Part I
Every story brought before the readers, every fact, is a
heritage for us, enabling us to understand and to become
wiser, to know the ways of his life, for these are our
beacons to teach us how we must live our own lives.
"Each story, each fact, made a tremendous impact upon me and
enabled me to gain knowledge and understanding for all
periods in life," wrote Maran HaGaon R' Shach ztvk'l
about his illustrious uncle.
A compilation of illuminating facts about the sublime
character traits of Maran HaGaon R' Isser Zalman Meltzer
ztvk'l. His yahrtzeit is 10 Kislev.
*
There was a stone in Jerusalem called the Evven
Hoezel. This was Maran HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer
ztvk'l.
Can the pen of a writer delineate the precious biography and
the extent of his greatness? From the narrow pathways of
Jerusalem there burst forth and rose a sun which was never
extinguished, the light of the rabbi of Slutsk: Golden links
in the chain of Torah transmitters and disseminators.
Evven Hoezel is not only the name of a written work.
It is the name of a man, of a marvelous way of life, in life,
riveting, instructing. It is a cornerstone for the figure of
a man created in the image of the Divine. As his famous son-
in-law, Rosh Mesivta of Lakewood, pronounced him, "A vestige
from the great souls of the primordial generations of
Creation."
*
It was on a summer's day in Jerusalem. HaRav Isser Zalman
donned his simple, threadbare, shabby chalatel, which
was the subject of so many discussions. The rebbetzin
maintained that the author of Evven Hoezel, president
of Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and senior `statesmen' of roshei
yeshiva of his generation — deserved more honor than he
was willing to accept.
That morning, his friend and disciple from the Slutsk period,
HaRav Osher Sendomirsky zt'l, came in to visit Maran.
Before he entered the study, the rebbetzin whispered to him,
" . . . and he looks like a simple porter. Don't you think,
R' Osher, that you are obligated to be concerned for his
esteem, his image? He is your master, after all. You sat, the
two of you, for nights on end in study." And two tears
coursed down her cheeks, one searing, the other half
laughing.
R' Osher entered and was greeted with R' Isser's usual
beaming countenance. He pressed his visitor's hand warmly and
asked in a whisper, "Is something bothering you, R'
Osher?"
R' Osher declared ceremoniously, "Slutsker Rov! Master of all
yeshiva students, how can you go dressed in apprentice's
clothing? What about the shame caused to Torah?" But R' Isser
Zalman dismissed his remark with total disregard.
Slutsk is a city in Lithuania. Members of the Moetzes Gedolei
HaTorah don't wear uniforms. R' Osher summons his strength
and tries once more. "I am but dust and ashes under the feet
of the Rosh Yeshiva. If the honor of the Moetzes Gedolei
HaTorah carries no weight here, then allow me to invoke the
distress of the rebbetzin."
"Her distress..." R' Isser Zalman sighs deeply and whispers
to himself, "The rebbetzin's distress... And what about my
distress?" But on the morrow, R' Isser Zalman went to say the
shiur klolli in Yeshivas Eitz Chaim wearing a
suitable, rabbinical coat.
One of the young men whom R' Isser Zalman regarded highly and
whose study regimen he guided became engaged to a girl of
Hungarian extraction. They insisted on honoring R' Yosef Tzvi
Dushinsky ztvk'l, rabbi of the Eida Chareidis, with
officiating at the wedding.
Someone from the side of the chosson however, offended
that Maran R' Isser Zalman was not asked to be mesadder
kiddushin, went to him to express his dismay and
apologize. R' Isser Zalman hastened to mollify him, saying,
"Why are you making such a fuss about this? Just a short
while ago, a wedding took place in a Jerusalem neighborhood
and the local rabbi, who is quite young, officiated, while I
was merely honored to recite one of the blessings under the
chuppah. I think that the blessings are a fitting
honor for a Rosh Yeshiva. And in this particular case, where
the mesadder kiddushin is none other than R' Yosef
Tzvi Dushinsky, rabbi of Jerusalem, it is certainly fitting
that he reserve that honor. You should not be upset in the
least because that is how things should be. The local rabbi
should be mesadder kiddushin and the Rosh Yeshiva
should be honored with saying the blessings."
When the chosson's relative heard this stated out of
true humility, without a smattering of rancor or affront to
his honor, he could not help being impressed and asked what
he deemed would be Maran's reward in the World to Come. Such
modesty, so marvelous, can only be something ingrained in a
person from birth.
In his pure simplicity, Maran agreed and said, "It is quite
possible that I won't receive any reward for this."
Thereupon, the young man told the Rosh Yeshiva that
chassidim retell from R' Aharon of Karlin that whoever
is born with innate good traits will not receive even a
thousandth of the reward given to one who toiled and labored
over his own character improvement. "In spite of this," R'
Aharon would add, "I envy a person who was born with good
middos."
R' Isser Zalman enjoyed this insight, and parried with a play
on words that truly reflected how he felt about this subject.
"I do not shun honor because of my frumkeit but
because of the inherent krumkeit [deviousness /
idiosyncrasy] in honor."
And he noted further that sometimes, one finds oneself in a
public gathering where insult or shame is caused to some
person. "If I am the object of it," he noted, "it lasts for a
mere moment since I immediately introspect and see that this
is a form of suffering that does not come at the expense of
time wasted from Torah study. I should, in fact, be thankful
for such an opportunity. And thereupon, I am immediately
reassured."
HaRav Avrohom Rapaport zt'l told the following: HaRav
Dovid Bleicher Hy'd considered the spiritual heir of
R' Yosef Yoizel, the Alter of Novardok ztvk'l was
martyred al Kiddush Hashem together with his wife and
children and some of his disciples in the final year of World
War II, after the Nazi beasts discovered the bunker in which
they were hiding.
By a miraculous way, one daughter managed to escape. When
HaRav Mishkovsky, former rabbi of Kreiniki, heard of this in
Eretz Yisroel, he burst into tears of joy that through
Hashem's mercy, one holy vestige of this great man had
survived.
This daughter of R' Dovid Bleicher was in need of extensive
medical care in a Swiss sanatorium due to what she underwent
in the Holocaust; it was a matter of life and death. But the
immigration authorities in Switzerland refused to award her a
visa for fear that she would never leave their country. They
agreed, however, to let her go to a sanatorium only if she
was able to show she had an immigration certificate for
Palestine.
R' Avrohom Rapaport traveled from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to
visit the home of HaRav Isser Zalman to find a way to secure
such a certificate. At this same time, R' Isser Zalman was
hosting his son-in-law, HaRav Aharon Kotler ztvk'l,
head of the American Vaad Hatzoloh for the Rescue of the
European Survivors. The three of them put their heads
together and decided that R' Avrohom should go to the Brisker
Rov to hear what he had to say. The Brisker Rov, in turn,
sent R' Rapaport to R' Moshe Blau, since with his affiliation
with Agudath Israel, he would be able to obtain an
immigration certificate for her.
The next step was to send a telegram to Agudath Israel in
Switzerland, telling them to arrange for the certificate from
the small allotment which they were allowed. R' Aharon
suggested that the telegram be signed by three people:
Rabbenu, author of Evven Hoezel, the Brisker Rov and
himself.
R' Isser Zalman was somewhat surprised at this and said to
his son-in-law, "I can understand that if you, R' Aharon, and
the Brisker Rov are signed upon the request that it will
carry the full weight, since you are both world-famous, and
it will make a deep impression. But my signature will make no
difference either way, for who can has heard of me in that
country?"
The Mashgiach, HaRav Meir Chodosh ztvk'l related:
"HaRav Isser Zalman possessed an unusually great trait, that
of a `good eye.' He always saw the best in his fellow man and
considered him much better than himself."
R' Meir would add, "I would note how when he spoke with one
of the men of gigantic Torah stature of Jerusalem but whom
the Torah world considered, nonetheless, below R' Isser
Zalman, himself, he deferred to him in full humility,
regarding the other as far greater than himself. It is
difficult to describe his abject submission to that
scholar.
"In fact, I found it difficult to fathom his power of self
nullification, since the Gemora determines that a
Torah scholar must possess a minimal measure ("an eighth of
an eighth") of self pride, but R' Isser Zalman did not even
possess that much!"
The Evven Hoezel and his great disciple, HaRav Shlomo
Zalman Auerbach ztvk'l, were once walking along a
Jerusalem street. In the course of their conversation, R'
Shlomo Zalman said, "The Gemora states that `whoever
has an ill person in his home should go to a Torah sage and
ask him to pray for mercy.' Why does it advise him to go to a
wise person rather than go to a righteous one?
I once heard R' Eliyohu Kletzkin from Lublin explain this in
a humorous light. If he were to go to the tzaddik
right away, he would receive his blessing and the ill person
would recover immediately. The tzaddik would then
regard himself as a miracle-worker and become vainglorious.
Better that he go to a wise man who understands the power of
a blessing per se and would not consider himself a wonder
worker if his prayer succeeds in effecting the desired
recovery."
When R' Isser Zalman heard his words, he said, "What you just
said is simply marvelous! Why, people come to me every day
asking for my intercession for the sick people in their
family or for blessings in other areas. They tell me that I
must pray for them; I must help them.
"Even bnei Torah come to me and ask me to pray for
them. Between you and me," he continued confidentially, "you
know that these Torah scholars are greater than I. I find it
difficult to even describe their yiras Shomayim and
their great meticulousness in mitzvos. They sit and study
Torah in extreme deprivation and poverty and are satisfied
with their meager lot. Why, then, do they come to me? In what
way am I better than they? Does the fact that I was blessed
with a good intellect make me superior? You, yourself, know
that the opposite is true."
On the eve of Rosh Hashonoh, R' Isser Zalman sat by his table
and said to his disciple and confidante HaRav Yitzchok
Zaleznik zt'l, "You have no idea to what extent my
master Morenu HaRav Chaim of Brisk held me in esteem. One
time HaRav Zelig Reuven Bengis came to my hotel in Volozhin
and said to me: `You don't know what just happened. R' Chaim
sat at a meeting of rabbonim and proposed a question and then
proceeded to answer it. Then he added, `This question is
mine, but I cannot remember if the answer is mine or that of
Zunye Mirrer. Such an answer does not conform to my style of
straightforwardness; it suits the yashrus of Zunya far
better.'"
After he told this, Maran R' Isser Zalman said to R'
Yitzchok, "This is a sign that R' Chaim found something [of
worth] in me. Now I must meditate in repentance for nothing
better having come from me, for my not making something
better of myself with that potential he saw in me."
Two weeks later, on Chol Hamoed Succos, Rabbenu told this
story over a second time and concluded, "I was not sharp, nor
was I profound, but I did have a straightforwardness. And
despite this [my shortcomings], he saw fit to praise me. This
shows that one should know what can be done with every
person."
Upon another occasion, he once noted to his eminent disciple
R' Chaim Brim ztvk'l, "When I studied in Yeshiva
Volozhin, my master, R' Chaim, took a strong interest in me,
even though I was a mere simple boy. This teaches you how
important it is to befriend each and every person."
There was one person who occasionally visited the home of the
Rosh Yeshiva of Eitz Chaim. R' Isser Zalman would ask him to
say something innovative. He did so and later recorded the
chiddush. Upon his next visit, he showed what he had
written to Rabbenu. After studying the paper, R' Isser Zalman
turned to the writer and said, "There is one approach which
concurs with what you have written here very well, but the
commentaries do not accept that approach. I am sure that you
don't mean to embrace that either in your mind. I imagine
that you intend to continue to build up your chiddush,
and that what you have written so far is only an introduction
to the very concept that you will further develop."
Maran once sat in his home together with his disciple, HaRav
Tzvi Broide zt'l engaged in study. Suddenly, he laid
his hands upon his head and said, "Oy, vey!" In answer to R'
Tzvi's alarm, he said that he was suddenly attacked by a
terrible headache. "What kind of a headache?" asked R' Tzvi
in great concern.
Said R' Isser Zalman, "I was suddenly reminded that when I
was in Slutsk, I expelled one of the students from the
yeshiva. Who knows what happened with that student? Perhaps
he is a Communist today without a vestige of Jewishness to
him. If I hadn't ejected him, he might still be an observant
Jew . . . "
R' Tzvi Broide tried to reason with his master and said, "If
Rabbenu had decided at the time to expel the student, he must
have had those selfsame doubts at the time, as well, and
overcome them, nonetheless, in favor of ousting the student.
This decision must have come after much heavy deliberation in
the subject and had carried, at the time, the weight of a
psak halocho, a decision carefully based on all the
possible ramifications."
R' Isser Zalman heard him out and persisted, "Still, it is
possible that he would have remained a Jew had I allowed him
to remain. But now, who knows what he is today — how
far has he distanced himself?"
R' Tzvi attempted further arguments of convincing Rabbenu
that he must have done the right thing at that time, and
these eased his mind somewhat. He did ask, however, how long
ago this had taken place. "Forty years ago," was the
reply.
On one of the visits of Maran HaRav Yechezkel Sarna
ztvk'l, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron, to Rabbenu, the latter
said to him, "Who knows what heavy bundle we will be dragging
along with us to the World of Truth?" He was referring to the
tremendous personal responsibility of every rosh yeshiva
towards the spiritual development and conduct of the students
attending the yeshiva, and their future conduct after they
left it.
"How true," replied R' Yechezkel. "It is like a heavy sack
slung over one's shoulder, where the front side weighs more
than the back." What he meant to say in his metaphor is that
each rosh yeshiva has a tremendous responsibility for the
development of his students, and will surely be accountable
for his efforts when the final reckoning is made after his
death. Still in all, a rosh yeshiva's merits will ultimately
outweigh any faults or mistakes he may have made with any of
the students.
R' Isser Zalman would always sigh heavily when invoking the
responsibility he owed towards his students, and would say,
"Who knows what we are carrying along with us to Olom
Habo?"
His devoted efforts towards each and every one of his
students was remarkable. "Each and every one of us —
his disciples and adherent followers — felt as if he
were an only child by Maran R' Isser Zalman, as if Rabbenu's
sole purpose in coming to Eretz Yisroel and settling in
Yerushalayim was for the sake of nurturing and developing
me," R' Shlomo Bukspan zt'l used to tell.
