The following year, he married Channa (1908–1941), daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Zev Dzikansky, with whom he had three children, Chaim (1932–1941), Avigdor (1935–1941), and Shoshana.
His students relate how on occasion, Rabbi Rabinowitz would leave the yeshiva thinking over a particular Talmudic concept, and became so engrossed that he was unaware that he had walked all the way out of the town's boundaries.
His complete knowledge and understanding of the requirements of mitzvot, would never impel him to render halachic decisions for others, because he did not want to assume such a great responsibility.
Rabbi Rabinowitz organized lectures in his own home to assist students who were finding the transition from the mechina (preparatory school), to the yeshiva proper, a difficult one.
On Tuesday, 15 July (20 Tammuz) 1941, Nazi forces and local Lithuanian sympathizers massacred the male population of Telz, including Rabbi Azriel Rabinowitz and the faculty of the Telshe yeshiva.