One of the featured speakers at the recent January 1st Hakhel Yarchei Kallah Event in Flatbush was Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Zev Ginzberg, rav of the Chofetz Chaim Torah Center in Cedarhurst, Long Island. He reflected on some of the most fascinating shailos that he asked of some of the leading Torah leaders of the past generation such as the Steipler Gaon, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Rav Shach, Rav Chaim Pinchus Scheinberg, Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky of blessed memories.
Rabbi Ginzberg recalled a words that he had once heard from Rebbetzin Sheina Chaya Elyashiv an important insight regarding the concept of having the zechus, the merit to mikabel pnei Moshiach, see the coming of Moshiach. She recalled that when her grandfather Rabbi Aryeh Levin, 1885-1969, was very ill and in the hospital, she and one of her sisters went to spend Shabbos with their illustrious grandfather.
When Rabbi Levine’s son came to visit his father, he blessed his father with the wish for a refuah sheleima, a speedy recovery and that he should be mikabel pnei Moshiach. Rebbetzin Elyashiv remembers her father shaking his head negatively and saying that he only wants to recover in order to be able to perform mitzvahs and study Torah in order to properly serve Hashem. [And in that merit may we be worthy of Moshiach.]
Rabbi Aryeh Levine and the Baba Sali
Rabbi Ginzberg remembered when as a young man he came from America to learn Torah in a yeshiva in Yerushalayim. He got a letter from someone telling him of a woman in Jerusalem who had suffered three miscarriages and was now pregnant. Her family was very concerned and they asked Rabbi Ginzberg if he could go to the famous Sephardic mekubel, mystic – the Baba Sali (Rabbi Yisroel Abuhatzeira, 1889-1984) and get from him a bottle of water for the woman to drink as a segula for a safe pregnancy and for the delivery of a healthy baby.
In those days, it was a difficult six-hour trip by non-air-conditioned bus from Yerushalayim to Netivot where the Baba Sala, a famous Moroccan born mystic and reputed miracle worker lived, to be followed by another similar six-hour trip back to the holy city and his yeshivah. He asked his rosh yeshiva if it would be permitted for him to get the special water for the pregnant woman. His teacher said that it was too much time travelling and loss of time from the beis medrash, Torah study hall.. Rather he should go to Bnei Brak and get a brocha, blessing from the Steipler Gaon. He did so and returned to his yeshiva in Jerusalem.
It just so happened that he soon met somebody from Netivot who regularly came to Yerushalayim and he asked that person to on his next trip bring a bottle of water from the Baba Sala. A few days later he got the bottle and gave it the pregnant woman and in a few months, Baruch Hashem, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
Rav Elazar Shach
One time Rabbi Ginzberg went to visit Rav Elazar Shach, 1899-2001, in Bnei Brak. The Torah Gadol was suffering at that time from an abscess in his foot. The doctor explained that he would have to cut out the abscess and that would require using some form of strong anesthesia to eliminate the terrible pain from the famed Rosh Hayeshiva.
However, Rav Shach said that he could not take any anesthesia as he needed to have a clear mind to prepare his shiur, lecture for the students in the Ponevezh Yeshiva. Rabbi Ginzberg along with a grandson was asked to help hold down Rav Shach while the doctor cut out the abscess. Amazingly despite the great pain, Rav Shach was calm throughout the entire procedure.
Once Rabbi Ginzberg visited Rav Shach and saw an amazing incident. Someone told Rav Shach that there was a IDF helicopter crash and six soldiers were killed. Upon hearing that tragic news, Rav Shach burst into uncontrollable tears. Rav Ginzberg noted that many non-religious Jews criticized Rav Shach for his opposition to having yeshiva student enlist in the Israeli army.
Probably none of those six soldiers who were killed in the helicopter accident were the type who would study Torah in his Bnei Brak yeshiva or were even religious. Nevertheless, the news that six Jews had been killed in a tragic accident caused him to cry uncontrollable. And this from a man who did not cry despite the incredible pain he must have felt when the doctor cut out the abscess from his foot.
Reprinted from the January 31, 2025 edition of The Jewish Connection.
