| | NEWS
"The Ner Ma'arovi Has Gone Out!" — Perspectives of HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt'l
by Moshe Musman
HaRav Shlomo Zalman with HaRav Gedalia Eiseman, the mashgiach of Kol Torah
Imparting Love of Torah
by Rav Moshe Tuvia Dinkel
This series of articles about HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l was originally published in 1995 (5755), soon after the petiroh.
For Part II of this series click here.
For Part IV of this series click here.
Part 3
(We continue Rav Dinkel's portrait of HaRav Shlomo Zalman, the rosh yeshiva of Kol Torah, that appeared in last week's edition. )
"Moshe said to bnei Yisroel, perhaps you do not know how much anguish I underwent for the Torah, how much I toiled over it and how much I labored? I gave my life for it, and my blood. In the same way that I learned it in pain, you shall also learn it in pain." (Sifrei Ha'azinu)
We have no idea how much anguish HaRav Shlomo Zalman underwent for Torah, or of how much he toiled and labored over it. He occasionally saw fit to hint at this, for the benefit of his talmidim. He once turned to a bochur during the shiur and asked, "Where is the bochur who sits next to you? He hasn't been here for several days."
"He isn't feeling well," came the reply.
"What do you mean, `He isn't feeling well.'?" asked HaRav Shlomo Zalman.
When the bochur replied that his neighbor was suffering from a minor ailment such as flu or a strep throat, HaRav Shlomo Zalman was unable to contain himself. He knew what flu and strep throat were. He knew more too. He knew what it was to learn at full strength and with total concentration despite pangs of hunger and despite physical and emotional suffering — which he had undergone in his youth. (His brother said that doctors who examined HaRav Shlomo Zalman in his old age reported that the signs of the malnourishment he had suffered in his youth were still noticeable.) Then, concealing more than he revealed, he remarked, "If I would not have learned when I wasn't feeling well, then I wouldn't have learned at all while I was young."
Indeed, he was saying in as many words, "In the same way that I learned it in pain, you shall also learn it in pain." Yet after all, "You do not know how much anguish I underwent for the Torah, how much I toiled over it and how much I labored!"
Although they did not know (and neither did he wish them to know), there were things they themselves witnessed which gave them some inkling. It was related that, years ago, during a shiur dealing with a piece of Avnei Miluim, the talmidim noticed the veins in his eyes were beginning to swell. He immediately said, "We will wait, I must rest."
A number of talmidim remembered other such lessons in the love of Torah, when HaRav Shlomo Zalman's labors led him to the limits of his physical endurance.
For those who never witnessed the signs of his physical suffering, there were other lessons in ahavas Torah. In one shiur he mentioned the halacha that no brocho is made over food that is one is forced to consume. He went on to explain the difference between this case and that of a person who has to eat on Yom Kippur because he is ill, when a brocho must be made. He then added, "And there is no need to speak about a sick person. Even a normal person who is applying himself to his learning, surely has no wish to eat. He would prefer to need neither eating nor sleeping, so that he could increase his wisdom even more. But would anyone dream of saying that he doesn't have to make a brocho?"
A "normal" person, of HaRav Shlomo Zalman's stature, has no wish to eat or sleep, just to add to his wisdom.
And what better example of ahavas Torah was there than the very fact that a man whose entire generation turned to him for halachic rulings, who was as at home in every part of Torah as he was in his own neighborhood, travelled daily (or at least four times a week, even in his old age) to learn Hashem's Torah with young talmidim, reading one line of gemora after another, Rashi after Rashi, Tosafos after Tosafos, illuminating the simple meaning of the gemora for them, guiding them and directing them, explaining, defining and differentiating, all in order to spread Torah?
In explaining deep and difficult sugyos, he went down to the level of their understanding, speaking in terms which were easy for them to grasp. He invested tremendous efforts in descending "from the mountain to the people" as a result of which he was able to make everything appear simple, straightforward and easy to understand. He even took the trouble to deliver his shiur in a way that made it seem that his question or observation had just occurred to him, so as to make the talmidim part of the development of the shiur. What ahavas Torah!
An alleyway in Shaarei Chesed, now an expensive neighborhood
The Life Of A Yerushalmi: Some Biographical Chapters
Adapted by Moshe Musman
Fifteen years to the day after his maternal grandfather, HaRav Shlomo Zalman Porush zt'l passed away, on the twenty third of Tammuz 5655, the word went around that a son had been born to Rav Chaim Leib Auerbach and his rebbetzin. The occasion was particularly joyous, for the Auerbachs' first child, a daughter, had passed away when she was just two years of age. Some idea of the family's circumstances during HaRav Shlomo Zalman's childhood can be gleaned from the following remarks made by his sister, Rebbetzin Schwadron.
"We knew what an orange was — it could be divided between two, three or four people...but who saw or heard of such `luxuries' in the bags of the inhabitants of Yerushalayim of those days. Take an egg for example, that is, a hen's egg. It was fried in a little oil together with a bit of flour and then mother divided it into three portions...When Shlomo Zalman'ke grew older and began to learn, mother kept a piece of `chalva' and dry bread with which he could satisfy his hunger when he returned from learning...the water that had been used for `netilas yodayim' before meals was carefully set aside for washing the floors."
However, difficulties are no contradiction to happiness. Friends who lived near the Auerbach household during those years relate that despite the hardship of this life, a joyous spirit always prevailed among the members of the family, even at the most difficult of times.
"Poverty befits Yisroel," say Chazal — when feet are planted on the ground while eyes and hearts are raised heavenward. Indeed, the Auerbachs' happiness with their life in olom hazeh was in direct proportion to both their strained circumstances and their labors in learning Torah, as stated explicitly in Avos (6:4.)
As a young boy, Shlomo Zalman's parents would send him, especially on Shabbosim, to his uncle, HaRav Akiva Porush zt'l, to be tested on what he had learned and the two of them would walk together to the beis haknesses in the Batei Broide neighborhood.
His uncle's holiness and nobility of spirit had a profound effect on the boy, especially when it came to tefillah, which HaRav Porush would say slowly and carefully, enunciating every word literally "as though counting coins." Rabbi Menachem Porush relates that, "More than once, when I heard Rav Shlomo Zalman making a brocho or praying, the echoes of our holy uncle, HaRav Akiva Porush zy'a, reverberated in my ears."
HaRav Shlomo Zalman learned in the Talmud Torah Eitz Chaim, situated in Machane Yehuda, where the authors of the works Gidulei Shmuel, and Darcei Dovid were among his rebbes. One of the friends of his boyhood and youth, the gaon HaRav Avrohom Yaakov Zalaznik, who was the rosh yeshiva of Eitz Chaim, recalls one occasion when HaRav Shlomo Zalman was around sixteen years old, when he substituted for Rav Chaim Man, the maggid shiur of the highest group in Eitz Chaim, when the latter was absent for a period of a few weeks. In the words of another childhood friend, those shiurim (which were almost on the level of those delivered in a yeshiva ketana), were "as sweet as honey" to his contemporaries.
In the yeshiva gedola, HaRav Shlomo Zalman heard shiurim from HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer zt'l, who introduced the style of learning in the great yeshivos of Eastern Europe to the batei medrash of Yerushalayim's old yishuv.. Besides the weekly shiur which was delivered before the entire yeshiva, a small group of bochurim met twice weekly to hear the Rosh Yeshiva.
Another of HaRav Shlomo Zalman's friends, the gaon HaRav Shimon Buckspan, related that his friend once remarked that he received more from the smaller, less formal meetings with HaRav Isser Zalman, when the material was presented in its formative stages with questions, suggested answers and refutations (the form which he later adopted for his own shiurim), than from the shiur klali, for which the Rosh Yeshiva had arranged everything in an orderly, step-by-step fashion.
When HaRav Isser Zalman was succeeded as rosh yeshiva by HaRav Aharon Kotler, zt'l, his son-in-law, HaRav Shlomo Zalman attended the shiurim he delivered on his visits to Eretz Yisroel. It is interesting to note that despite Reb Aharon's well known excitability while learning or delivering a shiur, which often led him to express his rejection of a query that reflected misunderstanding or of a misplaced comment without a trace of the mildness which characterized his interpersonal dealings, he would always reply to the points raised by HaRav Shlomo Zalman with respect and deliberation.
When asked about their friend in his youth, both HaRav Zalaznik and HaRav Buckspan first noted that in learning, he had bound himself right from the beginning to a clear, straight, truthful understanding, keeping his distance from intricate, involved reasoning or sharp flashes of inspiration, where these did not go hand in hand with the truth.
A second point they both remarked upon was his great love of spreading Torah, even at an early age. As a young man, he gathered a group of bochurim before whom he delivered his insights into the Shev Shmaitsa. These insights were first published only four years ago.
He would answer any questions people asked him and was even willing to undertake the research involved in resolving complex halachic queries which were presented to him. He would devote himself to this work with immense love. HaRav Zalaznik also recalls that he would put all his heart into every mitzva which he performed and that he never stood on his own honor. If it was necessary that he see someone who was his inferior and who should by rights have come to him, he went nonetheless.
Lest the reader receive the impression that such beginnings can only be achieved under calm, untroubled conditions, it is as well to note that HaRav Shlomo Zalman grew up during and immediately following the First World War, when the entire old yishuv, to which his family belonged, underwent severe privations and was subjected to immense political and ideological pressures, to which many tragically succumbed. Viewed in this wider context, as well as that of his poverty stricken childhood, the achievements of his youth in holding steadfast to Torah, seem no less incredible than those of his later life. HaRav Shlomo Zalman himself summed this up in a remark which he once made to one of his brothers, "When I was young, I had plenty of heteirim to stop learning!"
Rav Arye Leib Ruchamkin zt'l, was one of the melamdim at Eitz Chaim. He noticed the young Shlomo Zalman's great promise at an early age and it was he who merited taking the young talmid chochom as his son-in-law. For Tu B'shevat, the bride's family sent a lavish basket of fruits and a set of the Rambam's Mishnah Torah to the groom's home. These gifts evoked some consternation for the recipients' circumstances were such that they were in no position to reciprocate, even on a less generous scale.
Rebbetzin Auerbach solved part of the problem by setting to work with her daughters and transforming the selfsame fresh fruits into a cooked and baked fruit delicacy which was then dispatched back to the bride's home. There was nothing she could about the Rambam. As she later remarked to her mechutenes, "As for the Rambam... how could we resolve such a `difficult Rambam' (a za shver Rambam)?"
Immediately after his wedding, Rav Shlomo Zalman took up residence in his in-law's home (their apartment was built to accommodate two families) where, witnessing his great love of Torah, all the members of both families did their utmost to see that his learning would not be disturbed.
The family relates that during the period following his wedding, Rav Shlomo Zalman would eat lunch that was served him and then vomit. When this had gone on for several days, his father-in-law feared that something was amiss and asked for an explanation. Rav Shlomo Zalman told him that due to the poverty in his father's home, it had been years since he had eaten a normal midday meal and his digestive system was simply unable to tolerate the good food that he was now being served.
Later on, he stopped coming back home for lunch altogether. A child who used to play with Rav Shlomo Zalman's children recalled in later years that she had thought it was a Shabbos guest, not a member of the family, who occupied the extra place at R' Leib Ruchamkin's table from week to week!
Some little idea of his great love of Torah can be gleaned from the following story. In the hesped he delivered, his talmid HaRav Yehuda Addes, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Kol Yaakov, recalled a story which HaRav Shlomo Zalman had told him some forty years previously.
When he married, Rav Shlomo Zalman received a sizable dowry. He was approached with the suggestion that he invest the money in a bank (which was owned by gentiles, so there was no problem of ribis). The income generated thereby would have freed him from the need to search for a position. He asked what kind of commitment he would be required to make. When he was told that he would have to spend a half hour or an hour in the bank every Friday, he immediately rejected the entire idea, saying that he preferred to simply deposit the sum and use it up bit by bit.
His first sefer appeared in 5695 (1935), when he was twenty five years old. This was Meorei Eish, the first sefer of its kind, which contained an exhaustive treatment of the nature of electricity and the reasons for its prohibited use on Shabbos. It was said that his interest in the subject had been sparked by contemplating the hearing aid which he had bought for his mother, from money he had saved from the stipend he received from the yeshiva.
HaRav Zalaznik recalled that at first, HaRav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky zt'l had not approved of opening debate on a subject whose forbidden status was beyond question. However, when Rav Shlomo Zalman replied that his work merely investigated the nature of the phenomenon and the halachic reasoning involved in the prohibition, Reb Chaim Ozer consented, adding his own letter of approbation to the work. Rav Chaim Greenberg z'l, was present when Reb Chaim Ozer received the proofs of Me'orai Eish and reported that he took them into his room to examine them, after which he came out and exclaimed, "A new light will shine over Tsion!"
As a youthful avreich, Rav Shlomo Zalman was one of a choice group whom Reb Isser Zalman agreed to send to form a new morning kollel which was devoted to clarifying the halochos of the mitzvos hateluyos ba'Aretz, whose practical relevance was then increasing with the steady increase in the number of religious Jews who were arriving and turning to agriculture.
The kollel, founded by Rav Yitzchok Rosenthal z'l, was named Medrash Bnei Tsion. Although there was no official rosh kollel, the gaon HaRav Tzvi Pesach Frank zt'l delivered a weekly shiur. While the avreichim were expected to return to Eitz Chaim for the afternoon seder, Rav Shlomo Zalman was given special permission to learn at home with his chavrusa, Rav Buckspan, thus enabling him to prepare his chidushim for publication. HaRav Buckspan recalls the family's devotion to Rav Shlomo Zalman's learning. As soon as he, Rav Buckspan, appeared on the stairs leading up to the door, the children would leave the house.
The two published volumes of Ma'adaney Eretz, his chidushim which were the fruits of the years in Medrash Bnei Tsion appeared in 5704 (1944) and 5712 (1952). The first volume deals with Shevi'is and the second with terumos uma'asros, for which he received a glowing letter from the Steipler zt'l, declaring that "whoever possesses it cannot do without it in all matters concerningterumos uma'asros," and comparing the work to the Minchas Chinuch in its comprehensiveness.
In the introduction to this second volume, Rav Shlomo Zalman expresses his hope of being able to publish more of his chidushim, dealing with the fifth of the Rambam's chapters on the laws of Terumos (the sefer covers the first four chapters). His son-in-law HaRav Yitzchok Yeruchom Borodiansky related that on a number of occasions, his father-in-law said that while involved with this fifth chapter, he had been invited to begin delivering shiurim in Yeshivas Kol Torah, which he knew would prevent him from completing the sefer. He had presented his dilemma to Reb Isser Zalman whose advice was that teaching in the yeshiva took precedence.
While he regretted the unfinished sefer (in fact, he once told HaRav Yisroel Gans that he had five seforim waiting to be published), he never regretted entering the yeshiva. Disseminating Torah to the public through seforim was a great thing but raising disciples and transforming young men into talmidei chachomim was something else entirely. It was a position he would reiterate again and again. "Not every day does a miracle happen, presenting one with the opportunity to disseminate Torah amongst disciples," he told HaRav Gans, who was weighing whether to accept a teaching post or to remain in kollel.
Every single shiur he gave was a source of joy to him. When, a few years ago, when he was already much older and weaker, HaRav Gans inquired after his welfare, he replied, "Boruch Hashem, I merited saying another shiur!"
"When I first took the yoke of Yeshivas Kol Torah upon myself, preparing and delivering shiurim, it sometimes happened that I fainted for a few moments, until I revived," he once told one of his brothers. During the period prior to his operation in 5724 (1964), he continued delivering the shiur despite the attacks of agonizing pain, during which he would sometimes deliver an entire shiur while he clutched the upper part of his cheek and applied pressure to the painful area. His commitment to his shiurim and to his talmidim was total and these took priority over all the other areas of his involvement.
During the years that he was able to spend a full morning in the yeshiva, it was well known that he was to be disturbed for nothing but life and death questions which could not wait. Similarly, he kept times to the minute. His daily shiur would begin at 9:00 a.m. sharp, never at 9:01.
When one of the great roshei yeshiva in Yerushalayim, whom HaRav Shlomo Zalman had known and admired, was niftar, one of his close talmidim asked him to deliver a short hesped in the other yeshiva, which was situated in the Katamon neighborhood, a few minutes drive away. A cab was to take him and return him home immediately afterwards. His response to this request was, "I'm surprised at you! Don't you know that I say a shiur every day? Where can I find a spare forty-five minutes to go, be maspid, and return? How can you ask such a thing of me?"
Next issue we will look at the more public aspects of Rav Shlomo Zalman, be'H.
|
