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Dec 18, 2016

iconic glasses of Chazon Ish up for auction

I just discovered an online auction site for rare Judaica items that I had not heard of before. It is called Jerusalem of Gold and most of the items on their website up for auction are rare manuscripts or letters from Rabbis of previous generations, but I did spot a few other items that are interesting.

The site came to my attention from an article on NRG about a pair of glasses worn by the Chazon Ish - his "Shabbos glasses". Once I went to the site, I looked around and found a few other interesting items, the pocket-watch of Rav Elya Lopian, among other things such as artwork, silverware owned by the Rebbe of Boyan, a dollar and matza given by the Lubavitcher Rebbe (starting bid $770), and more.

The story of these Shabbos glasses is that they were made to fit very tightly on the face of the Chazon Ish so that he would not have any concerns about walking outside while wearing them. It seems they considered, and his talmidim still do, the bending of the earpiece to surround the ear tighter to turn the eyeglasses into something considered a "begged" - a garment - and thus wearable on Shabbos for even the most stringent opinions..

Supposedly the person selling them received them from his father who received them from the Chazon Ish himself. He was a poor person and needed glasses. The Chazon Ish offered him these glasses saying that "today is only Wednesday and I have a few days to get new glasses for Shabbos, which is plenty of time. Take these Shabbos glasses as a present and I'll be fine"

The starting bid on the glasses is $2000.





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2 comments:

  1. "Supposedly the person selling them received them from his father who received them from the Chazon Ish himself. He was a poor person and needed glasses. The Chazon Ish offered him these glasses saying that "today is only Wednesday and I have a few days to get new glasses for Shabbos, which is plenty of time. Take these Shabbos glasses as a present and I'll be
    fine" Where did you hear this part of the story?

    ReplyDelete
  2. it is in the NRG article linked to above. as well, it was included in the various articles I saw written about this both online and offline since this originally went up, but it is possible they all took it from this same source...

    ReplyDelete

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