Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky at Home: A Glimpse Into a Life of Torah

The daughter of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, Rebbetzin Ruth Tzivyon, shares in her beautiful and moving book My Mother’s Home memories from her childhood in the home of her great parents.

“The third apartment of my father and mother, at 23 Rashbam Street in the Chazon Ish neighborhood, the apartment where father lived until his last day, is where we spent our childhood years and where I have so many memories,” Rebbetzin Tzivyon begins.

“Until not long ago, the apartment had only two rooms. One room was my parents’ bedroom, and the second room served every purpose. It was our living room, father’s study, and also the bedroom for the children. Six of us slept in that room. Add to that a table and father's shtender (lectern), and there was no extra floor space at all. Besides those two rooms, there was only a tiny kitchen and a narrow hallway, which we made full use of. There was a small table we used when father studied in the main room, and at night, two more children slept there.”

“In this small space, we all grew up, Chana, Leah, Avraham Yeshayahu, myself, Shlomo, Bracha, Dina, and Yitzchak Shaul. But the size of the apartment never made us feel cramped,” she continues. “The closeness actually added to the happiness. Those years left warm memories that stay with me to this day. I still hear the sweet sound of father learning by the shtender near my bed, going over the pages of Gemara, both in the evenings after kollel and in the early mornings when only his voice filled the silence.”

Rebbetzin Tzivyon shares how her father lovingly put the children to bed each night. “Father was the one who ‘succeeded’ in getting us to sleep. When he came home from kollel, he would find us in his room, our room, bouncing on the beds and mattresses. He made sure we had prayed the evening prayer, said the Shema before bed, and prepared water by our beds for morning handwashing, called ‘negel vasser.’ Then he held a fun lottery to decide who would get to say the bedtime blessing, Hamapil, first.”

“The lottery was his own invention, using the names of tractates from the Mishnah. He’d pick a child and count off: Berachot, Pe’ah, Demai, Kilayim, Shevi’it, Terumot, Ma’aserot, Ma’aser Sheni, Challah, Orlah, Bikkurim. Whoever landed on Bikkurim was the lucky winner who got to say the blessing first. (Eventually, we figured out how to guess who it would be!) One by one, we said the blessing, everyone answered Amen, and then another lottery began.”

“Once we said Hamapil, we weren’t allowed to talk anymore, only to use hand gestures and say ‘nu nu.’ We took this very seriously and repeated it with enthusiasm again and again. Father would turn off the light, go to the kitchen to eat dinner with mother, and then quietly return once we were asleep to continue learning.”

Rebbetzin Tzivyon recalls how important it was to their father that they prepare water for handwashing in the morning, according to halacha. “Besides the beds and mattresses, the room was filled with bowls and cups of water one for each child. Father even once ran a campaign: anyone who remembered to prepare negel vasser for an entire month would get a prize. I did it and received the first part of Pe’er HaDor, a book about the Chazon Ish, which had just come out.”

“Every night at 10:00 PM, father would say the bedtime Shema and go to sleep,” she writes. “At 2:30 in the morning, he’d already be back in the study room which was also our bedroom, and would move one of the children into his bed to make room for his study partner. Over the years, he had many study partners, and he was always strict that they come exactly on time.”

Rebbetzin Tzivyon recalls one lesson he shared about being dependable. “Once, father told a student in his class on Talmud Yerushalmi that he should never miss a session. Father explained that sometimes Heaven wants to bring illness to a person, but if he is careful never to miss Torah learning, the illness will be postponed or even canceled. That student said that he followed the advice and, sure enough, never fell ill during all the years of that class, except for Fridays and Shabbat, when there was no class.”

The Rebbetzin continues, “Every morning, we would wake up to the sound of father, wrapped in his tallit and tefillin, reading from the Prophets with the special cantillation melody used in synagogue. The sweet tune of those verses would drift through the room while we were still half-asleep. To us, it felt like part of a dream. Even now, that sound still echoes in my heart.”

“That hour marked the beginning of our day. We woke up, washed our hands with the negel vasser by our beds, and quickly removed the water from the room because father was strict not to learn Torah in a room where washing water was present. We made our beds neatly so father could continue learning in a peaceful and tidy space.”

This touching glimpse into the quiet greatness of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky’s home life is taken from the book My Mother’s Home, with the hope of inspiring others to build homes filled with Torah, warmth, and love.