I can't read the article, b/c it's a 'premium' article, so I don't know what it said. What I will say, is that as I told my wife, that with all the strength that he was blessed w/ by Hashem, he didn't live up to the name that he was given: Yosef Shalom - Adding of peace (will) El-Yashiv - bring (people) back to G-d. Unfortunately, under his leadership, as a nation, in many ways, we are now a more divided and fractured people with more hatred for one another. Imagine what could've happened if he had been working towards that goal. Chaval.

"The problem is that the haredi community does not want to find a way to move in line with the general public. "

I hardly think this is true anymore. Aside from the burgeoning populations at charedi technical colleges and the success of charedi call centers and companies like CityBook in Kiryat Sefer, this statement might be what charedim keep telling themselves, but it's not reflected in what they are actually spending or how they are really living their lives. I read this great article in Globes this weekend that pegs charedi consumer power at 10.5 billion shekel a year. This isn't a population that is holding itself apart from anyone else.
http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000767275

I think the opposite: The charedim are finally developing a middle class and RE fought hard to prevent that.

I haven't read the Pfeffer piece, but my problem with Rav Eliashiv that he wasn't grappling with the real problems his community faced, in terms of poverty and child abuse and molestation. Throughout our mesora, it's well accepted that a leader is not only someone who's learned, even brilliant, but also someone who can help Jews with their actual world problems. There are numerous examples of poskim going out of their way to help Jews in real trouble. I don't get the impression that that was Rav Eliashiv's major goal. To me, it seemed to protect Torah at all costs, even human. But this impression is admittedly doesn't come from a deep knowledge of all of his piskei halacha.

the article also mentions people joining the workforce in greater numbers. that is true, as are your points. However as a gadol, as a spiritual leader, even those joining the workforce arent looking for a gadol who is flexible and looking to change the haredi community.
people have their own personal rabbonim they ask their questions to, and personal rabbonim are generally flexible. eve th inflexible gedolim can be flexible on an individual level.

But as a community, the haredi community is not looking for that type of a leader.

If they were, they would just join the Modern orthodox community.

Well guess what? The majority of Jewish life up until about a 100 years ago looked more like Modern Orthodox life than modern charedi life, in that no one ever questioned the concept of working and living a Torah life. So what you're saying is that the charedi world wanted and needed a gadol that would create and uphold this false conception of Judaism which many would promptly disregard in their own personal lives, because the ideal simply makes no sense. Those that chose to uphold it would suffer needlessly. Just so they won't be Modern Orthodox.

no argument, Abbi. but that is all besides the point.
I am just saying that saying he left an empty legacy is only looking at his life and leadership in the way that you (not you, but Anshel Pfeffer) would have liked him to have lived it. To the community he led, he left a tremendous legacy. So he didnt live up to Anshel Pfeffers hopes and expectations...

Shalom Eliashiv was a leader to litaim charedim, no daudt! But, Stalin, Fidel, Che Guevara were leaders.
He was not gadol, he was kattan. He incresead the gap among charedim and datim leumin and chilonim, put his comunity in a shtteitl (guetto) and was intollerant to fight with Shlomo Goren.
He no have capacity to understanding the present time and recongnize the miracle of Hashem to give Medinat Israel to iechudim.
Opposite to Pirkei Avot, don´t incentive his kachal to earn the life.
He Supported rabbies that invalidated conversion.
The charedim think that he was goog for them. But, he was good to Am Israel?
When ignorant rabbies caret yechudim that conversion in spanish inquisition, Rambam writed a igeret protected them. Rambam was example of gadol hador.

The following is not a criticism, but rather a sober perspective.

Rav Elyashiv was a very, very great man.
An astonishing masmid and an astonishingly focused learner of Torah, with a dedication that all of us should be absolutely in awe of.

However, he was not a leader and never wanted to be.

He was thrust into that position by the power-hungry jackals who surrounded him, took advantage of his isolation from human contact and the outside world, and used him towards their own ends.

If you say that there was leagcy, what was it, other than "No Change!"?

In his capacity as "leader" and "Posek Hador" where are the teshuvos that will be studied for generations, complete with stunning creativity in their logic and boldness in their innovation?

Where are the writings or the speeches that demonstrate sustained arguments and a mastery of some contemporary issue, be it social policy, a medical issue, a technical issue, or any other thing that is unique to the modern world and requires an informed response?

Of course, the answer is that there is none of the above.

That is not a criticism, though, for it is certain that the Rav never took an interest in any of these things and was only maed a leader in order to satisfy those who wished to use him towards their own ends.

His legacy is one thing and one thing only: An unbelievable masmid and genius who cared about nothing other than Torah and Avodas HASHEM.

However, he was not a leader and is not responsible for ANYTHING in the Charedi world or any other society, neither the bad (contra Anshel Pfefer) nor the good.

I think Shlomo's comments makes the most sense to me, and accords with what I have heard elsewhere. I also think Rafi's initial point is valid, i.e., that the writer from HaHaretz is judging Rav Elyshiva from an outside point of view that has no meaning for the world in which Rav Elyshiva lived and functioned.

But I would be curious to see a more positive portrayal of Rav Elyashiv's legacy from somebody that can view that legacy in a more appropriate context.

The am Israel has study Torah to live and not live to study Torah.
Shalom Eliashiv was inapacity to understand the Torah. A false rabbie.

Baruch:
I thought I answered that: His legacy was single-minded dedication to Torah Study, to the exclusion of all else.

He was a figure of mythic proportion in that regard.

he was a unique level of a savant in that regard. far beyond what is normal for even top scholars.

Mishpacha Magazine (in Hebrew) had a whole section this past weekend devoted to R' Elyashiv. One article dealt with R' Elyashiv's unbelievable hasmada in learning and had some stories which demonstrated his unbelievable hasmada.

Here are 2 stories from the article:
1. "When R' Chaim Kanievsky was a young Avrech, his wife, Batsheva Kanievsky [R' Elyashiv's oldest daughter], complained to him that he didn't learn the same way that she saw in her [father's] house. There is no need to say that the Grach even then was one of the biggest masmidim of his generation and learned day and night. Even so, the Rabbanit said "You recognize the children and can identify each child by name. By us, when we were little children it was patently clear to everyone in the house that father [R' Elyashiv] due to his tremendous diligence in learning didn't recognize us and didn't know our names"

2. "R Yosef Shalom was not involved at all in the running of the house. He didn't receive a salary from anywhere he didn't preside over the Shabbos table and he had no idea where the money came from.
...
The lack [of material goods, money] was so terrible that it literally became life threatening, one of the daughters was hospitalized because of malnutrition and almost died."

What are we supposed to take away from these stories? These stories are so far removed from any semblance of normal life (even the life of other Gedolim portrayed in Artscroll hagiographies) how can we relate to them? Is this the level of commitment to learning that Hashem expects from us not to recognize our children?

In Pfeffer's book its an 'empty legacy'; his own will be nonexistent - at least where it really matters...