10 Iyar 5550
A few years ago, a festive Shabbos of appreciation was held for the donors of one of the well-known Torah centers in Eretz Yisrael. That Shabbos – which took place in Poland – was attended by hundreds of people from around the world. As is accepted at such events, the tefillos were held together, with a special program that integrated pieces of chazzanus and tefillah in a very special atmosphere.
On Shabbos morning, when Shacharis ended, before they took the Sefer Torah out of the aron kodesh, the gabbai banged on the bimah and announced that he would be selling the aliyos and the other honors to the highest bidder. The proceed would go towards expanding the mosdos.
“One thousand dollars – Kohein,” the gabbai announced, and the bidding began. This aliyah was ultimately sold for six thousand dollars. From one aliyah to the next, the prices went higher and higher, and the most prestigious of the donors competed amongst each other to procure the most coveted aliyos.
Slowly, all the kibbudim were sold, and just the final aliyah was left. The competition for this honor was especially vigorous. The patrons of the mosdos wanted to sell it for the highest possible price to benefit the institutions, and the participants were also vying to merit the aliyah, as it was the final opportunity to get an aliyah on this Shabbos.
The price quickly climbed. As it did, the number of people competing for the aliyah declined, and finally, just two remained. The first one declared: “Twenty-four thousand dollars.” The people all waited with bated breath to see what would happen – would he win the aliyah? But after a few seconds, which felt like much longer, the competitor announced: “Twenty-five thousand.”
Silence hung in the room. It seemed that the other person was considering dropping his bid, but then, a surprising turnabout occurred: From the corner of the shul, one of the philanthropists, who had not participated in any of the bidding at all until then, announced loudly: “I’m ready to double the price to fifty thousand dollars!”
A buzz rippled through the crowd, but then the man added, with tears in his eyes:
“I have on condition for this sale: My precious son, a young man who married more than seven years ago, does not yet have children. I am ready to pay fifty thousand dollars for this coveted aliyah, with a condition: After I have the aliyah, when I stand near the Sefer Torah, the gabbai should say Mi Shebeirach and should mention his name for zera shel kayama, and the whole assemblage here should join his brachah by answering amen.”
The crowd nodded in agreement, and the gabbai announced: “Sold!” and the final bidding closed.
One after another, all the prominent philanthropists came up for their aliyos. When it came to the final one, the gabbai announced loudly, in a singsong tone: “Ya’amod, Reb Ploni ben Reb Ploni,” and the man came up to the Torah. When the reading was finished, and the oleh concluded the brachah of “Asher Nasan,” there was silence in the shul, as the gabbai recited the Mi Shebeirach for the yeshuah of this young man, the son of the oleh. At the end of the Mi Shebeirach, he sang out “venomar amen,” and a thunderous amen echoed from the crowd.
There was a special sensation in the air. The mispallelim felt the intensity of the answering of amen that they said dozens of times a day, and they were all sure that this tefillah was destined to be answered.
Needless to say, less than a year later, the gvir’s son was blessed with a child after long years of waiting.
lies was born in 5465 in the town of Yazlowitz to his father, Rav Tzvi Hirsh, who served as Rav of the town. In his father’s home, he absorbed Torah and holiness, and already by the age of five, he was learning Mishnah and Gemara.
During his childhood, he became close to the Baal Shem Tov, and when he was twelve, he traveled to him with his older brother, Rav Yitzchak Ber. As he wrote in his will (Sod Yachin UBoaz Ch. 2): “And from my childhood, from the day that I was introduced to the dveikus and love of my master Moreinu HaRav Yisrael, ה“ ,תנצבI knew with faith that his practices were with holiness and purity, with chassidus and prishus...and kevod Hashem haster davar.”
Rav Meir served as Rav in many towns. When he was twenty-nine, he was appointed to serve under his father in Yazlowitz, and later he served in the towns of Breslov, Komarna, Lvov, Horodonka and Ostroh. Questions in halachah were directed to him from communities far and wide, and everything that he uttered was accepted with awe throughout the Jewish Diaspora.
He wrote many seforim, but only a few of them were actually published, among them Me’ir Nesivim, shu”t and Al HaTorah; Kesonos Ohr, on the 613 mitzvos; Mikveh Hamayim on the halachos of mikvaos and the sefer of his will and testament that he left for his children entitled Sod Yachin UBoaz.
On Shabbos Parashas Achrei Mos, 10 Iyar 5550, his pure soul ascended On High. He was laid to rest in the ancient cemetery in Ostroh.
The matzeivah of the Me’ir Nesivim in the cemetery in Ostroh.
