The Valuable Advice Of the Stretner Rebbe
A man once approached the Stretner Rebbe and asked him for advice on how he can come to love Hashem. He said, “How can someone love Hashem when He can’t be seen?” The Rebbe answered, “The best way to love Hashem is to first love other people. By loving other Jews it expands his heart, and it teaches him to be less self-centered. This will ultimately lead one to love Hashem as well.
“We learn this from the Gemara (Shabbos 30a) where Hillel taught that one should not do to others what they themselves would not like to be done to them. He said, ‘This is the entire Torah, everything else is commentary.’
“How can we understand this statement? What does concern for others have to do with all the Mitzvos that are between man and Hashem, like Shabbos, Kashrus, and so many others?
“The answer is that if one shows concern for others, he learns to become less focused on himself. This change makes him sensitive to the needs of other people, which leads him to do the will of Hashem and learn more Torah, and he will then come to love Hashem more and more!”
Requesting a Note To Give to Hashem
In 1945 when the Holocaust finally ended, a thirteen-year-old boy who managed to survive the war alone, landed safely on the shores of America. Because of the war, this boy missed out on his early schooling years as a child. This boy had a very strong desire to go to yeshiva and study Torah but he didn't even have an aleph bet education.
He was fortunate to befriend a family that took him in. He tried to enroll in one Yeshivah after another but none of them would allow a thirteen-year-old boy to sit in the first grade class to learn the basics.
After many attempts, he decided that he would try one last school and again the principal turned him down. After that final rejection, he turned to the principal and made this somber request...He asked the Principal with tears in his eyes..."Can you please write me a note stating that I came to you and asked to be accepted in your Yeshivah, so that I could learn Torah and you told me that you couldn't accommodate a thirteen-year-old boy to sit in a first grade class. Please see to it that when I die, the Chevrah Kadisha buries me with that note in my hand, so that I can come before Hashem and tell Him that at least I tried to the best of my ability to learn Torah but wasn't able to because of my dilemma".
When the principal heard this heartbreaking plea from the boy, he jumped from his chair, embraced the boy and together they both cried. The very next day, this boy was learning Torah with boys who were nine years younger than him. He was finally doing what he has been striving to do...to Learn Torah!
Today this boy is a Talmid Chacham, who for almost 50 years has been teaching Torah to eager young men in Yerushalayim, who like himself, have a strong desire to achieve Torah knowledge!
Ka’na’us and Shalom
One must be very careful before acting in a way of Ka’na’us. Unless one is 100% Lshem Shamayim, one’s Ka’na’us can cause him to lose the entire Middah of Shalom.
The Steipler Gaon
