The Steipler Gaon, ZT”L, was once going through a tough time financially. He ended up getting in touch with and working alongside Rabbi Dardack from Cleveland, who offered to help sell his seforim in America. When Rabbi Dardack received the first shipment of seforim, he began learning them and wrote down any questions he had. After a few months, when the seforim were sold and he was sending back the money to the Steipler, he included all his questions on the seforim.
When Rabbi Dardack received the next shipment, he also received the answers to all his questions. This cycle went on for years.
Later in life, the Steipler stopped selling seforim and responding to letters due to his old age. Nevertheless, he always pushed himself to respond to Rabbi Dardack. However, since he didn’t have much money, he would bring his letters to the house of Mr. Dardack, Rabbi Dardack’s father, who lived nearby and would then send them to his son.
One time, he brought over a letter, returned shortly after asking for it back, and then came back again with a newly written one. Mr. Dardack asked if there was a mistake in the first letter. The Steipler responded, “No, I didn’t change a word.”
Curious, Mr. Dardack then asked why he rewrote the letter. The Steipler responded, “Normally, I don’t write letters anymore. However, I don’t want your son to think that I don’t care to respond now that I don’t need his help anymore. So, I pushed myself to write the first letter, despite it being difficult. However, I wrote it in a rush, like it was a burden. I wanted to rewrite it properly, with hakaras hatov - not because I must respond to him, but because I want to.”
Reprinted from the Parshas Bamidbar/Shavuos 5785 email of Torah Sweets.
