Rav Elyashiv was the son of Rav Avraham Elyashiv of Gomel, Belarus, and Chaya Musha, daughter of the kabbalist Rav Shlomo Elyashiv of Šiauliai, Lithuania. Born in 1910 at Šiauliai, Yosef Shalom Elyashiv arrived with his parents in Mandatory Palestine in 1922, aged 12. He was an only child, born to his parents after 17 years of marriage. At the suggestion of Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Rav Abraham Isaac Kook, Yosef Shalom married Sheina Chaya, a daughter of Rav Aryeh Levin. Rav Kook also conducted the wedding. The couple had five sons and seven daughters. Six of their daughters married significant Rabbinic figures. During Rav Elyashiv's lifetime, six of his children died. Two died in their youth: a son who died of illness as a child, and a daughter killed by Jordanian shelling in 1948. Four other children died over the course of his lifetime. At the time of his death, he had approximately 1,400 descendants, including two sixth-generation descendants. He had seen the beginning of a sixth generation in 2009, when a grandson was born to one of his great-grandchildren.
In contrast to his later positions vis a vis the State of Israel, Rav Elyashiv began his Rabbinic career as a judge in the government's religious court system, and was a protégé of Israel's Ashkenazichief rabbi, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. In the early 1970s, he left the state court system. In 1989, upon the establishment of the religious political party Degel HaTorah, its spiritual leader Rav Elazar Shach asked Rav Elyashiv to join in the public leadership, and he acceded to his request. He came to the major public gatherings of Degel HaTorah, currently part of the umbrella United Torah Judaism list in the Israeli Knesset, and shared in the task of rendering decisions. While Rav Elyashiv held no official title, neither as head of a congregation, yeshiva, or particular community, after the death of Rav Shach he took his position and held great influence over the policies of the party, which abided by all his rulings and instructions. Most rosh yeshivas associated with the Agudath Israel of America movement frequently sought out his opinions and followed his advice and guidelines concerning a wide array of policy and communal issues affecting the welfare of Orthodox Judaism. Time referred to Rav Elyashiv as the predecessor of Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman as Gadol Hador. Yossi Elituv, editor of the influential ultra-Orthodox paper Mishpacha, remarked: "Rav Elyashiv will be remembered as the ultimate assiduous yeshiva scholar of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He was not seen as a political leader or as the head of group or party. He was a man who made Torah study his entire life, and this will remain an inspiration."
Published works
The Halakhic rulings and sermonic insights of Rav Elyashiv have been recorded in several books. The 4 volume Kovetz Teshuvos Elyashiv contains responsa resulting from questions asked of him over many years. Many of his ethical and sermonic comments on the Torah, most dating from the 1950s, were collected and published as Divrei Aggadah. A Haggadah for Pesach including his comments and Halachic rulings was recently printed. Another work that includes his Halakhic rulings is titled "Yashiv Moshe". His Talmudic insights were printed in the 18 volume series of Haoros and more recently Shiurei Maran Hagrish Elyashiv on Tractate Berachot and the following books: "Pniney Tefila"' "Pniney Chanuka" and "Pniney Nisuin". These works were not written by Rav Elyashiv, but compiled by his relatives and students; the "Pniney" series was published by Rabbi Bentzion Kook.
