Daily Podcasts Video Research

High Threshold

JL;DR SUMMARY Allan Arkush reflects on the life and influence of Rabbi Avraham Karelitz, known as the Hazon Ish, through the lens of a chance encounter and Benjamin Brown's comprehensive biography. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Bnei BrakZionismDavid Ben GurionJewish LeadershipHaredi JudaismHazon IshAvraham KarelitzHalakhic Challenges

Places mentioned

Boston, Massachusetts, United States
"I was having an early dinner at a country club in a suburb north of Boston some years ago with several of the middle-aged members of my evening adult education class when an older friend of theirs came over to stand by our table."
Peabody, Massachusetts, United States
"discovered that a large branch of the Hazon Ishs family had indeed settled in the Boston area in the early 20th century and that there was even a Karelitz Road in Peabody."
Vilnius, Vilnius County, Lithuania
"Business in Vilna was pretty good, however, and the Hazon Ishs wife, Bashe, apparently didnt want to go anywhere else."
Bnei Brak, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"Their eventual destinationBnei Brakmight not seem to be the place most in need of that sort of cultivation, but in 1933 it was by no means the ultra-Orthodox center that it is today, and, indeed, it became so, according to Brown, largely as a result of the Hazon Ishs decision to settle there."
Minsk, Belarus
"even in war-ravaged Minsk, in 1919, where he spent his weekdays alone in a two-room apartment, apart from his wife, immersed in sacred texts day and night."
This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 48513
Cairo Source ID 11
Retrieved 2025-04-07 05:31:34 UTC
Curated 2025-04-07 08:33:44 UTC