Chevrah Lomdei Mishnah

Rav Aryeh Levin was known as the “Tzaddik of Yerushalayim.” He was indeed a great talmid chacham and a righteous man, but this was at a time when there were many other great people living in Yerushalayim. So what earned him this title?

The Brisker Rav, Harav Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik was extremely careful in every area of halachah, always checking that he was doing his utmost to fulfill whatever the Torah demanded of him at any given moment. He was genuinely fearful of the possibility of transgressing any aveirah.

“You may take one small suitcase with essentials. Nothing else will be allowed on the train.” Terror gripped the townspeople as they were ordered by Nazi soldiers to assemble in the town square within two hours for “relocation.” They did not know that as the moment they would step off the trains, everything they brought with them would be taken away. Meanwhile, they busied themselves with gathering food, basic clothing, sweaters and toiletries. 

This winter I had an “aha moment.” It’s always more powerful when you come to an understanding on your own than when you hear the idea from others.   

Grab and Eat, Grab and Drink  The famed maggid, Rav Yaakov Galinsky, would relate that as a young child he was quite rambunctious. His father decided to send him away to the Novardok yeshivah in Bialystok, which was well-known for its emphasis on character improvement.