A Rare Glimpse: Rav Elyashiv’s Extraordinary Shabbat Routine

Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (1910–2012) was one of the greatest halachic authorities of the modern era. Across more than a century of life, he became known for extraordinary diligence and total devotion to Torah study.

His son-in-law, the gaon Rabbi Binyamin Rimmer, once described what Shabbat looked like in Rav Elyashiv’s home in an interview with Rabbi Yaakov Lustigman of Dirshu.

On Friday, like every other day, Rav Elyashiv would rise in the very early hours of the night. He would learn until vatikin, pray, eat a simple breakfast of bread, and then continue learning until late morning.

Afterward he would return home briefly to prepare for Shabbat. By noon he was already fully ready for the holy day. From there he would go to the beit midrash and learn continuously until just a few minutes before candle lighting time. In the summer this meant nearly seven uninterrupted hours of Torah study.

At that stage of his life Rav Elyashiv had already been widowed. Before Shabbat began he would return home, light the Shabbat candles himself, and then hurry back to the synagogue.

After Maariv he would come home for Kiddush and the Friday night meal, which lasted about an hour. When the meal ended, he would sit and learn again before going to sleep for a short time around ten o’clock.

Learning Through the Night

Shabbat night was actually shorter for Rav Elyashiv than a regular night during the week. Around 1:30 in the morning he was already awake again.

He would sit in the living room and learn until Shacharit at seven in the morning.

Rabbi Rimmer explains that Rav Elyashiv’s learning was unlike anything ordinary people could imagine.

Most people become tired after learning for an hour or two. They need effort and discipline to keep going.

With Rav Elyashiv it was the opposite. The longer he learned, the more energized he became.

After two hours he would already be learning aloud with excitement. After three hours he was learning with tremendous enthusiasm, like a lion rising to action. Throughout the night his voice would fill the home as he continued learning with growing intensity until dawn.

A Day Completely Filled With Torah

After Shacharit, around nine or nine thirty in the morning, Rav Elyashiv would return home for the daytime Shabbat meal. The meal lasted about an hour.

By ten thirty he had already finished and would sleep briefly for about an hour.

At eleven thirty he returned to the beit midrash and learned continuously until five in the afternoon.

He then delivered his regular shiur, continued learning until seudah shlishit, and only paused briefly for Mincha.

Even after such a full Shabbat of learning, Rav Elyashiv felt he had not learned enough.

When people wished to visit him on Motzaei Shabbat to ask questions or receive blessings, he would sometimes refuse because he felt he still needed to make up for lost learning time.

An Inspiration to Others

Rabbi Rimmer once described Rav Elyashiv’s Shabbat schedule to a leading rosh yeshiva. Years later he met the mashgiach Rabbi Dov Yaffe, who greeted him warmly and thanked him.

Rabbi Rimmer was surprised. He could not recall doing anything that required thanks.

Rabbi Dov Yaffe explained.

After hearing about Rav Elyashiv’s Shabbat routine, he said to himself that if Rav Elyashiv could learn so many hours on Shabbat, he too should try to increase his own learning.

From that time onward he added several more hours of Torah study every Shabbat.

This was particularly remarkable because Rabbi Dov Yaffe was already elderly and had spent his entire life immersed in Torah. Yet even then he strengthened himself to learn even more.

The Young Avrech in Meah Shearim

Rabbi Rimmer once heard from a man who remembered Rav Elyashiv sixty years earlier, when he was a young scholar living in Jerusalem.

As a child, the man would walk every Shabbat afternoon through the quiet streets of Meah Shearim to visit his grandmother. At that time most people had already finished their Shabbat meal and gone home to rest.

But from the windows of the Ohel Sarah beit midrash a single voice could be heard learning Torah out loud.

His grandmother would tell him to go inside and see the young man learning with such intensity.

That young man was Rav Elyashiv.

Even though he already had a large family at home, nothing stopped him from sitting in the beit midrash and learning with complete focus.

Even on Erev Pesach

Another witness described walking through Meah Shearim on the afternoon of Erev Pesach.

Everyone was busy preparing for the Seder.

Yet from inside the Ohel Sarah beit midrash he heard someone learning aloud with great diligence.

Curious, he stepped inside, assuming it must be a young yeshiva student with no family responsibilities.

Instead he found Rav Elyashiv, then a young avrech with a home and children, completely absorbed in learning as if nothing else in the world existed.

A Home Built Around Torah

People often praised Rebbetzin Elyashiv for allowing her husband to learn without interruption.

She would always respond modestly.

All she did, she said, was avoid getting in his way. The longing and devotion to Torah came entirely from him.

When a person truly wants something with all his heart, she explained, nothing can stand in the way. Rav Elyashiv desired Torah more than anything else in the world.

A Multi-Million Dollar Deal

One wealthy supporter of Torah once explained why he rarely visited Rav Elyashiv during the week.

When he himself was negotiating a deal worth millions, he said, he would be completely absorbed in the work. No one could distract him.

For Rav Elyashiv, Torah study was like a multi-million dollar deal.

Every word was priceless. Every moment of learning was worth more than any wealth.

How could anyone interrupt him in the middle of such important work?