Originally published in 1993, 32 years ago.
Part 2
The Ketzos as A Rav
In Starri, R' Arye Leib fully observed the commandment, "Fear no man."
One time, he was arrested because of a particular psak he had issued. On another occasion, he excommunicated the chassidim of his town for thirty days. The excommunicated chassidim left Starri in order to complain to their rebbe, the Chozeh of Lublin. However, the Chozeh refused to receive them since they were under a ban.
Thirty days later, after the ban ended, he granted them an audience. However, the moment they began to voice their complaints, the Chozeh cut them short, saying: "Take care not to slight the honor of your rav, for he is this generation's Prince of Torah."
R' Arye Leib taught Torah in Starri to a small group of students, who in time became gedolim. Among them were R' Yekusiel Asher Zalman of Wozmir, author of the responsa work, Mahariaz Anziel, who served him for fifteen years, and R' Arye Lipshitz, Av Beis Din of Vishnitz, author of Arye DeVey Ila'i.
However, he not only taught them, but also molded the spiritual and ethical facets of their characters, and supervised the development of their middos tovos and yiras Shomayim.. One of his students relates how at the end of one zman, he approached R' Arye Leib and said: "I am going home for inter session. Please bless me."
R' Arye did not bless him at first. Instead, he took his student's hand, and slowly, stressing each word, said, "Semach bochur beyaldusecha, veyetivcha libcha biyemei bachurasecha, vehalach bedarkei libcha uvmar'eh einecha," quoting the verse from Koheles that seems to give youth license to enjoy itself.
Silence hovered in the room for a brief moment. R' Arye broke it with a long, drawn out "ve-da" (the next word from Koheles), which he enunciated while vigorously shaking the young man's hand. His face red as fire, he concluded: "ki al kol eileh yevi'echa HaElokim bamishpat." Concluding, with Koheles, that everyone must still account for whatever he does.
The student relates that even years after that incident, he still feared committing even the slightest trace of a sin. "The awe inspiring voice of my teacher, my rebbe, as he cried out `ve-da', still reverberates in my ears," he said.
Later on, this student merited to attend to the physical needs of his aging rav. So weak was R' Arye at that time, that even the simplest functions exhausted him. Even dressing and undressing were beyond his capacity.
One time, as the student helped him don his socks, he was surprised to hear R' Arye—who could usually barely lift his voice —shout: "Ai! They're pricking me. They're pricking me."
The student was sure that the inner side of the stocking contained irritating fibers, and he quickly turned them inside out. However, R' Arye Leib continued to shout.
The student was dumbfounded. "What could be wrong?" he wondered.
At last, he realized that they probably contained shatnez. An examination, conducted by a tailor, confirmed this suspicion.
R' Arye Leib grew weaker by the day. At last, he succumbed to his illness. He returned his pure soul to his Maker on the 19th of Teves 5573, as he was about to leave for the yeshiva.
The news of his death struck the Torah world like a thunderbolt. During his early years, R' Arye Leib was virtually unknown. However, during his later years, after the appearance of the Ketzos and Shev Shmaitsa (the bulk of which he wrote before his thirteenth birthday), he attained worldwide fame.
However, sixty years after his death, his renown reached its peak, for it was then that yeshivos began to flourish in Lithuania, Russia and Poland, and lomdei Torah to proliferate. Providence willed that the yeshiva world adopt the study method advanced by R' Arye Leib in his three prestigious volumes of the Ketzos.
This analytical method probes the depths of every issue, and distinguishes between cases and laws which on the surface seem similar. This method captured the yeshiva world and is still the preferred and most popular one. Even today—over two hundred years after the appearance of the Ketzos—this method is predominant.
Today, yeshiva students do not engage in pilpul, but in deep analytical study. However, since its inception, this method has undergone a number of changes, and has served as the basis for other methods which are essentially direct offshoots of that of the Ketzos. The Brisker le'amita method is a case in point, and so is the method of R' Shimon Shkop. R' Arye Leib HaKohen, though, is still considered its initiator.
The Kehillos Yaakov (the Steipler Rav), used to describe how, prior to the shofar blowing on Rosh Hashana, the Rebbe of Kotsk would pore over the Ketzos. "The Ketzos is Toras emes," the Rebbe of Kotsk would say.
A Lake in Roshinkov
Seventy Editions
Since the completion of the Talmud, except for a few sifrei rishonim, no Torah works have been as widely distributed as Ketzos HaChoshen and Shev Shmaitsa. These two seforim, as well as the Avnei Milu'im were enthusiastically received by the entire yeshiva world.
Upon the advice of R' Yisroel Salanter, R' Eliezer Gordon of Telz was the first rosh yeshiva to introduce Ketzos HaChoshen to his students. The study of the Ketzos became so integral a part of the yeshiva curriculum, that when the "godol" of Minsk, R' Yeruchom Yehuda Leib Perlman, author of Ohr Godol, delivered a shiur in Telz, he remarked: "The scent of the Ketzos is perceptible even in the fields of Telz."
Quite rapidly, other yeshivos began to emulate Telz, and the study of Ketzos spread in so remarkable a manner, that people would jokingly say, that bnei yeshivos know Tanach from the gemara, and the gemara from the Ketzos. Others would add that we know that Aharon and Moshe were brothers because the Ketzos says that even two brothers of the stature of Moshe and Aharon cannot serve as witnesses for each other.
Although Shev Shmaitsa is only a slim volume, it has been disseminated on a massive basis. If we judge the worth of a book by its circulation, then Shev Shmaitsa is phenomenal. Over seventy editions of that sefer have been published since its appearance in 5594. Scores of books explaining and interpreting it have also been written.
One of them is Ravcha Shmaitsa, written by R' Chaim Shmuel Lopian. It received the approbation of the gaon, R' Boruch Ber Lebovitz, author of Bircas Shmuel and rosh yeshivas Kamenetz, who writes: "I fully agree that [R' Chaim Shmuel Lopian's] wonderful and deep chidushim should be disseminated. They are very deep and penetrating, and Torah scholars will delight in them... However, I am reluctant to express my opinion regarding R' Chaim Shmuel's desire to publish his comments in the margins of the Shev Shmaitsa, because I myself would be afraid to approach the kodesh kodoshim. Please forgive me."
A Recent Edition
Torah Under Duress
R' Arye Leib HaKohen's three literary works effected a virtual revolution in the Torah world. A student who has not mastered the Ketzos and Shev Shmaitsa and is not familiar with its principles and methods, is simply not considered a lamdan.
These seforim have been carefully studied and restudied by thousands of talmidei chachomim the world over. Many scholars have studied these books from beginning to end, and committed them to memory. At his own bar mitzvah celebration, R' Chaim Ozer Grodzensky suggested that his guests test him on any part of the Ketzos they wished. Accepting his challenge, they would quote random words from the Ketzos, and he would quote verbatim at least three or four subsequent pages of material.
It is well known, too, that while sailing from Shanghai to New York, R' Chaim Shmuelevitz engrossed himself in the study of Shev Shmaitsa. His chidushim on that work, appear in a sefer called Toras HaSefina.
It is related that a young student who was on the boat at the time, leaned on the rail, and gazed out into the seemingly bottomless ocean. Impatiently, he asked: "Where are we?"
Without lifting his eyes from his sefer, R' Chaim casually replied: "In Shmaitsa, gimmel."
A single copy of the Ketzos was once brought to Shanghai. When R' Chaim opened it, he saw that its first two page were missing. There and then, he re-transcribed them, word for word.
Why did R' Arye Leib merit all this?
Surely because "the Torah [he] studied under duress remained with [him]." Had the brilliant R' Arye Leib studied only an hour a day, he still would have been one of the greatest lamdonim of this time. Blessed with so many talents, he could have studied less diligently, less zealously. He could have — but he refused. With unbelievable yeg'ia, and unsurpassed hasmodoh, he toiled over his Talmud, day and night. Winter, summer, rain or shine, he studied Torah ceaselessly. This Torah remained with him, and has stood in his stead forever.
In yeshiva circles, the remarkable success of his book is generally attributed to a particular incident. One Yom Kippur, R' Arye Leib fell ill. The doctor who was summoned to his bedside, ordered him in no uncertain terms to eat. "If you don't obey me, your life will be endangered."
R' Arye Leib's sorrow was unbearable. He divided his food into three portions, and ate them, as tears flowed from him eyes. On the merit of this sorrow, say some, his books have enlightened the eyes of all Israel. Others add that R' Arye Leib was informed of the validity of this conjecture in a dream.
