The mother of the Chofetz Chaim was once asked why she thought she had merited to have a son as special as the Chofetz Chaim. She said that the only thing she could think of was some advice that her mother had given to her before she got married, that whenever she had a free minute, like while waiting for the soup to boil or any such opportunity, she should use the time to say Tehilim. She felt that due to the Tehilim she said in her spare minutes, she was Zocheh to have a son who grew up to be the Chofetz Chaim.
Rav Binyomin Kirschner writes a story about Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l. Rav Elyashiv was once going to be the Sandek at a Bris, and his grandson, who was escorting him, had arrived fifteen minutes early. As he waited, he noticed that Rav Elyashiv was getting ready to walk out the door, and he asked, “Aren’t we going to leave in fifteen minutes?”
Rav Elyashiv looked at his grandson in surprise and said, “I’m going to the Bais Medrash. It takes five minutes to get there, then I will have five minutes to learn, and it will take five minutes to walk back. Isn’t it worth it?” Exactly fifteen minutes later, Rav Elyashiv returned home to go to the Bris!
Reprinted from the Parshas Behar 5784 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
