Thanks for addressing it.
I remember there was a story about some academic whose prize they wanted to revoke (or actually did revoke) because of his views on the occupation. So I was very puzzled by those who wanted to revoke the prize, because what does mathematics have to do with politics? But in the present case, the honor revolves around learning teachings that, according to the rabbi’s view, denied the life of a secular person who needed a transplant. Doesn’t the Rabbi think that’s ridiculous? Suppose we subtract secular people who aspire to become Haredi, or those who appreciate the rabbi for his character traits—although I don’t understand what character traits can be attributed to someone who denies a secular person life while he is dying, even if I can certainly accept that this is his view and his conclusion in light of his worldview. In any case, it’s unclear to me how a secular person can praise someone who does not regard his life as important. Isn’t that sawing off the branch you’re sitting on, at least indirectly?

I answered that, didn’t I? Even if someone denies the value of my life, if he is worthy of honor then he is worthy of honor. What does one have to do with the other? And even if you morally condemn him and are not just angry at him, that still does not deprive him of the honor due to him.
Beyond that, this is not his personal worldview but his understanding of the Torah’s instruction. Therefore I doubt to what extent this should be seen as a basis for morally condemning him. But that is already a different discussion.

By the way, regarding the life of a non-Jew, this is the view of almost all halakhic decisors nowadays. So you can add all of them to him.

With Heaven’s help, 20 Adar II 5782

Organ donation for transplantation is disputed among the halakhic decisors, both on the question whether death is determined by the brain or by the heart, and on the question whether one can rely on doctors in determining the moment of death. Therefore I very much doubt whether Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky permitted organ donation even to a Jew.

Best regards, Yaron Fishel Ordner

The honor the secular people give him is based on superstition and idolatry.

With Heaven’s help, 20 Adar II 5782

The respect shown to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky by sports figures is not surprising. Even among the “wearers of the yarmulke under the open sky” there are many believers and traditionalists, and there are also religious people involved in this. In basketball there is no problem, because the games are not held on the Sabbath, but even in soccer there are dozens of players who asked that league games be held on weekdays.

The basketball player Doron Sheffer is well known for having become religious and continuing his sports career even afterward. On Channel 7, Sheffer told about his first meeting with Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, which took place when he was still playing basketball.

And in any case, “there are no atheists in the trenches”; even “secular” people who suffered personal distress and medical problems came to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky for advice and a blessing, and merited encouragement and salvation. And even aside from that, even “secular” people know how to appreciate a person for whom spiritual values are the center of life, and they are impressed by the modest lifestyle of a leader of hundreds of thousands who lived in a simple and modest apartment.

Best regards, Yifaor

One could say that athletes, of all people, are the ones who especially ought to appreciate Rabbi Kanievsky. After all, what is sport—say, swimming 400 meters or running 100 meters as fast as possible, or throwing a shot put or a tennis ball, and even team sports like soccer and basketball? They are all things with no real value, and not always with exceptional aesthetic value either (for example, long-range three-point shots). The point there—and this is probably a significant part of what draws humanity to it—is the maximal exertion and determined striving for the greatest possible improvement. Winning at the Olympics is only the indication of the level of investment and determination and perfectionism and strategic thinking etc. etc., all the other wonderful traits that elite athletes are committed to refining.
Therefore, once the goal is defined and everyone competes over it, achieving that arbitrary goal becomes proof and a symbol of excellence and diligence and commitment etc. And in that sense, even a secular person or a non-Jew can appreciate Rabbi Kanievsky’s athleticism in his own field, because certainly achieving such Torah mastery is no less than weightlifting or fast cycling.
The moment there is competition among many people over something, however silly it may be, achieving it is the fullest expression of the sporting spirit—that is to say, evaluating the process independently of the importance of the result in itself.
Of course the processes matter in order to achieve other results that do have importance in themselves, but in a certain sense in sport one chooses an arbitrary result in order to focus the effort and create a ruler for measuring the processes.
What do you think? (Right? Trivial? A nice insight? Nonsense?)

The description is correct (like blockchain: you need a task that is hard to achieve, and that itself creates the value of the thing). But it is doubtful how many of the athletes know about Rabbi Kanievsky’s efforts and achievements. It seems to me they simply know that he was important to the Haredim.

Being important to the Haredim is exactly enough as proof of athletic greatness. He is important to the Haredim because he achieved something they long for and strive to achieve. And that means he found ways to maximize his abilities to the fullest. Above, you wrote about appreciation of the achievement in itself according to its essential value, and here there’s an additional little point: even if the achievement in itself is completely devoid of importance, there is still appreciation for an exceptional attainment of it if enough people are trying—and that is exactly the common appreciation for athletes, and who would know how to appreciate that better than they would?

And from my own flesh I know it: the best motivational books that influenced me to aspire to progress and exert myself (to some degree, according to my values, etc.) are biographies of great figures (Lithuanian yeshiva leaders, and Rabbi Ovadia) and athletes’ training videos on YouTube and reviews about them and the processes they went through. In both of these genres the same commitment and devotion and determined perfectionism stand out, and you can absorb a little of the spirit.

It’s like the esteem people have for Einstein, even though it seems likely that most of those who esteem him do not actually know his discoveries.

Tirgitz,
I said I agree with the argument. But if someone does not know that he has achievements (not that he does not understand the achievements) and only knows that he is prominent, then to the same extent he would appreciate a person utterly lacking in talent who made no effort at all but has achievements in public relations. That empties this appreciation of content a bit. But this really is not an important discussion, because it is entirely technical and in principle we agree.

Just Someone,
You do not need to understand the achievements, but you do need to know that they exist.

What athlete appreciates Einstein?
Usually these are creatures lacking understanding and education, obsessed with idolatry, amulets, and astrological signs. That’s why they honor religious figures.
And religious figures, for their part, can make a nice living thanks to these creatures.

Seemingly, even an achievement in public relations (which is something desirable and rare) is a certain kind of athletic achievement. After all, succeeding at getting public relations also requires no small amount of talent and maximizing it.

With Heaven’s help, 20 Adar II 5782

To Tirgitz—greetings,

In addition to what you rightly wrote about the parallel between athletes and great Torah scholars, in the striving to make full use of time and resources in order to reach the “summit”—

It is worth noting Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook’s words about the mutual complementarity of cultivating the body and cultivating the spirit:
“The exercise in which the young men of Israel engage in the Land of Israel, to strengthen their bodies in order to be strong sons for the nation, perfects the spiritual strength of the supreme righteous… for through the lofty intentions the individual soul rises, and through actions that strengthen the bodies of individuals for the sake of the collective, the outward spirituality rises. And both together perfect all the orders of holiness” (Orot, p. 80; Shemonah Kevatzim 1:516). These matters were explained at length in Rabbi Moshe Tzuriel’s article, “Physical Exercise and Matters of ‘Might’—What Was Rabbi Kook’s View on ‘Exercise’?”, on the Yeshiva website.

But beyond the mutual complementarity of those who cultivate the body and those who cultivate the spirit, we also find that spiritual people and great Torah scholars engaged in cultivating their physical fitness.

Rabbi Kook (as cited in that same article) brought a source for his words in Orot from Maimonides in Guide for the Perplexed 3:25: “For there are many things that are necessary or of great benefit… such as physical exercise of all kinds, which is necessary for maintaining health… such as playing with a ball, wrestling, moving the hands, holding the breath, and the like—these may appear to foolish people as mere play, but to the wise they are not play!”

Dr. Aharon Arend (in his article “Physical Culture in Confrontation with Jewish Law,” Daf LeTarbut Yehudit, issue 272) brings several great Torah figures who engaged in physical activity to strengthen their health. Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky was an outstanding swimmer during his years of study at the Lomza yeshiva; Rabbi Amram Korach, rabbi of Sana’a, would run in the hills near the city in order to cultivate his health; Rabbi Yosef Yozel of Novardok and Rabbi Aharon Walkin (author of Zekan Aharon) used to wrestle for the sake of health (Rabbi Kook, who lived with them in Riga, testified to this); and Rabbi Shlomo Goren would do 50 push-ups every day (a kind of “fitness” for the rabbinate 🙂

Since Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky was among the students of Lomza and Novardok, perhaps he too engaged in physical activity, and perhaps that is what helped him live a long life. In any case, one of his friends, Rabbi Rafael Halperin, who was close to the Chazon Ish, went “one step further” and also excelled in competitive sports, and won the encouragement of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, who told him: “We have many rabbis, but mighty men—and especially a mighty man who is a Torah scholar—we do not have.” Later Rabbi Rafael also translated his strength into his monumental work Atlas Etz Chaim – For the Great Sages of Israel (nicknamed: “the karate atlas” 🙂

Best regards, Badan Bar-Manoach Tzallelafonitovsky