Last week, a photo surfaced in the frum online media, with claims that it is a rare picture of the Chofetz Chaim.
Not so fast, says one grandson of the Chofetz Chaim.
In an interview with Kol Mevaser in Yiddish reported by Hefket Velt, Rav Yisrael Meir Zaks, a grandson formerly of Brooklyn and now living in New Jersey, said that he discussed the photo with his extended family both in the United States and Israel, and the consensus is that it is not the Chofetz Chaim.
“Perhaps it is the Rogatchover Gaon in the picture,” said Reb Yisroel Meir.
He added that the kasketel (hat) in the picture is higher than the one that the Chofetz Chaim actually wore, and he has that kasketel in his possession.
The interviewer said that he spoke to a talmid of the Chofetz Chaim in Lakewood, R’ Menashe Winkler, who saw the Chofetz Chaim two weeks before his petirah, and R’ Menashe said that the photo looks like the Chofetz Chaim, but at a younger age, not the way he saw him.
{Matzav.com}
Agreed
The picture is of the C C when he visited n y in 1904/5. He wanted to live here. Xh
With all due respect to Rav Yisroel Meir Zaks, he is named after the Chofetz Chayim and therefore knows how he looked the same way you and I know how he looked.
yup the same goes for the Chofetz chaims daughter from the second marriage. when she discussed pictures of the chofetz chaim. he would have been an older man and she wouldn’t necessarily recognize a younger chofetz chaim.
It is bashert that there are no confirmed pictures of the chofetz chaim. Retzon yereav yaaseh
There certainly are multiple confirmed photos, plus a video.
Where do you get your information from?
It is certainly NOT the Rogetchover. The pay is and the beard does not match.
(Note, the above wasn’t the only rav wearing a cap/kasket’..)
Also, the ‘kasket’ might have been from a younger era and thus diff…
I’m not an Einikel and I can tell you it’s not the Chofetz chaim
Also one doesn’t need to be an Einikel of the Chofetz Chaim to guess it might be the Rogatchover
I can tell you it’s definitely not the Rogatchover
Realize many ordinary yidden of that era and those areas dressed just that way
Check out many Chabad Chasidim continued on wearing the Kasket all their life even after they left Russia
actually it was 2 weeks ago not last week, let’s just disect every part of this tory why not
Note:
The Chofetz Chaim ZT”L, would not have his arms ,elbows on a table with food = SHULCHON
I have a question, please someone correct me if I’m totally wrong.
In the picture the wine bottles look like they have screw-on caps. I thought they weren’t common yet in that era. Anyone else able to scrutinize the objects in the picture for wrong era?
I did a web search showing the jar screw cap was patented in 1858, but the bottle screw itself was patented 10th August 1889 in the U.K. for whiskey. I could not find a reference to its first use on wine. but the the whiskey web site gives 1913 for whiskey, with a major distillery adopting it in 1926.
There certainly are many confirmed pictures of the Chofetz Chaim; I can think of five right now. This picture is almost certainly the Chofetz Chaim, as anyone who studies pictures and knows how he looked can attest. It is most certainly NOT the Rogertchover, who did not look anything like this (a few pictures of the Rogertchaver, who passed in 1936, exist). And once I’m on this topic, the famous passport picture of the Chofetz Chaim certainly IS HIM (as can be readily seen by carefully comparing it with the others), though that too has been disputed by some of the Zaks grandchildren (who never saw their grandfather). The greatest proof of this is the fact that that very picture appeared in all the frum newspapers in Poland the day after the Chofetz Chaim was niftar (in 1933)! The people living then knew what he looked like.
How about posting the Chofetz Chaim’s passport picture and we’ll see if it’s similar. Whoever this is, it is definitely not the Rogatchover Gaon.
דער אייניקעל איז גערעכט
דאס איז ניט ר’ ישראל מאיר הכהן מראדין ז”ל
Wow. We’ve got a major controversy over here. Let’s get the top historical investigators working on this case. Is that a bottle of wine on the table? In middle of the week? Is it mivushal?
With all due respect, the ainiklach of the Chofetz Chaim have a habit and a history of disputing anything that others say about their grandfather.
Well mr heartstone , Im sure he heard stories from his mother directly which is the Daughter of the chofetz Chaim,so if something is Disputed it is because he heard it from his mother or father, and they actually lived with chofetz Chaim.
I’m just as sure as you that he heard stories from his mother directly.
But that gives him a very limited amount of knowledge, no way near the amount that he would need to have in order to dispute anything that others who knew his grandfather attested to.
I know many things about my father, but if someone tells me a story about my father, can I say that it’s not true because I never heard about it?
First of all his mother or grandmother who wasn’t born until the CC was almost seventy is not a more a reliable source on what the CC said or did than a close Talmid who learned by him for a few years. In fact according to Rav Michal Shurkin in Meged Givos Olam his father who was a close talmid of the CC said that among the talmidim of the CC the sefer about the CC written by Rav Yisroel Meir Yosher was considered more reliable than the sefer Dugma L’Abba written by the son of the CC (Rav Leib) because Dugma L’Abba has a lot of conjecture whereas Rav Yisroel Meir Yosher only wrote what he saw and heard as a close Talmid.
Secondly it is a svacher proof is it that it isn’t the CC because he wore he a different style kasket . How do you know he never wore a different one?
The Shulchan Aruch (E.H. 17:24) paskens that even very unique items that are found on
a dead body, cannot serve to identify the body for a hetter aguna. There is a question is he was found wearing ALL clothing of a dead person is it a siman of having been the dead person but everyone agrees that wearing SOME clothing of a dead person doesn’t prove identity because the clothing could have been borrowed. And in this case you don’t even know the CC never wore a different kasket.
This is no aguna shaalo and anyway after 9/11 there was at least one aguna who got a hetter based on bones found in pants of a dead person (along with DNA testing) because business people don’t lend out their pants after they get to work. The CC also probably did not borrow other people’s kasketts.
I agree that he may have worn a different kaskett with a different style at a different time so kaskett style doesn’t prove it was someone else..
C&C is not bad for an off brand soda. I remember as a kid drinking cans of their black cherry flavor. 25 cents in the Yeshivas soda machine. Every now and then the machine would jam and 2 sodas would come out for the price of one. I was a little kid at the time. Ah, times were a lot simpler back then. I hope I’m not going to burn over that.