Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky (; January 8, 1928 – March 18, 2022) was an Israeli Haredi rabbi and posek. He was a leading authority in Haredi Jewish society on legal and ethical practice. Known as the "Prince of Torah", much of his prominence came through Torah education and advice about Jewish law. Though Kanievsky held no formal community-wide post, he was the de facto head of the Lithuanian branch of Haredi Judaism, revered as a consummate scholar of Jewish law and tradition, with unimpeachable rulings. Early life Chaim Kanievsky was born in Pinsk, Poland (now in Belarus), to Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known as the "Steipler Gaon", and Miriam Karelitz (Pesha Miriam: Pesha was added), sister of Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, known as the "Chazon Ish". When Kanievsky was six years old, the family moved to Mandatory Palestine. After his aliyah (immigration to the Land of Israel), he never left the country, even briefly. He worked hard learning Torah in his youth and was able to elucidate complicated rabbinic teachings as a young adult. During the 1947–1949 Palestine war, Rav Chaim, then a student at the Lomza Yeshiva, served in the Israel Defense Forces, guarding an outpost overlooking Jaffa. Rabbinic career Kanievsky became a major authority on all matters of Jewish law, authoring several books about Jewish legal writings. Kanievsky was the official rabbi and spiritual guide for Belev Echad, founded in Israel in 2011 as a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting sick and disabled children and adults. Kanievsky's father gave him explicit instructions to devote his time exclusively to learning, and not to giving shiurim (lectures), and he followed this directive. The only known exception was in the year after his father's death, when he would give a complex shiur in Jerusalem Talmud in his father's memory. He stopped immediately thereafter, claiming it took away time from learning. The amount of time it took him to prepare each lecture was five minutes. Starting around 2010, some controversy arose as to who would take over the reins of control from the aging founder and director of Bnei Brak's Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center, . Historically, the hospital had been managed by three distinct groups: A board of directors, an association of rabbis and public servants, and most influential of all, the "Halakhic Supervision Committee", a rabbinical committee consisting of Shmuel Wosner, Nissim Karelitz and Yitzchok Zilberstein, with Yisrael Rand, a confidant of Aharon