The great gaon, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, was an uncle to three roshei yeshiva of the Chevron Yeshiva, Rav Aharon Cohen, Rav Yechezkel Sarna, and Rav Moshe Chevroni. At the levayah of Rav Isser Zalman in Yerushalayim in 1953, Rav Moshe Chevroni was maspid and told a fascinating story about his uncle’s love of Torah. This is the story he told.
During the period of British control of Eretz Yisroel in the lead-up to the founding of the State of Israel, a bitter guerilla war was ongoing between the British occupiers and the Jewish underground. In an attempt to curtail the activities of the underground, the British imposed strict overnight curfews, forbidding anyone to be out of their homes between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. British soldiers would patrol the streets, and anyone who was found disobeying the curfew was taken to jail and locked up, no questions asked. If the person looked suspicious to them, they would shoot him on the spot.
Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer and Rav Moshe Chevroni
During one of these curfews, Rav Moshe Chevroni was learning in the yeshiva at 2 a.m. when he heard knocks on the door. He became frightened, afraid that British soldiers were looking for weapons or suspects. He did not understand English and had no way of communicating with them. He feared that they would take him away. As the knocking continued, he said a tefillah, asking Hashem to protect him, and approached the door. He stood by the door and, in a shaking voice, asked who was there.
“Der feter. It is your uncle,” said the voice on the other side in Yiddish.
He opened the door, and there, at 2:00 in the morning, was his uncle, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer. Relieved, he let him in and began asking questions. “What are you doing here at this hour? Why would you leave your house in middle of a curfew and put your life in jeopardy to walk here? It is dangerous to be seen outside on the street.”
Rav Isser Zalman explained that he was learning at home and arrived at a difficulty in understanding a ruling of the Rambam. As hard as he tried, he could not come up with a solution to his question, and he knew that he would not be able to sleep until he understood the Rambam. “I was wondering who I could ask my question to at this late hour. I told my wife, ‘Our nephew, Rav Moshe Chevroni, is certainly awake. He must be in the yeshiva learning now. I will go to him, and together we will review the sugya and the Rambam. We will figure it out and arrive at an understanding. Then I will return home.’ So here I am.”
As he was delivering the hesped and recounting this, Rav Chevroni said in amazement that he was astonished by Rav Isser Zalman’s love for Torah. How at 2 a.m., he left his house, during a curfew no less, to walk to the Chevron Yeshiva in pursuit of an answer to his question on the Rambam. Then he continued with the story.
“He told me his brilliant question and looked at me. I asked Hashem to enlighten me and help me offer an explanation. A thought came to my mind. I shared it with him and he was satisfied that he now had the proper understanding of the Rambam.
“He got up to leave and return home. I said to him, ‘Where are you going? You can’t go back home. It is too dangerous. Stay here with me and rest until 6 a.m. Then you can safely return home.
“But he wouldn’t hear of it. He said that he had to write down the answer. I told him that he could write the answer there in the yeshiva. I would supply him with a pen and paper. But he said that he needed to write it in his notebook and that he couldn’t write it in yeshiva. He had to be home in order to write it properly. So he went home.
“Look at that love for Torah! Look how dedicated he was to understanding Torah! What a wonderful story. What an amazing lesson. What an astonishing person he was!”
He finished his hesped and everyone was impressed with his story and buzzing about it.
During the shivah, when he went to be menachem avel his aunt and family, his aunt called him over. “That was not what happened,” she said. He looked at her. “What do you mean that’s not what happened? It happened with me. I was there. I heard and saw everything. He came to me in the middle of the night during a tough curfew and asked me the kushya on the Rambam.”
“That part is true. He came to you during the curfew at night and asked you a kushya on a Rambam. You told that story to demonstrate the love of Torah of your uncle, and that is true, but everybody knew that before you told them the story. Everybody is aware of his love for Torah and his hasmodah. But now I’m going to tell you the rest of the story, and you will see a different side of his greatness.”
This is what she told him.
“He wrote his sefer Even Ha’azel and I helped him with it. He very much wanted it to be printed, as did I. But in those days, it wasn’t simple. The printer had a lot of work and it moved along very slowly. The printer told him that there would be a multi-year wait to get the sefer out. He was very upset, but there was nothing we could do other than wait.
“One day, I was notified by the printer that there was a cancellation. If I would get him Rav Isser Zalman’s transcripts by 8:00 the next morning, they would immediately get to work on the sefer. But, they told me, if they are not there by 8:05, we would lose our opportunity and they would give the slot to someone else.
“When he came home that night, I told him the good news. I was thrilled. Everything was prepared. The kesovim were all organized and ready to go to the printer. And now, we had an opportunity to have the sefer finally printed.
“But when I told him this, he turned white. I asked what happened and he explained: ‘You know that I included in the sefer a kushya and teirutz from Rav Aharon Cohen. I also have a kushya and teirutz from Rav Yechezkel Sarna. But I do not have anything from Rav Moshe Chevroni.’
“I told him that Rav Moshe Chevroni is humble and would not be hurt if there is nothing from him in the sefer, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He said that he couldn’t fathom the risk of hurting him, even if it meant not printing the sefer.”
The rebbetzin related that she was so upset that she almost began to cry, but she had a brainstorm. She told Rav Isser Zalman that he should go to Rav Moshe Chevroni. “Ask him to answer a question that you have in your writings on a difficult Rambam, even though you already know the answer. Then erase the answer that you wrote and insert his answer into the Even Ha’azel and it will be ready to go to press.”
The rebbetzin told Rav Chevroni, “Rav Isser Zalman accepted my proposal and left the house, arriving at the yeshiva at 2 a.m. to hear your answer to the question, so that there would be no chance of your feelings being hurt.
“He came to you with his difficult Rambam and told you that he could not sleep. And that was the truth. He could not sleep if there was any chance that you would be insulted. He desperately wanted to print the sefer that he had worked so hard on. So he went out in the wee hours of the morning, at great danger to himself, to ensure that he would not hurt the feelings of another person. He asked the question to which he knew the answer, and then he ran back home to adjust the transcript and get it to the printer by 8 a.m.”
Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer was famed as a great talmid chochom, a great rosh yeshiva, and a great masmid who loved the Torah. But he was also exceedingly considerate of other people, to the extent that put his life in danger to prevent hurting another. And that is the greatness demonstrated in the story that Rav Chevroni told at his levayah.
May we learn the lesson taught by Rav Isser Zalman, who knew what it means to be a Yid: kind, considerate, gentle, and unfailingly thoughtful.
Reprinted from the May 4, 2022 website of the Yated Ne’eman.
