The Rebbe of Sochatchov, Rabbi Avraham (author of Avnei Nezer), was in the midst of delivering a lesson in the Jerusalem Talmud. Dozens of students filled the study hall, listening intently to his sharp and erudite explanations.
Suddenly, Rabbi Avraham fell silent and sank into thought. This was unusual for he typically delivered his lessons in a rapid, flowing manner. After a minute, the Rebbe’s face lit up with a special glow, and an exclamation of wonder escaped his lips. Naturally, this aroused the students’ curiosity, but they did not dare ask their teacher about it. A moment later, Rabbi Avraham himself resolved the mystery.
“My dear students,” he began, “just now we learned in the Gemara about the incident of Rabbi Tarfon and his mother. His mother was walking on Shabbat in the courtyard of her home when her sandal suddenly tore. Rabbi Tarfon placed his palms beneath her feet, and she walked upon them until she reached her bed. The Gemara goes on to relate that once Rabbi Tarfon fell ill, and the Sages came to visit him. His mother said to them, ‘pray for my son Tarfon, for he honors me more than is necessary,’ and she told them the story of the torn sandal. The Sages replied to her, ‘even if he were to do this a thousand times over, he still would not have reached even half of the honor that the Torah commands.’”
A Personal Incident
Rabbi Avraham’s face grew flushed. “How can this be?!” he raised his voice. “A worried mother turns to the Sages asking them to pray for her sick son, and she brings up a merit on his behalf. Is it not fitting the Sages should agree with her and even reinforce her words? Why did they act as they did—nullifying her words and diminishing the deed of her son?!”
His excitement intensified, and he began swaying from side to side. “Listen to an incident that happened to me personally,” he said unexpectedly, seemingly digressing from his earlier point. “When I was still supported at the table of my teacher and father-in-law, the great Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, I once fell ill and was utterly exhausted. The members of the household sent a special messenger to my father, the Rabbi of Biała, to come immediately to Kotzk.
Is That Called Learning?!
“My father immediately set aside all his affairs and traveled to visit me. Upon his arrival, he was surprised to learn that my father-in-law, the Rebbe of Kotzk, was not at all stirred by the news of my illness and had not even come to see me. This astonished my father greatly. He gathered his courage, entered the Rebbe’s closed room, and burst into tears. ‘Rebbe!’ he cried, ‘I entrusted my precious son to you, gave him to you in marriage, confident that you would watch over him, and now I hear that you did not even go to visit him! Does the Rebbe know that my Avraham’le is accustomed to sit and study Torah twenty hours a day?’”
“My father-in-law listened to my father and replied: ‘Is that called learning?!’
“My father knew before whom he stood, well aware of my father-in-law’s righteousness and sharpness, and he left the room broken and crushed, without telling anyone what the Rebbe had said.
After a few days, my illness passed—far more quickly than expected. Only once I had fully recovered did my father tell me of the cryptic exchange between himself and my father-in-law.
“For forty years I remembered these words, and no matter how hard I tried to grasp my father-in-law’s intent, I could not. ‘How can it be?’ I asked myself. ‘I was seriously ill, my father mentioned me before the Rebbe and spoke in my favor, citing my Torah study of twenty hours a day. The Torah says, “for through it your days will be multiplied and years of life will be added to you”; and yet my father-in-law dismisses my diligence so casually?!’”
Finally Clear
Rabbi Avraham of Sochatchov paused briefly, waiting for his words to sink into the hearts of his listeners. “And now,” he continued, “as we study the story in the Jerusalem Talmud about Rabbi Tarfon and his mother, and the Sages’ response when she sought to mention him favorably before them—my father-in-law’s words have finally become clear to me as well.
The Cryptic Exchange
continued from page one:
“Listen carefully, and I will explain:
Every Jew is sent into this world to rectify a specific matter. If he falls short in that matter, he must return to this world again, and in his second or third incarnation he must correct what he previously lacked. This is taught in the holy Zohar and in the writings of the AriZal, of blessed memory.
“How does a person know that he is in a reincarnation and that he must rectify a particular matter? The answer is that one sees which mitzvah he yearns for most; then it becomes clear that this mitzvah requires his rectification. Sometimes one encounters a person who is wholly devoted to the mitzvah of charity—this is a sign that he came into the world to rectify this mitzvah, which he neglected in a previous incarnation. The same applies to one who devotes himself greatly to Torah study or to any other mitzvah.
“When the mother of Rabbi Tarfon praised her son for his exceptional devotion in honoring his mother, the Sages understood from her words that Rabbi Tarfon had come into the world to rectify this mitzvah. On that basis, the Sages considered that perhaps he had already completed the rectification, and consequently his role in the world was finished and his time to depart had arrived. Therefore, the Sages said to Rabbi Tarfon’s mother: know that he has not yet reached even half of the mitzvah of honoring one’s mother. In doing so, they effectively decreed for him additional years of life.
“So too with my father: when he told my saintly father-in-law about my studying twenty hours a day, my father-in-law understood from this that I had come into the world to rectify this matter, which I apparently had corrupted in a previous incarnation. If so, in light of my great diligence, it was possible that I had already corrected it and could depart from the world! Therefore, my father-in-law dismissed his words, saying, ‘is that called learning?!’ With this brief statement, my father-in-law cut off the judgment—that my appointed day had not yet arrived.”
