A book of four hundred fifty stories that are not bubby
maases, these are stories chosen to illustrate a point,
to learn from the words and deeds of gedolei
Yisroel.
It is well known that a well chosen story is often a better
vehicle for conveying lessons about life than abstract
discussion. However, that certainly does not mean that every
story is instructive. Often, the tale is filtered by the
teller, and it reflects more the outlook of the one saying
over the story than the truths of the subject of the
story.
This collection was assembled by a young talmid
chochom, working under the guidance of rabbonim and
senior talmidei chachomim, who are the leaders of our
generation. In his introduction,the author notes that a
number of great talmidei chachomim, including HaRav
Chaim Kanievsky, HaRav Boruch Shmuel Deutsch and his father
HaRav Meir Tzvi Bergman were involved in the project at
various stages and reviewed the material. This should
certainly ensure that the stories are worth learning from.
The author took great pains to verify the accuracy of the
stories, wherever possible speaking with witnesses who
actually saw the events. The list of gedolim who
appear in the sefer is stellar, and includes HaRav
Yitzchok Elchonon Spector, HaRav Yisroel Salanter, the Beis
Halevi, HaRav Chaim of Brisk, the Chofetz Chaim, HaRav Chaim
Ozer Grodzinsky, the Chazon Ish, the Brisker Rov, HaRav
Aharon Kotler, HaRav Moshe Feinstein, zichronom
livrocho as well as the author's grandfather,
ylct'a Maran HaRav Shach.
An important enhancement of the sefer is the detailed
contents at the end, which cites the source of each story.
We will cite two stories to give the reader a taste.
HaRav Yaakov Ruderman, zt'l, the rosh
yeshiva of Ner Israel in Baltimore, told that one time
the chachomim of Warsaw had a difficulty in the
gemora that they could not resolve. They agreed to
send one of their rabbonim to the Gra in Vilna for his
answer.
On the way, the shaliach passed through Brisk, and he
stayed with a certain baal habayis. During the meal,
he explained to his host what his journey was about, and his
host asked to hear the question. To the surprise of the
shaliach, the host gave 14 answers to the question.
The rav from Warsaw considered returning home, but in the end
he decided to continue to the Gaon in Vilna.
He went to the Gaon and told him the question of his
colleagues. He was quite surprised when the Gaon replied with
the same 14 answers that his Brisker host had offered.
The Warsaw rov told the Gra that he had already heard those
same 14 answers from a baal habayis with whom he
stayed in Brisk.
"If so," said the Gra, "I want to meet that baal
habayis. On your way home when you pass through Brisk,
please go to him and tell him that I want to see him. It is
up to him: either I will go to Brisk to see him or he should
come to Vilna to see me."
The rav did as the Gra requested and conveyed that astounding
proposal of the Gaon. However unexpectedly, instead of
dancing with happiness at the zechus he had of meeting
the Gaon under such circumstances, the Brisker baal
habayis began to wail, "Oy vavoy! The Gra wants to see
me! I have to quickly review Shas, or how can I see
him?"
When Maran HaRav Shach, shlita, was a
yeshiva bochur, he used to say chaburos. He
noticed that some of his talmidim smoked, and he tried
to convince them to stop smoking. Even when some of them
refused to stop, he continued his efforts, asking them again
and again to stop. In the end, some of them stopped.
One must remember that in those days there was no awareness
of any danger attached to smoking. When he was asked why he
tries to hard to get other bochurim to stop smoking,
HaRav Shach shlita answered: "I see that the
haskalah is spreading, and who knows what will
eventually come out of the bochurim. Chas vesholom,
maybe the will go off the path and transgress serious
aveiros. I at least want to save them from the serious
aveiros of smoking on Shabbos."
Even many years later, in 5732 (1972), HaRav Shach
shlita was hospitalized in the Tel Hashomer Hospital.
When he was getting ready to leave, the staff asked for a
brocho from the Rosh Yeshiva. One in particular, who
was a smoker, approached the Rosh Yeshiva and asked for a
brocho. The Rosh Yeshiva said to him, "First of all,
you have to stop smoking."
Later on, the Rosh Yeshiva explained that he knew that the
man was not a shomer mitzvos, and therefore he took
the opportunity to save him at least from the aveiros
of smoking on Shabbos.
