UNSURPASSED EXPECTATIONS

Purim is a joyous and uplifting yom tov. Happiness is the theme of the day, but at the same time, there are many vast treasures hidden within it which we can acquire as ours if only we’d know where to look. One of the great lessons we learn from Purim is that things are not always the way they seem.

CHAYA ROSEN

Yossele was a young boy living in the town of Slutzk. Blessed with an abundance of energy, Yossele could not stay in one place for more than a few minutes. He certainly had no patience to sit with the other boys in the town’s cheder, listening to the melamed’s “boring” lessons. Instead, he spent his days roaming the streets, befriending and playing with all the stray dogs in town, swimming in the river with his non-Jewish friends, and playing pranks.

One day, while running down the street after pulling off yet another prank, he heard loud screams coming out of one of the houses on the street. His curiosity aroused, he climbed the branches of a tree and peeked through a window. He saw a father spanking his son and berating him, “You had better behave! I will not have you growing up wild like Yossele!” Yossele was shaken to the core. Is that what he was? Had he become the epitome of unruliness in the town, held up as an example for all, of the person no one should be like? Somehow, the thought was frightening.

Determined, Yossele went home and told his father that he wanted to go to yeshiva. His father, who knew his son well, was sure that this was just another trick and said “I have no strength for this. Go and play with your dogs.” But Yossele insisted that he wanted to go to yeshiva. And not just any yeshiva, but the renowned Volozhiner Yeshiva. His father was incredulous. “Yossele, one needs to know 500 blatt of gemara backwards and forwards in order to be accepted in Volozhin. You don’t know even one.” “Father,” he replied, “if you won’t send me, I will go on my own.”

Yossele arrived in Volozhin and presented himself to the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Chaim Volozhiner. R’ Chaim asked him what he had learned. “Nothing”, replied Yossele, “but I want to learn”. R’ Chaim perceived that the boy was serious, and set him up with charvusos and tutors to help him catch up. Within three months, he had reached the level of the other bochurim. He continued learned eighteen hours a day with extreme diligence until he far surpassed most of his peers. Years later, when a delegation arrived in Volozhin from Slutsk seeking a new rav for their town to replace the old rav who had passed away, R’ Chaim presented R’ Yossele to them and said, “Here is your new rav. He is one of your own.” Upon hearing who he was, the representatives were shocked and speechless. He became known as R’ Yossele Slutzker (1796 – 1864), and was indeed held up as an example for all, of what a person could become. Passion Redirected

Shlomo was a young yasom who had lost both father and mother. He had no home, nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. The town askonim got together to discuss the matter and finally came up with a solution. There was a blind man living in the city who needed someone to guide him and take care of him. Shlomo would take care of the blind man and receive room and board in return. This arrangement was satisfactory to both parties. Shlomo moved in with the old man and thus began his new life. One day, Shlomo and the blind man happened to be in the same place as the famed Dubno Maggid. The Maggid exchanged a few words with young Shlomo, and recognized that he had unusual capabilities. Resolving to teach the boy Torah, the Maggid arranged for someone else to live with the blind man and took Shlomo under his wing. The rest, as they say is history; this young boy became Rav Shlomo Kluger (1785 – 1869), author of the Chochmas Shlomo and other widely acclaimed seforim. An Eye Towards The Future

The heiliger mekubal, R’ Shamshon Ostropoler, who was martyred in 1648 during the terrible crusades of Tach V’tat, was simply unable to learn in his youth. In those times, it was customary for a chosson to say words of Torah at his wedding. Knowing that Shamshon would be unable to do so, his brothers worked it out so that he would not have to speak at his chasuna. When Shamshon heard what his brothers had planned, instead of feeling relief, he burst into heart wrenching tears of grief for the Torah that he could not learn. And Hashem saw his tears and heard his prayers. He is indeed known as one of the greatest of his time. He wrote a sefer on the Zohar and is best known for the tefillah he composed that is said by some on Erev Pesach for a year of blessing and success. It is said that he accepted upon himself to die during the pogroms of Tach V’tat Al Kiddush Hashem so that the rest of the Jews be spared, and so it was. Tears For An Eternity

A Lecture For Life

The Sephardic world of today has many notable, high–level institutions of Torah learning. The Yidden who came to these shores a generation or two ago from the Middle Eastern countries were poorly educated in their own religion. One of them was eighteen-yearold Henry Haber, a public school student with virtually no knowledge of Yiddishkeit. One day, Henry attended a lecture at the Shaarei Tzion synagogue which piqued his interest. Curious to know more, he asked an acquaintance how he could go about learning a bit of his own heritage. The acquaintance advised him to go to the Mirrer Yeshiva and ask someone to study a little with him.

Heeding his friend’s advice, Henry went to the Mirrer Yeshiva and looked for a learning partner. After several unsuccessful tries, he approached Rabbi Yehuda David ztz”l (father-in-law of R' Yosef Rosenblum, ztz”l), a retired rebbe, and asked him if he would learn with him. “Sure”, Rabbi David replied. “Come to my house tomorrow evening with a Gemara

Meseches Beitzah, and I will learn with you.” Henry had no idea what a Gemara Meseches Beitzah was, but he overcame his embarrassment, found out what it was that he needed to bring, and showed up the next evening with the correct sefer in hand.

Eventually, the study sessions grew to include several more young men and evolved into a full-time learning group. Anxious to procure funding for their small “yeshiva”, Henry approached a working friend of his, Steven Diamond, and asked him if he would be willing to sponsor the group’s Torah learning. Steven agreed, with one condition: “I’ll give you the money, but make sure I never have to meet your rabbi. I don’t need it.” Ultimately, Mr. Diamond did have occasion to meet Rabbi Davis. The result? Rabbi Hillel Haber shlit”a, is the founder and Rosh Yeshiva of the renowned Yeshiva Shaarei Torah, and Rabbi Shlomo Diamond shlit”a, who became the son-in-law of Rabbi Yehuda Davis, is a prominent leader, and the rav of the large Sephardic community in Deal, N.J.

Much more recently, it is told that Harav Pesach Eliyahu Falk ztz”l (1943 – 2020), rav, poseik and mechaber of many halacha seforim, most well-known to women for his seminal work, “Oz Vehodor Levusha”, could not read well even into his early teens. His father decided that he should work with him in his Judaica store, as he was seeing no success in his studies. Rav Falk asked his father for one more year, transferred to another yeshiva, and with the firm encouragement of his new rosh yeshiva, began his development into the tremendous talmid chacham that he was. Opportunity Optimized

But why should these stories surprise us? Did we not all grow up hearing the story of the heilige Tanna Rabbi Akiva, the poor shepherd who began learning aleph-beis at age 40? Rabbi Akiva said about himself that if he would have met a talmid chochom in his early years, he would have bitten him like a donkey, even on Yom Kippur; such was his hatred of talmidei chachomim. And what of the Amora Reish Lakish, bandit leader of astonishing strength whose holy words are recorded, studied and analyzed in the gemara for all eternity? These are not just nice stories. Shlomo Hamelech says in Koheles that a live dog is better than a dead lion. Why? A dead lion was what he was, but is no more. A live dog, however, can still accomplish. As long as a person is alive, says Shlomo Hamelech, it is guaranteed that he can still grow and improve. In other words, never give up!