Rav Moshe Shapiro, zt”l
Rav Menachem Nissel said about his Rebbi, Rav Moshe Shapiro, zt”l, that one time, a beloved Talmid of Rav Moshe’s cried to him that his wife had gone through three miscarriages in a row.
Rav Moshe was visibly upset and thought for a while before he spoke. Three times in a row is a Chazakah, an establishment of “Pisuk Chaim”, which can be roughly translated as a “the removal of life”, he told him. “Therefore,” Rav Moshe said, “You need to involve yourself with promoting life.”
The Talmid asked, “What is life? On the most basic level, it means to be alive. How can I involve myself with this?”
Rav Moshe told him, “Adopt a family struggling to survive financially, and buy them chicken for Shabbos for a year so they should have what to eat. This is life. And on a deeper level, life is Torah. Become more involved in Torah.” Rav Nissel said that although this Talmid was already a noted Talmid Chacham and was involved in spreading Torah, Rav Moshe encouraged him to teach more Shiurim and spread the Torah, the Eitz Chaim, the Tree of Life, in more directions.
Within a year that Talmid and his wife had a healthy son!
Reprinted from the Parshas Va’eira 5785 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
