by A. Ben-Yitzhar
Musaf Shabbos Kodesh Pesach 5756
There are certain times and moments that cannot be described in words. Rather their contents speak for themselves. Hours, which by virtue of your having lived them, can take you back at any time to generations past. This was the feeling we had when interviewing one of the Chofetz Chaim's early talmidim.
His name is HaRav Kalman Farber. For ten years he studied under the tutelage of Maran, the author of Chofetz Chaim and Mishna Berurah, zt'l.--Ten years of life spent on a different plane, one of holiness, ruchniyus, otherworldliness.
This can be understood by those for whom the very name Chofetz Chaim elicits a certain tremor, for whom not a day goes by without reaching for one of the tens of his holy seforim. Are there any among us who can remain impassive when sitting in the presence of an elderly man, who retains a clear, bright picture, of his esteemed rebbe, Maran the Chofetz Chaim, and who is able to reenact his many conversations, sayings and mannerisms?
Rav Kalman Farber is more than willing to share his wellspring of memoirs; all one has to do is sit and absorb his every word uttered in his inimitable deep voice, a voice whose clarity has not been marred by advanced age.
"So it's the Chofetz Chaim you came to hear about?" Rav Farber opens the interview. "Ahh, three generations have passed since then. Three whole generations separate us from those days, that era. Today nothing is the same. Different concepts, a different generation!" He becomes lost in thought, but quickly shakes himself out of his reverie.
"O.K. I'll try to tell you stories that have not yet been published in all the books about the Chofetz Chaim," begins Rav Farber.
"For two years I had the privilege of participating in the limited minyan of yeshivaleit who davened Shacharis together with the Chofetz Chaim in his tiny room. When I had just arrived at the yeshiva, the Chofetz Chaim was still able to get around independently, albeit slowly, and with two bochurim supporting him on either side. Later on though, this too was difficult for him and he would come to the yeshiva with "Avrumke, the baal agola." [In eastern Europe at that time the main means of local transportation was a horse and wagon. Avrumke had a horse and would take the Chofetz Chaim wherever he needed to go.] However, he continued to daven at home and a steady minyan of bochurim was arranged.
Shemiras Hayodayim
"I noticed that whenever the Chofetz Chaim saw a fly or some other pest that he wanted to chase away he would hold the corner of his tallis or his handkerchief, but he would never use his bare hands. Also he never touched his face with his hands.
"For many years I could not understand the reason for this; the face is considered a naturally-exposed area of the body which one may see and touch. Recently, after having read the stories written by his son, HaGaon HaRav Leib zt'l I finally understood. Rav Leib told about the time that the Chofetz Chaim fled with the yeshiva and his family from Poland to Russia. It came time to daven Mincha and they entered a shul. `Before davening,' Reb Leib said, `I washed my hands as prescribed by the Shulchan Oruch but I noticed that my father began davening right away. Afterward I asked my father about this and he answered, "I guard my hands at all times!" '
"Now the reasons for the Chofetz Chaim's holy actions finally became clear to me," Rav Farber says. "The Chofetz Chaim was simply cautious that his hands remain tohor at all times and therefore he did not touch anything. Just as he guarded his tongue [from evil speech] he guarded his hands! Therefore, when he had to chase away a fly he would use something to cover his hands.
"From this we can gain an inkling of how the Chofetz Chaim became what he was; just as
