In his second lecture on the Steipler for Torah in Motion, professor Marc B. Shapiro says: After the Chazon Ish died, people turned to the Steipler with their problems.
“The Steipler begins to assume the role of the tzaddik, the holy man, much like a hasidic rebbe who has clairvoyant powers. The Chazon Ish in his lifetime was never regarded like this. You don’t have Lithuanian gadolim regarded like this in their lifetimes.
“The Steipler’s son (Chaim Kanievsky) has assumed that.
“During his lifetime, the Steipler was treated as a holy man, a man with ruach hakodesh (the divine spirit). He would give brachas (blessings). The Steipler never shied away from this. Presumably his hasidic background came to the fore here. This is what he grew up with.”
“He did not function as a posek (decider of Jewish law). He functioned as a leader.”
“He said that abortion is forbidden except when there’s a danger to the mother’s life.”
The Steipler has negative views of non-Orthodox Jews. He’s different from American haredim who want to bring such Jews closer to Torah.
The Steipler’s disagreements with the anti-Zionists, the Satmar, are over tactics, not over ideology. “We are in exile in the state of Israel.”
The Steipler said that the Yom Kippur war was brought on by the Labor government to boost its election chances.
“The Steipler and Rav Shach all had negative comments about psychologists. They were convinced it was a waste of time. They think that psychologists are all about turning people against religion. It was certainly forbidden to go to a non-religious psychologist.”
“When it comes to doctors, they don’t care. He’s an expert. With psychologists, they’ll be very careful who they send to, as they should. As religious Jews, I don’t think we can go to any psychologist. That’s dangerous.”
