דרך החיים
Below are a number of stories I heard from R’ Yisroel Meir Druk which bring out how every detail of R’ Chaim’s life was done, with weighing out every small detail.
R’ Yisroel Meir Druk relates, how he often sat next to R’ Chaim when he replied to his many letters, and he could see his eidelkeit and how carefully he weighed every wood. Every thought and action was only about the ratzon Hashem. He would prioritize his letters according to kohanim, leviyim and yisroelim, because kohanim always have to come first. If a woman wrote him a letter he wouldn’t read it himself, he would give it to his rebbetzin to read.
R’ Yisroel Meir Druk relates that from the time his children turned bar mitzvah R’ Chaim would ask him “What’s with the shidduch?”. Rav Chaim once woke up in the middle of the night and asked his wife, ‘What have I done to hasten Moshiach’s coming? How can I bring an end to the tzaar of the Shechinah?’ He sat for a few minutes thinking about it. Then he said, ‘I have an idea. It says in the Gemara (Yevamos 62b) that Moshiach will only come when all of the neshamos will descend into the world. I am therefore going to tell everyone to get married young to hasten the descent of the neshamos, which will then hasten the coming of Moshiach.”
R’ Yisroel Meir Druk further relates that one time, he went to R’ Chaim’s house and was told that he was in the hospital. They had discovered that Rav Chaim had a very bad intestinal infection. Rav Chaim decided that he preferred to stay in the hospital for a few days rather than undergo a procedure because he didn’t want surgery. Rav Chaim replied, “The Beis HaMikdosh will soon be rebuilt, and I am a bechor who will have to work there. If you perform the procedure I will be a baal mum, so I would rather have a few days of pain.”
R’ Yisroel Meir Druk further relates that he was once in Rav Chaim’s home when he walked into the living room and said the pasuk, וישב בגרר יצחק. When I asked him for an explanation, he said, “I have a sofek whether or not my living room is considered a shul and one isn’t allowed to use a shul as a shortcut, so I decided to say the shortest pasuk in Tanach.” He was consumed with halachah.