Covering Ground
In a compilation of letters and Torah essays (Part I, Siman
3), he writes: "Regarding your question about how to study,
whether to cover ground quickly as opposed to slowly and more
thoroughly: To be sure, one cannot make a hard-and-fast rule
to bind everyone, but each person must proceed according to
his abilities and tendencies, and to the way that best suits
and appeals to him. He should learn according to his
inclination, but one should not stay on one section for a
long time."
I heard from HaRav Itamar Garbuz that despite the fact that
Rabbenu was often preoccupied with a certain question and
found no respite until he resolved it, nevertheless, even
during that period, he continued to study according to his
regular pace, and did not detain himself by dwelling upon it;
rather, he would think about it in every spare minute. (Hi
Sichosi)
The Regimen of Study — Not Necessarily
Rabbenu wrote that one must cover four dapim a week,
and he was opposed to the seder bekiyus, rapid
coverage study, in yeshivos. He maintained that one should
study the same topic all day and to cover that amount of
material while studying it in depth [in the time
available].
I asked him about this, saying that one could not change the
norm of the yeshiva where only two dapim were covered
per week in the afternoon session. He said: "If they know
this thoroughly, this is also good." The study, he said, must
be in-depth. (HaRav Zevulun Shub)
Bar Mitzvah Resolutions
I would like to tell a story to which I was witness and which
I feel duty bound to relate, as if it were Rabbenu's will and
testament to convey regarding the proper manner in which to
raise a yeshiva bochur.
I brought my pre-bar-mitzvah son to Rabbenu in Sivan, 5754,
asking what resolution he advised for him to accept upon
himself when becoming obligated in mitzvos. Rabbenu's face
lit up and he said: "There are two things you should
undertake: 1. To distance yourself from unworthy friends, and
to choose only good friends! And 2. not to roam the streets,
but to proceed directly from your house to the yeshiva and
from yeshiva to your house."
Afterwards, he added: "There is one more important thing: To
eat at mealtimes and go to sleep at the proper time!"
This is how he felt a yeshiva student should preserve
himself. First and foremost — to distance oneself from
evil, from unsavory companions and not to roam the streets
unnecessarily. This was his main prescription for molding a
ben Torah. (HaRav Y. Sokol)
Talking About Approaches
Maran R' Isser Zalman once entered his yeshiva in Slutsk and
observed some of the students discussing the various schools
of study: R' Shimon's and R' Naftoli's and so on. He turned
to them and said, "Although you are discussing important
things, nevertheless, such talk will not produce
gedolim. Do you know who is going to become a
godol? Leizer'ke (Maran R' Eliezer Shach), who is
sitting in the corner over there, not wasting a moment, not
brooking any diversion." (HaRav Y. Sokol)
A Doubt During the Shiur? Don't Deliver It
Maran once told me that someone in Yerushalayim once asked
Maran R' Chaim what to do if, during the delivery of a
prepared shiur, a question suddenly arose in his mind
regarding it. He said not to deliver it, even if he was able
to reconcile the question.
Maran then admitted that he actually had, many times, stopped
in the middle of the delivery of a shiur and not
continued . . .
*
HaRav Chaim Kanievsky told that once when he was a ram
in Petach Tikva, a question-and-rebuttal arose in his mind
concerning a shiur he had given. He later went over to
each and every student and explained the error and its
resolution so that the truth would be clear to one and all.
(HaRav M. Kotler)
Not to Be Late
Once when he spoke at a women's teachers convention, he said
that the first thing that any educator or teacher must do is
to take care to come on time, because one who comes late
provides a bad role model and projects contempt for the
entire educational framework. (HaRav M. A.
Braverman)
Asking Permission from the Menahel
When he once needed to travel to a meeting of the Moetzes
Gedolei HaTorah during the learning seder, Maran went
to ask permission from R' Avrohom Kahaneman, for he was,
after all, only an employee, and not an administrator. A
truth-and-value system. (HaRav M. Schwartz)
To Live the Shiur
A young avreich once came to Maran on Chol Hamoed
Pesach. Maran asked him if he had already begun preparing the
masechta, Pesochim, which they would be studying in
the upcoming zman. He said, `No.' Maran voiced his
surprise and said, "How could that be? I am already eating
with Pesochim, sleeping with Pesochim and even
breathing Pesochim all the time! When I rest, it is
also uppermost in my mind. For sure! That is what we will be
studying next zman!" (HaRav M. Schwartz)
Concern for Every Student
We saw and experienced in the flesh how he was concerned with
the spiritual progress of every single student. I recall how
once, when the Mashgiach was ill, he approached me and asked
me if I was aware of any student who needed chizuk. I
pointed out a certain one who, the previous day, had
approached me and said that he was feeling a letdown, a
setback in his study.
The Rosh Yeshiva immediately ran towards him and I saw with
my own eyes how he spoke to him and even stroked him
affectionately in the very beis medrash. (HaRav A.
Kister)
An Excuse Already in the Morning
In a vaad which HaRav Refoel Tikochinsky zt'l
delivered to us, he told of the time when he was a student in
Yeshivas Ponovezh. Maran entered the beis medrash one
night and gathered several students around him. He posed a
difficult question to them and they attempted together to
resolve the problem but could find no answer.
Maran returned home but the next morning he did not appear
for davening, which was extremely rare for him. In the
beginning of the morning session, he entered, again gathered
a group around him, and now proceeded to answer the question
in a most marvelous fashion.
When they asked him how he had come to this answer, he said
that early in the morning he had traveled to Jerusalem with
the very first taxi available. The Brisker Rov had provided
him with the response to his question.
To this degree was his devotion to truth. This indicates
studying Torah purely for its own sake. (HaRav P.
Bronfman)
What Occupied the Mind of Maran . . .
One Wednesday night, there was a very turbulent meeting of
chareidi askonim regarding the future. Things grew so
stormy that it came to blows and the police were called in to
restore the peace. The crux of the matter was whether Maran's
will would be fulfilled or not and it became the focus of
public discussion.
Maran gave a weekly shiur in Yeshivas Grodno in Ashdod
on Thursday afternoons. We had no doubt that as soon as he
had finished delivering it and was en route, he would begin
thinking about the matter of contention.
Not so. On Friday morning, he entered the beis medrash
and began telling us a svorah on the laws of
mezuzoh, to reconcile a question of R' Akiva Eiger. He
then told us that as soon as he entered the taxi after the
shiur, he had begun thinking about the question. He
had delved into the question all night long until it had
become clarified.
From here, we were able to see what really preoccupied his
mind. It was not internal politics or such matters, stormy as
those issues might be, but Torah; in this case, the question
of R' Akiva Eiger on hilchos mezuzoh. (HaRav K.
Adler)
About Learning the Ketzos
Maran said that once, yeshiva students would study Ketzos
Hachoshen. But since indices had been created, people no
longer knew the Ketzos as thoroughly. Instead, they
opened up an index and found the source they needed.
Before these indices had been compiled, if one wished to know
the Ketzos, he had to open it up and study it
thoroughly. (HaRav A. Garbuz)
The Tradition not to Question the Ketzos
One of his students told me that once, in a shiur
klolli, Maran quoted the Ketzos and challenged it
with a question. Afterwards, that student went over to him
and asked him to explain the question, since he thought it
might be possible to refute it.
Maran said: "Today I transgressed a personal resolution which
I had once made, never to question anything written by the
Ketzos before thinking it through eight times in
search of my own answer. Since I was pressed for time, I only
reviewed the question four times."
Again, it is remarkable to what extent he pursued the truth.
(HaRav P. Bronfman)
Tefilloh in Yeshiva
In Elul of 5748, Maran suffered from edema in his feet.
Despite his bloated legs, and the difficulty and great pain
he had in walking, he insisted on climbing up to the yeshiva
for prayers. He once told me, coming back from
davening, that the doctors had removed three and a
half liters of water from his legs.
During the last period that he went up to the yeshiva, he
admitted several times that he was at the end of his
strength, and had been unable to even contemplate going in
the first place. But then, he had thought to himself that
— who knows? — if this were the very last prayer
in his life, how could he bear the thought of praying alone,
at home?
And so, this repeated itself three times a day, for a long
period. (Hi Sichosi)
To Befriend the Younger Students
At the end of the last shiur on the evening of the
27th of Shevat, 5754, Rabbenu said, "I don't have the
strength to go on. But there is one thing I do want to ask of
you: Make sure the older bochurim have contact with
the younger ones, that they talk to them, learn with them,
befriend them.
"If they ask questions, take the trouble to answer them, for
these young boys come to me with their questions and I am
unable to answer them all . . . " (Hi Sichosi)
To Give Way to the Younger Ones
Once, when the yeshiva became overcrowded, some of the newer
students wanted to add some benches to the beis
medrash so that there would be room to sit. The veteran
students objected on the grounds that it was too full as it
was, with no room to move between the benches.
Rabbenu discussed this in a shmuess, saying, "Chazal
note on the verse, `And Cain said to Hevel his brother, and
it was when they were . . . ' What did he say? What were they
discussing? They said to one another: `Let's divide the world
up. One of us will take the land and the other, the movable
assets.' Then the argument arose: One said: `The land upon
which you are standing belongs to me.' While the other said:
`The clothing you are wearing belongs to me.' One said,
`Remove it,' and the other, `Begone!' In the end, Cain rose
up against Hevel and killed him.
"Cain possessed all the land in the world, and still, it
irked him that Hevel was occupying four cubits of it. The
Torah is showing us here to what degree of depravity a person
can be reduced: that even if he owns the entire world, he
begrudges another a tiny portion of it to stand on; he cannot
bear seeing him there and tells him to begone.
"Whoever does not allow the young newcomers a place to sit,"
concluded Maran, "is verily acting like Cain!" (Hi
Sichosi)
