R. Elazar Menachem Man Shach (1899-2001) was one of three roshei yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, along with R. Shmuel Rozovsky and R. Dovid Povarsky. Rav Shach’s relationship with the Chabad movement is well known, and his criticism of Chabad and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, R. Menachem Mendel Schenersohn, was intense. Rav Shach accused the Lubavitcher Rebbe of being a false messiah and compared his chassidim with the followers of Sabbatai Tzvi, the 17th century false messiah.
What is less known, though, is the relationship of R. Shach’s predecessor, the founder of the Ponovezh Yeshiva, R. Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886–1969), with Chabad and his connection to the Rayatz, R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the 6th rebbe of Chabad. A letter I sold this week sheds light on a time when Ponovezh and Chabad were on friendly terms. Penned by R. Shlomo Yosef Zevin (1888-1978), best known as the founder of the Encyclopedia Talmudit, the letter was written to Rav Kahanemann shortly after the passing of the Rayatz in 1950. Noting that they were organizing hespedim, eulogies for the recently departed Lubavitcher Rebbe in Jerusalem’s synagogue Zichon Moshe, R. Zevin requested Rav Kahaneman’s presence at the event and for him to be one of the eulogizers. In the letter, he notes that R. Isser Zalman Meltzer, Rav Zalman Sorotzkin and the Gaon of Tchebin were going to be giving over eulogies as well.
Rav Zevin notes in his letter that R. Kahaneman had recently met the Rayatz during his visit to the United States a year prior and will surely agree to come to the event and eulogize. While I wasn’t able to find confirmation as to his appearance at the event, it is worth noting that R. Kahaneman kept a relationship with the Rayatz’s successor, R. Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, and there are records of their meeting and friendship until the passing of the Ponovezher Rav, in 1969.
