He received four semichas: from Rabbi Serayah Deblitzky, a student of the Chazon Ish; Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, former Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel; Rabbi Betzalel Zolty, Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Jerusalem; and Rabbi Elazar Shach, a rosh yeshiva at the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Israel.
The Chazon Ish, a noted Hareidi halachic authority who issued key rulings on Jewish agricultural law (mitzvos tlu'os ba'aretz)in the 1930s and 1940s, ruled like the Mabit, holding that produce grown on land in Israel owned by non-Jews has sanctity.
The character of Reb Avraham-Shaye the Kosover is very closely based on Reb Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz from Kosova, commonly known as the Chazon Ish.