to the author in Russia. His enormous library burned down, and among the manuscripts and books lost were unique ones — but the rav wished to remain an ordinary person and did not employ "powers of sorcery."
Baal HaLeshem
In 1880, by decision of the leading kabbalists of the time, Rav Elyashiv was given certain unpublished manuscripts on the Kabbalah of the Ramchal and the Vilna Gaon — he prepared them for publication. He himself wrote many books, most of them composed before the age of fifty; however, a significant part of his legacy remains unpublished, and who knows what still lies hidden there? Some of his grandfather's manuscripts were published by his grandson, the great halachic authority Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. The works of Rav Shlomo published during his lifetime were later collected under the general title "Sefer Leshem, Shevo VeAchlama" (the Book of Jasper, Agate, and Amethyst — named after precious stones in one of the rows on the Kohen Gadol's breastplate) — and he came to be known as the "Baal HaLeshem."
And this man, who seemed to dwell in another dimension entirely, transmitted the words of the Vilna Gaon that "in our time the Shechinah (Divine Presence) rests upon the graves of tzadikim," and placed decisive importance not on kabbalistic "kavanot" (intentions and meditations), but on simple prayer, in ordinary words and with all one's heart. How high one must soar to arrive at simplicity!
After World War I and the revolutions, he found himself in Gomel, then in Berdyansk, and from there, in March 1922, at the age of 81, he managed to make his way to Jerusalem (according to some sources, the journey took 2 years, and he did not reach Israel until 1924). In the capital of the world, many studied under him.
On 27 Adar (March 20) 1928, his soul returned to its source. Many thousands present at the funeral saw over the Mount of Olives a huge pillar of light, like a rainbow, stretching from east to west all the way to the horizon — this is how the heavens receive true tzadikim, masters of the hidden teaching. Inscribed on his tombstone:
"A teacher like an angel of G-d — before whom the hidden secrets of the Torah were revealed."
May the merit of the Tzadik protect Am Yisrael!
(https://evreimir.com/188239/esli-oni-lyudi/)