I do not own the Tzitz Eliezer. This is a Halacha Sefer. It is quite large containing many volumes. It written by Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg. It is his magnum opus. Rabbi Waldenberg passed away yesterday at age 89.
He was truly a giant: A Posek par excellence. How do I know this? It’s really quite simple. First of all he had the kind of encyclopedic knowledge that no longer seems to exist today. But more important than his knowledge is what he did with it. He Paskined. And he did not fear the consequences of unpopular Psak. He actually ruled against Rav Moshe Feinstein whom many considered the Posek HaDor. And it is no small psak. It was in the very sensitve area of abortions.
In fact it was a Psak L’Kula permitting a late term abortion where Rav Moshe cllearly forbade it. He permitted aborting a baby even as late as the seventh month in cases when the embryo suffered from Tay-Sachs, Rubella and even Down Syndrome. According to the article in the Jerusalem post, Rav Moshe was not too pleased with this Psak, to say the least. It caused Rav Moshe to have a “caustic response”. But that did not deter this giant of a man.
And that is what makes him such a giant. He had the courage of his convictions. He understood the principle of “Lo BaShamayim He”. It didn’t matter that the psak was strongly rejected by the "Posek HaDor" and probably all other Poskim. His knowledge of Torah informed him that he was right. And he did not back down.
And that makes his passing much more significant than simply losing a Gadol, which is indeed a great loss in and of itself. The loss is so much more magnified by the fact that there is no one alive today that has that kind of courage. I doubt that any Posek today would permit abortions based on their own conclusions, if Rav Moshe had paskin’d that it was Assur.
Of course I realize that there are probably Poskim who have disagreed with Rav Moshe. But never on something of such great import as abortion. At least not L'Kula that I am aware of. So, in this sense, the loss is a tragedy of immense proportion. Because today it seems that there is no one on a level to disagree Rav Moshe L’Kula on these kinds of isues. No one would dare challenge his psak, except L’Chumra. That would take courage. And knowledge on a level that very few Poskim, if any have today.
So there you have it. Another giant of the pre-holocaust generation has died. And with both Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rav Ovadia Yosef in their nineties... well, who is like… unto them? No one!
This is yet another indication for me that history will record the holocaust era as "the big divide" ...similar to the divide between the Rishonim and Achronim.
I know the counter argument: We are now in the period of the Achronim. And all Achronim have a righ to argue with previous generations of Achronim. And that has always been the case. Did not the Chazan Ish Argue with the Chafetz Chaim? And in truth it is true that we may argue on any Achron. But in practice, I fear it is no longer the case.
What once was… is no more. Goodbye, Rav Waldenberg, ZTL. Klal Yisroel has lost a true Gadol. I will truly miss him. Baruch Dayan Ha-Emes.
