The Rebbetzin of Rav Shlomo Zalmen Auerbach, zl, predeceased him. Their fabled marriage was a lesson in sholom bayis and the respect and admiration one should manifest for a spouse. Rav Shlomo Zalmen was in the hospital because his beloved Rebbetzin, his companion in life, with whom he had raised a generation of gedolei Yisrael, had just passed away.
One of his students (Rav Auerbach was Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivah Kol Torah), totally unaware that his revered Rebbe had just been left bereft of his wife, met him in the hospital corridor. The student’s wife had just given birth to a child, and the joy on the young man’s face was palpable. He ran over to his Rebbe and cried out, “I just had a baby (boy (girl)!”
The aged Rosh Yeshivah and poseik ha’dor gave him a big smile and an enthusiastic, “Mazel Tov!” During his moment of pain, he was able to put his own sorrow on hold, because the young man needed a mazel tov! Now! He would not permit his personal anguish to put a damper on his student’s joy. His simcha warranted his Rebbe’s blessing, and he would receive it. Some exceptional people do not live for themselves, but rather, they live focusing on the needs and feelings of others.
Reprinted from the Parshas Yisro 5786 email of Peninim on the Torah, a publication of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland as edited and compiled by Rabbi L. Scheinbaum.
