It is said that Rav Chaim Brisker was a Ba’al Chessed of unimaginable greatness, but this part of his character was overshadowed by his genius. The Chofetz Chaim was a Ga’on BaTorah beyond comprehension but this Gadlus was overshadowed by his character.
His house was open to the public and people would make themselves at home as if they owned the place. At times Rav Chaim would not go to sleep because someone was in his bed. The Brisker Rav said that his father's home was much worse than a Reshus HoRabbim (public area). If you made your bed in the street, the authorities would come and take it away. In his father's house, there were no rules and people did whatever they wanted.
In 1895, after a fire destroyed many homes in Brisk, Rav Chaim slept on the floor in the hallway of the shul and, despite the pleas of his family, refused to sleep in his home when so many Yehudim did not have a roof over their heads.
Rav Chaim hated money and when it came into his hands, he made sure it did not remain in his possession very long, certainly not overnight. His family would hide any money they had in the house. At some point, the Kehilla of Brisk stopped giving him his paycheck and gave it only to his wife, because he would disburse it immediately to the poor.
To describe his Chessed is impossible. To try to describe his Torah is downright chutzpa. We will share one story that gives a glimpse of how he felt about Kevod HaTorah. One Motzo’ei Shabbos, after spending many hours dictating twelve pages of chiddushim into the wee hours of the morning to one of the shochtim in Brisk who would write for him, he stopped and reached out for the papers and tore them into shreds, declaring, "False Torah cannot exist. The world only needs authentic Torah!"
