Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach passed away 27 years ago today. He was a giant authority on halacha who was also renowned for his personality and unique character traits. Here are a few little, yet significant, stories about him that can purify the atmosphere a bit as the elections near.
• Rav Yosef Eliyahu: "The rav's mother-in-law did not have good vision and asked that someone record chapters of Psalms for her in order that she could continue to pray without a book. The rav was already considered the greatest Torah scholar of his generation, yet he was the one who recorded chapters of Psalms for her in his own sweet voice. Because if someone is needed, that 'someone' does not necessarily have to be a young student. If it's a mitzvah, the rav himself will do it. For him, there is no division among the mitzvot - all of them are important. Therefore he was also accustomed to say that it is necessary to fix a time for doing kindness - not to do kindness only when it's convenient. After all, if prayer and study have set times allotted to them, so should mitzvot such as visiting the sick.
• Rav Yonatan Billet: "As a boy in the Sha'arei Chesed neighborhood, I went to ask the rav if it's allowed to play a certain game on Shabbat. The rav did not say 'forbidden' or 'permitted' until he played the new game with us and was as thrilled with it as we kids were."
• One afternoon Rav Zalman Auerbach told his wife to deliver a message to anyone who called that he could not be disturbed at the moment since he was preparing for a class. When his wife entered the room, she noticed that he was lying on his bed. "But you said you were preparing for a class," she said in surprise. "Where are the books? Why were you resting?" The rav answered: "Resting before giving a class is also preparation for that class. If the teacher does not have strength, the class will not go well. A person needs to know that sometimes resting is truly a mitzvah."
• As a young student, he dove into the study of Gemara, but he also wanted to study ethical works occasionally. When he saw that he did not have time for ethics study, he decided that once every week or two he would close the Gemara, run to the room where Rav Kook was learning Torah, and watch him quietly from the side. One minute of watching Rav Kook learn with enthusiasm was for him an "ethics lesson." It invigorated him for a week or two and gave him the strength to learn Torah until his next visit.
In his memory
