Monday, May 27, 2013

Chain Reaction - the importance of learning

The Frierdige Rebbe once repeated a story that was told to him by R’ Chaim Brisker, about his father, the Beis Halevi: The Beis Halevi had a shiur every day with 2 great talmidei chachomim (one of them was known as R’ Eizik klotz, because he spent so many continuous hours each day sitting on a klotz – a block of wood – and studying relentlessly, that he left an image on the klotz).
One day a group of askonim came to meet with the Beis Halevi about a very urgent matter, affecting the entire community. The Bais Halevi, however, who was in the middle of his shiur at the time, first completed the shiur, which took some time, and only then attended to the communal matters.
One of the askonim was upset at this practice, and questioned the Beis Halevi, saying that the shiur could wait, while the matter about which they had come was of utmost importance. The Bais Halevi, however, disagreed, and attached more importance to the learning of these two great scholars, explaining that if Eizik would shorten the time of his learning by even one hour, that would set in motion a chain reaction, that would ultimately result in the Jew in Paris committing shmad r”l.


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