{"id":42035,"date":"2012-03-20T18:18:39","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T02:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=42035"},"modified":"2012-03-21T10:33:24","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T18:33:24","slug":"when-the-steipler-became-a-holy-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=42035","title":{"rendered":"When The Steipler Became A Holy Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his second lecture on the Steipler<\/a> for Torah in Motion<\/a>, professor Marc B. Shapiro<\/a> says: After the Chazon Ish<\/a> died, people turned to the Steipler with their problems.<\/p>\n

“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<\/a> in his lifetime was never regarded like this. You don’t have Lithuanian gadolim regarded like this in their lifetimes. <\/p>\n

“The Steipler’s son (Chaim Kanievsky<\/a>) has assumed that.<\/p>\n

“During his lifetime, the Steipler was treated as a holy man, a man with ruach hakodesh<\/em> (the divine spirit). He would give brachas<\/em> (blessings). The Steipler never shied away from this. Presumably his hasidic background came to the fore here. This is what he grew up with.”<\/p>\n

“He did not function as a posek<\/em> (decider of Jewish law). He functioned as a leader.”<\/p>\n

“He said that abortion is forbidden except when there’s a danger to the mother’s life.”<\/p>\n

The Steipler has negative views of non-Orthodox Jews. He’s different from American haredim who want to bring such Jews closer to Torah.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

The Steipler said that the Yom Kippur war was brought on by the Labor government to boost its election chances.<\/p>\n

“The Steipler and Rav Shach<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[598,69,18,17382],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haredi","category-marc-b-shapiro","category-orthodoxy","category-psychology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t