Newsflash - Rav Chaim Kanievsky Does NOT Know When Moshiach is Coming!

I was happy to just see at an Israeli website that a son in law of מרן שר התורה שליט"א, Rav Yitzchak Kolodetsky shlit"a issued a statement that Rav Chaim (like גדולי גדולים מדורי דורות before him) doesn't know exactly, for certain, when Moshiach is coming.

That came in wake of a widely disseminated recent dubious report, allegedly in the gaon's name, that Moshiach would come before the approaching Israeli election (scheduled for less than two months from now אי"ה).

Rav Kolodetsky explained that Rav Chaim, as other גדולי ישראל, when asked about something beyond the immediate future might remark, in a hopeful vein, that משיח will have already arrived by then. However, that is not a concrete prediction, but rather an expression of hope and deep yearning for, and belief in, ביאת המשיח. Rav Chaim is not a נביא (prophet), his son in law said. He additionally shared that רב חיים שליט"א himself regularly states that only a נביא can say exactly when Moshiach will come.

This is not the first instance of this nature in which questionable things publicized in the gaon's name, were actually inaccurate. Instances which debase the name and reputation of מרן שר התורה שליט"א, and כבוד התורה in general.

People who act irresponsibly in disseminating such things are עתידים ליתן את הדין.

May we be zoche to the fulfillment of the words in Tehillim, תאלמנה שפתי שקר.