Lecture 6: Stories Told by the Rav (This lecture is derived from a series of 3 lectures given a few years ago at the Gruss Kollel in Jerusalem. This and other similar material will be in a forthcoming book from Rabbi Rakefet and his student Rabbi Joseph Epstein) As far as I know, no-one in the world has yet called attention to this aspect of the Rav's teaching: stories he told. In his hesped for Reb Chaim Heller, he said that when Rav Heller spoke of the Taz, the Beit Yosef, and other sages, it was as if they stood before you in the room, alive. The Rav had a similar storytelling ability. Of course his stories were not like Chasidic tales: they were Litvish, with no miracles. _____ Growing up In 1978, the Rav talked about why he loved America so much, and celebrated Thanksgiving. When he was a child in Poland, they were very poor. His father earned about 18 zlotys (18 dollars) a week as a rabbi in Koslowice. He had one pair of pants, and they were always ripped. His mother promised him a new pair for Pesach, but by the time Pesach came, they had no money to spare, so his mother sewed up the pants yet again. He wanted a ball, much like American kids want a bicycle, but they couldn't even afford a ball, so he had some paper and some glue, and put them together, and made a ball. _____ Rabbi Israel Klavan told a story in 1979: During the Yom Kippur war, all of UJA's money was going to the war effort, and the Yeshiva was suffering. So they put together a committee to go to the Joint Distribution Committee of the UJA, the Reform and Conservative leaders, to convince them of their need. The committee had Reb Moshe Feinstein, as the senior rabbi, and also the Rav, who spoke English well. The Rav said: Gentlemen, I owe the JDC a great debt of gratitude. In World War I, I walked past a yeshiva in Poland, and heard the kids singing, "Gott zu danken Uncle Sam." Why? Because of the sacks of cocoa that the JDC had sent. That was the first time I ever had chocolate milk, was from that cocoa. When I was a kid, I thought all Gemaras were old and ripped, with pages falling out. Once we went to visit my uncle Velvel, the Brisker Rav. At some point, he sent me into the next room to fetch a Gemara. I went, and couldn't believe my eyes: new Gemaras, freshly printed, clean, whole. I looked in the flyleaf, and there it said, "Presented to the Rabbis of Eastern Europe by the Joint Distribution Committee." Ever since then, I have wanted to thank you for showing me that there could be new Gemaras. After that, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. One of the JDC men pulled out a gold pen, and said, "Whatever you want, Rabbi, we'll give it to you." _____ In the Israeli courts nowadays, the old enmities between the Ashkenazim and Sephardim, between the Mitnagdim and the Chasidim are being played out. It makes me cry to see this happening. I'm not going to go into it. The Rav tells that when he was a child living in Warsaw, his family lived in the poor section, with the Chasidim who were generally poor. He would see the water carriers, Jewish coolies, walking along. These were so strong, so dedicated to their work, that they were like walking closets: a closet of water with feet sticking out. But you would see the same water carrier on Shabbat, he is 6'3" and proud, 6'6" in his spodik, full of the dignity and sanctity of the Chasidic life. The Rav lived 3 doors down from the Modzitzer shtibl. He would walk past them on motzei Shabbat, hearing them singing and dancing far into the night. Once he poked his head in and asked, "Ven davent maariv?" (When will you daven maariv?). One of the Chasidim answered, "Yingele, zu bants der vach?" (Young man, do you really long for the week?) The Chasidic lifestyle is full of joy, dignity and sanctity, a quality which we lack. _____ At his yahrzeit shiur in 1972, he described how his father would give public shiurim in Koslowice, attended by 1000 people. Many of these were poor, uneducated Chasidim and others, who understood perhaps the first 10 minutes of the shiur. But they stood for two hours in rapt attention to the drasha. Thus they demonstrated their yirah and kavod to the Torah. There are two mitzvot regarding Torah study: limud Torah and also being close to Torah. _____ When the Rav was 15, he was honored to lein Shir haShirim, with Rabbi Simcha Zelig Rieger, the dayan of (Brisk?), and his grandfather, Rabbi Chaim, standing by as gabbaim. One of them leaned over to him just before he started, and told him that "it doesn't matter whether or not you have a good voice, but you should be medayek (precise) with the trop (cantillation)." Such a burden to put on him, before these two great sages. But neither of them had to correct him even once. _____ Reb Chaim Soloveitchik Nowadays, with air travel, we don't bother to do this, but one time, Reb Chaim was traveling on a train, and wanted to hear the morning Torah reading, so he stopped off in Vilna [If El-Al wanted to make a killing, they would install a Sefer Torah on every plane, so nobody would have to miss a Torah reading]. He goes into a shul, they get to the reading, and the rabbi asks if anyone can lein for them. Long silence, until one guy says OK. He goes up to the desk, looks in the scroll, and shouts, "Oy! I can't read this! You didn't tell me there were no nekudot [vocalization]!" _____ One time, a Brisk yeshiva boy, who had become a Communist, was accused in an assassination plot against a Russian general. Reb Chaim went to great lengths, pulled strings, and had the whole congregation be mechalel Yom Kippur to bring money to shul so they could pay a bribe and free the boy. Another time, an apostate, a convert, who had remained close to the Jews, died, and many people wanted to send his family a telegram of sympathy. To this, Reb Chaim said NO! While the yeshiva boy may have been a bad Jew, he remained a Jew, and was worth saving. This other fellow was a meshumad, and was not worthy. _____ At one point, the Russian government declared that circumcision was wrong. The Jewish leadership held a conference, where they wanted to decide that an uncircumcised Jewish child was not part of the community, and could not receive a Jewish burial. R' Chaim Soloveitchik stood up and thundered at the gathering, "Show me where it says he is not a Jew!" Perhaps he cannot eat of the Passover sacrifice, and his parents are sinners while they haven't circumcised him, but we must consider him a Jew. After that, the proposal failed. _____ In 1979, at a lecture in memory of Tonya, the Rav told the following story. One cold, winter day in Brisk, Rav Chaim Zalman Lifshitz died. A poor, old woman died the same day. The Yoreh De'ah, 354:1, says that if a man and a woman die the same day, the woman must be buried first. The Chevra Kadisha wanted to bury R' Lifshitz first, since he was held in great esteem, and they started to prepare R' Lifshitz' body. Reb Chaim and R' Simcha Zelig Rieger heard about this, and they went down and hit the Chevra Kadisha members with canes until they started preparing the old woman's body. They kept the Chevra there until late at night burying first the woman, and then the rabbi. *---* In the early 70's, a donor gave a large sum conditioned upon the Rav giving a series of private talks on a variety of subjects. One talk was on the subject of marriage. He said, "You choose your own mates today, and look how you are. You have so many divorces. My grandmother, [the wife of R' Elyahu Pruzhaner] was playing with some friends one day, and her mother came and told her that she was engaged. She was 12 years old, Reb Elyahu was 15. They married a year later. They were the best marriage community." (paraphrased) _____ You all know that if it rains on the first night of Sukkot, you delay eating until the rain stops, unless you have a famished guest. One year, it rained, so the Soloveitchiks waited until midnight, gave up, ate something, and went to sleep. At 4 AM, his father woke him to go out and make kiddush, since the rain had stopped. The Rav's first reaction was a Halachic argument: if one is in pain, he need not run out to eat in the Sukkah. Not just complaining, but a Halachic argument. Brisker ideas To the Halachic Man, nothing is more disquieting than death. Death is the end of life, the end of the ability to express oneself halachically. Briskers never visit graves for this reason. One day, en route to his shiur, the Rav was being driven through Queens, and they passed some cemeteries. The Rav said, "My father is buried somewhere around here." The driver was surprised: he didn't know exactly? The Rav had only been to the cemetery twice, for the levayah and for the unveiling. _____ Rav Meir Berlin and Reb Chaim Soloveitchik were spending some time at a Baltic Sea resort. One morning, Rav Meir hears Reb Chaim go outside at about 5 AM. Rav Meir goes out, and finds Reb Chaim sitting on the terrace, depressed. He asked why. Reb Chaim said, (paraphrased) "Look at this beautiful sunset, this whole beautiful world. Isn't it a shame man has to die? So whenever Reb Chaim got depressed over death, he would learn Tohorot [Mishnaic laws dealing with ritual purity, which could be lost by contact with various death-related things]. Even in death is there Halacha. This would calm him down. _____ In the 1840's there arose the Mussar Movement, with Rav Yisrael Salanter and others. There was great opposition to Mussar, especially from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan in Grodno, and from Volozhin Yeshiva. In 1896, the Slabodka Yeshiva split in a revolt against Mussar. What's wrong with Mussar? Its main method is to frighten people to death to improve their attributes. The Halachic Man recoils from this. When Mussar changed later to an emphasis on bringing out how good man can be, then it was accepted. _____ Chabadniks are very concerned with the internal meaning of Shofar blowing, among other things. They run to the Mikveh before Shofar blowing, to bring themselves into a proper state. The Rav happened to be praying with a Chabadnik one year, and saw him crying. The Rav told him, "Why are you crying? You should be happy. You're doing a mitzvah." _____ Rav Moshe Soloveitchik on Havdalah: A Hasidic rebbe is slow and careful with the opening verses, as he is opening mystical spheres and worlds with them. Rav Moshe rushed through the opening verses, but was always careful with the brachot. _____ When Rav Elyahu Pruzhaner's 16-year-old daughter was dying, he asked the doctor at one point how much longer would she live. The doctor told him 20 minutes. He rushed out, put on his Rabbenu Tam tefillin, and came back to be with his daughter. Why? He was going to be an onen after she passed, and would be exempt from tefillin. _____ One time Rav (?) was in Volozhin on Shavuot, there was much dancing and merrymaking. A telegram comes, he looks at it briefly, and puts it in his pocket. After havdalah, two days later, he started sobbing: the telegram told him that his sister had died. The Halachic Man surrenders his individual emotional needs to halacha. _____ The Rav had a similar experience. Tonya died on the Fast of Esther, but the Rav forced himself to celebrate Purim fully. _____ Today there is a big argument between Wissenschaft des Judentums and Talmud Torah. A professor once came to the Rav and crowed that he'd found a manuscript which destroys tradition: a Gaonic manuscript which prohibits a priest from getting tumah from an insect (Kohen asar al tum'at sheretz), which tradition does not agree with. The Rav asked him, what do you think of Professor Y----? The man replied, he's an idiot, an amaaretz, etc., thus revealing his jealousy. The Rav said, "so too, this manuscript was written by an am haaretz" with a benevolent smile of victory. Boston The Rav gave a talk at Maimonides on 6 January 1957, after having visited an elementary school class and expressing admiration for the children. Someone asked him, "You've talked with the greats in Torah, yet you're impressed by schoolchildren learning Chumash?" He replied with a midrash: God experimented with other worlds before creating this one. Why? We know that humans must emulate God: as we see worlds destroyed, we must go further and rejoice at what we can build. Europe was a tragedy, but we can be happy that children are learning again. _____ In 1955 he said, "Every Sunday I give a shiur, and 300 people attend each one. But 20 years ago, there were not 5 people here who knew that Abaye and Rava had even existed." _____ In 1967, the Rav had hope that his wife would recover until Yom Kippur. On that Yom Kippur, he was holding the Torah, and gave it to a student to return to the Aron. The student placed it, and closed the door, but there must have been something wrong, as they heard it fall down inside the Aron. It was at that moment that he realized that Tonya would not make it. _____ A story from "On Repentance," p. 236. Rav Chaim of Volozhin was preparing for shiur. His wife went out, warning him not to let the soup boil. Someone came in, telling him that the Moshiach was about to arrive. He started bustling about, preparing for the great event. His wife came home, saying "Moshiach, so much for Moshiach, you let the soup boil over!" {This was somewhat garbled --ed.} _____ In Berachot, it says, "Potchim b'cavod acasiah": honor the institution. In 1975, the Rav gave a lecture at Lincoln Square Synagogue. "I am a poor rabbi, but a good teacher. Your rabbi was my student." The Rav would fume at another student in the class who knew 60 blatt by heart, and was thus called the brightest, even though he was rather dull. To this day he didn't understand that. Now he knows that his early Chabadnik teacher was not really a talmid chacham, but he was a good teacher. This teacher asked a question: When Joseph asks, "yesh lachem av", do you have a father, surely he knew they had a father, he should have asked "is your father alive?" Why did he ask this? Nobody could answer. The rebbe told them, the question really was, "Are you proud of your father? Do you follow in his ways?" Do you have an existential father? One must identify with one's father in dignity, with pride and joy. This is what the Rav gave us: he tied us to our European past. He blended Europe and America, he gave us the secret of Torah, that one can become great in Torah -- we have an existential father. He made Torah pulsate and resonate. A closing story: Rabbi Rakeffet was called away from an end-of- Tzahal-Basic-Training party, to be told that Joseph Gruss wanted to build a building for the Rav to come and teach in. The Rav never came to teach in it, but his students learn and teach in it; the building became the Gruss Kollel in Israel. The Rav was a phenomenon. He increased Torah, as the famous phrase states, "lehagdil Torah u-lehaadirah."