A view of billboards on a building with pictures of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and head of the Shas Party Aryeh Deri, as part of the election campaign, in the northern Israeli city of Tzfat on Aug. 20, 2019. Photo: David Cohen/Flash90.

i24 News – Prominent Israeli ultra-Orthodox rabbi, Chaim Kanievsky, died Friday at 94.

He was determined dead after being treated by emergency medical services at his home in Bnei Brak.

Kanievsky’s funeral will take place on Sunday, expected to be the largest funeral event in Israeli history, according to Channel 12. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend.

Along with Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, he was considered one of the two leaders of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian stream of ultra-Orthodoxy, with hundreds of thousands of followers.

Several months ago, he ruled that children over the age of five should be vaccinated against Covid, bolstering vaccination in the ultra-Orthodox communities. In 2020, Kanievsky tested positive for Covid himself.

He also ruled in 2017 that reporting instances of sexual abuse to police is consistent with Jewish law.

Israeli politicians came forward with statements shortly after his death. President Isaac Herzog said his “love of the Torah, his modesty, his humility and his spiritual leadership will be missing for the yeshiva world and the entire people of Israel,” according to Haaretz.

A statement from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett noted he “always made sure to receive every person with an open heart and lightheartedness.”

Opposition leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the people of Israel have lost a huge scholar who was a key link in the chain of Torah transmission from generation to generation,” Haaretz reported.