As a young man, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, was informed that he was being considered for the position of Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva Kol Torah in Jerusalem and he was invited to deliver a Shiur (class) before the heads of the Yeshiva.
Not long after the Shiur had begun, Rav Yona Merzbach, one of the founders of Kol Torah, interrupted the Shiur with a challenge to Rav Shlomo Zalman about something that he had been asserting. After a few seconds of silence, Rav Shlomo Zalman declared, “Ta’isi (I am mistaken).” He then began a new topic which was the focus of the remainder of the Shiur. When he returned home and his Rebbitzin asked him how he had fared, Rav Shlomo Zalman replied, “Not so well. The Shiur had hardly begun when I admitted to a mistake. Actually, I had three different answers to offer the one who had questioned me. However, I felt that my answers were not truly responsive to the question and that the strength of the question being asked indicated that there was a fault in my line of reasoning.”
Nevertheless, Rav Shlomo Zalman was chosen to be Rosh Yeshiva. Years later, Rabbi Merzbach told Rabbi Yehuda Addas, Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Torah, “Do you know why Rav Shlomo Zalman was appointed to his position? When I asked him a question and he responded, ‘I am mistaken,’ it was clear to me that with such a level of Emes (truth), he should be our next Rosh Yeshiva.
It was not often that Rav Shlomo Zalman retracted an explanation in favor of a student's opinion. But on those rare occasions that he found a student’s reasoning to be superior to his own, he admitted his mistake joyfully and without hesitation.
He once told a student, “I suspect that in the World to Come, I will not receive reward for the times when I admitted to the truth [as it comes easy to me]. What shall I do? I enjoy letting someone know that he is right.”
