Along with his tremendous astuteness and remarkable genius, the Chofetz Chaim possessed a simple faith that is almost impossible to describe. Everything was obvious and simple to him, with absolutely no chochmos. He would speak to Hakodosh Boruch Hu as if he were speaking to a king who was standing right in front of his eyes, like a son speaking to his father. Whatever happened to him, or whomever he met -- he deemed nothing as coincidental or without cause. For him, all events had their root in spirituality, and he was able to learn a lesson from them. Whatever he heard held deep significance for him, and he did not believe that there existed anything that was devoid of meaning.
When he was in Russia, during the time that he fled with the yeshiva from Poland, a certain Jew came to him to ask for a brochoh. The Chofetz Chaim placed his hand on him and asked, 'Reb Yid, where are you from?' 'From Minsk,' was the answer. 'And what is your occupation?' the Chofetz Chaim continued to inquire. 'I deal in animal hides,' the Jew replied. 'And how's business? Is it going well?' The Chofetz Chaim asked. 'Boruch Hashem business is very good,' he answered.
The Chofetz Chaim couldn't understand how a Jew could be prospering under the tyrannical rule of Czar Nikolai, and he voiced his puzzlement. 'I work with the royal ministers, they buy my hides,' the Jew explained. 'Oy, you work with the Czar's ministers?' the Chofetz Chaim asked. "How can you work with them, they're murderers! How do you manage?' 'I bribe them,' the Jew explained simply. 'Bribe?' continued the Chofetz Chaim. 'And without a bribe they won't purchase your merchandise?' 'Rebbe, if I wouldn't bribe them they would start checking every single piece, finding all kinds of flaws and defects, and in the end they might not even agree to buy anything. What would I do then? So, I bribe them and then everything goes smoothly; they take everything without checking or examining too much.'
The Chofetz Chaim immediately answered, 'Aha, that's exactly how things work with us! A person davens, does mitzvos, but the prosecuting angels begin to testify against him: Here his prayer was not the way it should have been, there, while learning he fell asleep or chatted, etc., in short, everything is blemished. So what does HaKodosh Boruch Hu do in order to help this Jew? He calls over the good angels. They immediately begin to defend him saying, 'What do you want from this Jew's prayer, look how steeped he is in suffering! His wife is ill, his son was conscripted to the Polish army, he has problems with his parents. What do you want from him? This man also does chessed, he gives charity to those who are alone and destitute!' 'And then,' continued the Chofetz Chaim, 'HaKodosh Boruch Hu takes this Jew and saves him from all the prosecuting angels. This is the "bribe" that we give to HaKodosh Boruch Hu! The charity we give and the chessed we do -- that is what saves us!' concluded the Chofetz Chaim.
Whenever you walked into the Chofetz Chaim's house you would hear a chiddush about some posuk or other. Every day after davening we would hear from him a gutte vort -- after Shacharis and also after Mincha and Ma'ariv.
He knew the entire Tanach by heart, backwards and forwards. As soon as you would walk into his house you would acquire a treasure: an interesting explanation on a posuk. Afterwards the bochurim would come to the yeshiva and tell over what they had heard: such and such a commentary, or some story or interesting fact. Some of these vertlach I remember till today," says Rav Kalman Farber.
One of the Chofetz Chaim's famous adages was: 'People worry about having with what to live, and I ask, do they have with what to die?'
Another one of his pet sayings was his commentary on the verse, Mi ho'ish hechofeitz chaim, oheiv yomim liros tov, 'Who is the man who desires life, loves days to see good.' Whoever really loves his days, must make sure that he has good days. For we will meet our days [from this world again] in Olam Haboh when everything will be shown to us, and we will see for ourselves exactly how we spent our days. We will be shown all the days in which we wasted our time and did not learn, spoke forbidden speech, looked at what we were not allowed to see -- everything will be displayed to us as we undergo judgment. So the person who really wants life and loves his days, and indeed wants his days to be good ones, that person must see to it that his days are good -- so that they will be good for him!
He would quote: 'In olam habo who jumps first? Theft jumps first. Who is the prosecutor? Theft is the primary prosecutor' (Bereishis Rabba, 80).
'Why theft, of all sins?' asked the Chofetz Chaim and answered with a story. 'There once was a successful merchant who had a store but went bankrupt. Those who had supplied him with merchandise came demanding the money he owed them. The merchant said that he had no money left since he went bankrupt. As long as the merchant continues arguing with his creditors all is well and good, and no action is taken. But what if one of the creditors is bold and impudent? He will demand his money back and when he sees that the merchant is not able to pay up, he does not continue to negotiate with the merchant as the others did, but rather simply takes whatever merchandise he can seize from the store shelves.
As soon as he begins, all the other creditors follow suit until the merchant is stripped of his last belongings. This is how it works with us,' the Chofetz Chaim explained. 'When a person arrives in Olam Haboh he is met by all the sins he committed during his lifetime, but none can do anything yet to harm him. Theft, however, jumps to the forefront and begins to accuse and prosecute, because the angel that is created from a person's sin has the same attribute as the sin itself. Since the nature of theft is such that it is done with force and chutzpah, naturally this is the sin that jumps forward to prosecute. It shouts and does not give any peace, and then as soon as it begins, all the other sins immediately begin to shout as well.' "
Reb Kalman is quiet for a moment as he becomes immersed in his thoughts and memories. "The Chofetz Chaim's approach to everything was with total simplicity, but with a profound understanding. When he would speak, his words were palpable."
