DEVELOPING TORAH VALUES - part 2

“What is Gadlus? In Halocha we find that a child has reached sufficient maturity - termed, growth or “Gadlus” if he understands and practices “Tzror Vizorko Egoz Vinotlo” - he will throw away a useless stone but will take an edible nut.

“But not only is a young child’s maturity and intelligence tested by his ability to differentiate between what has true purpose and what is only a plaything. We are all tested that way. We have our cars; we have furniture. What do they mean to us? How do we view them? Do we view them as functional objects - a car as a means of transportation, a chair as something to sit on, or must they become objects of beauty - ends in themselves where every feature is something to be excited about and even a little scratch becomes a major catastrophe? (I remember how the Lakewood Mashgiach, Rav Nosson Wachtfogel [shlita] (ZTL), used to call furniture “di heltzer” - the pieces of wood!)

“The Rosh Yeshiva would always say, One has to know the difference between an “Ikkor” - something purposeful and important, and a “Tofeil” - something which is unimportant in itself and serves only as an aid to achieving and obtaining the “Ikkor”. (“He once added an important point: a “Tofeil” does not mean a “smaller Ikkor”, rather it means something which has no value whatsoever in itself.”) And the Rosh Yeshiva taught that what is not related to Torah has no value - it is not “Tofeis Makom” - it has no place whatsoever in the real world (whose essence is Hashem and His Torah).

“What were the chairs like in the Yeshiva dining room in those days? They were simple non matching chairs that were picked up from closed down stores or hotels. What was the food like? Everything was as simple as could be. I remember how on Shabbosos the Rosh Yeshiva would sit and talk with us “in learning”. The hot “cholent” would be served, but the Rosh Yeshiva would continue talking. Invariably by the time we ate, the “cholent” was no longer hot. I’m sorry to say that at first I didn’t understand why the Rosh Yeshiva didn’t interrupt the “talking in learning” for a while . . . Then I realized what a lesson (in Ahavas Torah and in what should interest and give a Ben Torah pleasure) we were being taught.”

Rav Yosef Kaufman shlita described the Shabbos table succinctly: “Yes, the Rosh Yeshiva asked a Menagen to sing a few Nigunim (usually two) and of course there was food to eat; but if you wanted to ‘make the eating count’ you didn’t belong there; you didn’t last long. It was a Shulchan Lifnei Hashem (table set in the presence of Hashem)!

As for how the Rosh Yeshiva ate his own food, that was a lesson in itself. It was a lesson in eating without pursuing pleasure; eating with total self control, l’sheim shomayim - for the sake of being healthy to serve Hashem . . . Prishus!

“The Rosh Yeshiva knew exactly how much he needed to eat,” tells Rav Yaakov Weissberg shlita, “and he never ate more. If they brought him a piece of chicken that was slightly bigger than he wanted to eat, he would leave the extra over. If it was too large, he would ask for a second plate, cut off and put away the extra food, and only then begin to eat.”

“Once Mrs. Berman o.h., the devoted yeshiva cook who always tended to the Rosh Yeshiva’s needs with the greatest care, decided that since the Rosh Yeshiva was always busy ‘speaking in learning’ by the Shabbos meals and could hardly manage to cut his own food, it would be a good idea if she cut off all the meat from his chicken in advance. She did that but then was bothered by how small the portion seemed to be, so she cut off the meat from a second piece and put it all on the same plate.”

“The Rosh Yeshiva ate between ‘talking in learning’ as usual. When he was about halfway through with his portion he glanced at his plate. He then took one or two more small pieces and left over all the rest.”

The Rosh Yeshiva didn’t focus on his food at all for that matter. Every now and then he would stick in his fork and take something. If he was sitting with talmidim he “spoke in learning;” if he was by himself he always had a sefer before him to study from. His rebbitzin o.h. said she doesn’t remember him ever eating [alone] without an open sefer in front of him. His grandson, Rav Isser Zalman Schwartzman remembers him eating while looking intently in a Mishneh LaMelech (an extremely complicated commentary) and the table was piled with s’forim. Finally, as spoken of at length elsewhere in this book, (and heard by this writer from Rav Schneur zt'l) it should be noted that the Rosh Yeshiva trained himself to “think in learning” at all times and even in the most trying situations, and he certainly did so while eating.

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