Morai verabbosai, the rabbonim have all spoken at
length already, stressing the importance of Lev L'Achim,
which is doing great rescue work for Klal Yisroel. If
not for their activities, a sizable portion of Klal
Yisroel would be lost completely, chas vesholom.
We must make every effort to strengthen ourselves in this
area as the speakers have already noted and I don't have much
to add to that message.
I would just like to mention the gemora (Kesuvos 103)
that describes the petiroh of Rabbeinu Hakodosh at
length and his wish to appoint someone to take over his
position as rosh yeshiva. The gemora shows that Rabbi
Chiya lived on after Rebbi passed away and asks why he was
not appointed to succeed Rebbi? One of the gemora's
answers is that "Rabbi Chiya was occupied with mitzvos and
Rebbi thought, `I won't take him away from them.' "
Although Rebbi wanted to appoint Rabbi Chiya as the rosh
yeshiva of the subsequent generation, all the Sages which
were Rebbi's talmidim and who ensured Torah's
perpetuation, he refrained from doing so because he did not
want to disturb Rabbi Chiya from his mitzvos.
The gemora relates that Rabbi Chiya declared that he
was working to ensure that Torah would not be forgotten by
Klal Yisroel: "I bring flax and sow it and make nets
[from the fibers]. I trap deer and feed their meat to orphans
and prepare scrolls of parchment from their skins. I go to
places where there are no teachers for the young children and
I write the five Chumoshim onto five scrolls for five
children and teach each of the six sedorim of
mishnah to six children and I tell each of them to
teach his seder to the others."
It was in reference to this that Rebbi exclaimed, "How great
are Chiya's deeds!"
We see something amazing here. Rabbi Chiya engaged in sowing,
harvesting, hunting and tanning and wrote out the
Chumoshim and mishnayos and taught Torah to
those young orphan children who had nobody to teach them. He
did all this himself and it was worthwhile even to the point
of forgoing the opportunity to replace Rabbenu Hakodosh as
rosh yeshiva -- of leading the greatest yeshiva in the world.
The gemora tells us that Eliyahu Hanovi was also part
of the yeshiva and that Rabbi Yochonon, Rabbi Chiya and other
holy Sages learned there.
Rebbi saw that Rabbi Chiya was suited to disseminate Torah
there but he understood that it was better that he should
continue his work. Rabbi Chiya shouldn't stop -- he should
continue doing hunter's and tanner's work -- so that children
should learn Hashem's Torah.
Apparently, there were others who were capable of serving as
rosh yeshiva. The gemora mentions Rabbi Chanina, Rabbi
Zaira and other holy Sages. But who else would look after the
young children in the places where there was no Torah and no
teachers?
This was what compelled Rabbi Chiya to undertake to do jobs
that some among us would not be prepared to do under any
circumstances. Rabbi Chiya was prepared to devote his time,
his energy, his soul and all his greatness in order to save
those children.
The gemora doesn't say that there were tens of
thousands of such children without a teacher or that there
were scores of towns and villages without Torah for the
youth. There may only have been a handful of such places. Yet
Rabbi understood that for their sake, it was worthwhile that
Rabbi Chiya should continue performing tasks that were
beneath his dignity and carry on his holy work even if it
prevented him from becoming the leader of the greatest
yeshiva in the world. Otherwise, what would happen to those
children?
Of course, I don't mean to say that every rosh yeshiva should
go and become a hunter, chas vesholom or a tanner,
chas vesholom!
What we do see in the gemora is how very important
this work is. Were we to understand what Rabbenu Hakodosh
understood, we would certainly take the work more
seriously.
The greater our efforts, the more Hakodosh Boruch Hu
will help us achieve true success in bringing every Jewish
child to Torah learn and we shall be the means of sanctifying
Heaven's Name!
