Nosson Yafe, who heads the Kupat Ha’ir charity organization, told Arutz Sheva on Wednesday about some of the many acts of kindness and charity performed by Rebbetzin Batsheva Kanievsky, who passed away suddenly during the holiday of Sukkot at the age of 79.
Her funeral was attended by tens of thousands, both men and women who recognized her greatness, although no eulogies could be said as they are forbidden during holidays.
Kupat Ha’ir is headed by the Rebbetzin’s husband, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Shlita, a foremost posek (halakhic decision maker) in the hareidi-religious sector. She herself was the daughter of the venerable sage, Rav Shalom Yoseph Eliashuv, Shlita, the recognized rabbinic leader of hareidi-religious Jewry today.
Rabbi Kanievsky said of his wife that the chapter in Proverbs about the Eshet Chayil (Woman of Valour), praising women and traditionally sung on Friday nights at the Sabbath table, contains the expression "Her husband is renowned in the city gates [as a scholar among judges who once would sit at the city gates, ed.]" whch sounds like praise for the husband, not the wife. However, he explained, it is only through the good deeds of his wife that he - or any other Torah scholar - could develop in Torah. It is the wife of the family that encourages her husband to learn Torah and frees him to do so, which is what, he said, his pious wife had done all their married life, so that the words actually refer to her.
And in that vein, the story is told of how Rebbetzin Kanievky bought a special thermos for her father, who learned Torah until the middle of the night, so his wife, her mother, would not have to get up to make him a hot drink. Her mother returned it, saying: "How could you take that mitzva - good deed - from me? This is my part of his Torah learning. I never expected my own daughter to do a thing like that !"
Yafe, who described Rebbetzin Kanievsky as “the grandmother of the entire nation of Israel,” said, “Most people have probably heard about her, read about her, or seen her, because from dawn to dark people from all over the world came” to see her and get her advice and blessings.
“Any problem they bore when they came in became lighter when they left,” he said. “The Rebbetzin took care of them.”
“She would suggest different types of things to different people, and she also used to give a lot of encouragement,” Yafe said. “Everybody felt they received something from her. She helped tens of thousands of women of all ages.”
The Rebbetzin’s kindness will not end with her death, Yafe promised, because Kupat Ha’ir will continue what her endeavors.
“We used to bring in donors daily as an appreciation to Rabbi Kanievsky,” he explained. “Therefore, in her name, the rabbi told us that the best thing to do is to open a fund which will be collecting money, and through that money we can carry on, as much as we can, the things with which she helped everybody.”
