We know the tremendous impact a caring Rebbe can make. Here are some stories that bring out this point.
There was a yeshiva in Lakewood that decided to eject a boy in 10th grade from the school since he was bringing other boys downhill along with himself. Although the Rosh Yeshiva intended to be in contact with the boy after he left the yeshiva, he got so busy that it slipped his mind. By the time he remembered, he was too embarrassed to call the boy and so he hoped that he would bump into him sometime. Four years later, the Rosh Yeshiva bumped into the boy exiting shul with his hat and jacket and apologized for not being in touch with him. They conversed and the boy mentioned the many yeshivos he attended after his ejection from the yeshiva in 10th grade. Over the course of the conversation, the Rosh Yeshiva asked him what spurred his turnaround. The boy answered, “R' Horowitz, my 10th grade Rebbe. For the two years after I left the yeshiva until I attended yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael, he called me every Friday.” When the Rosh Yeshiva saw R' Horowitz next, he told him what the boy said. When R' Horowitz heard this, he began to cry, and said, “It’s true. I called him every Friday for two years straight without a miss. But he never answered the phone once!” This boy knew that his Rebbe cared, although his Rebbe was unaware that the boy got this message.
Let’s move on to another story. On the night R’ Yehoshua Hartman got engaged, he told his Rebbe, R’ Yitzchak Hutner, about these plans. On this night of his engagement, he arrived home at 3:30 in the morning. At 3:45 in the morning, R’ Hutner called him and wished him Mazel Tov! Then he asked, “Why didn’t you call me?” R’ Hartman replied I was planning on calling at 830 a.m. when it is a normal hour. R’ Hutner’s reply: “If it was your father or mother, would you wait until then also?!”
Here is one final story. someone was once pushing R' Dovid Soloveitchik to accept a certain student into yeshiva. R' Dovid said that the boy can learn in the Beis Midrash but cannot be accepted to the yeshiva. The man asked incredulously if he can learn in the Beis Midrash, why can’t he join the yeshiva. R' Dovid told him that he davens and cries (The duration of his regular weekday Shemoneh Esrei, accompanied with tears, was between 45 minutes and an hour.) for the success of each boy in the yeshiva. But now that I have reached the quota of what I can handle, I cannot daven even for one more boy.
