Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz zt"l
Rosh Yeshiva of Mir
Author: Sichos Mussar
3 Teves 5739
“I saw the small cute pairs of shoes and I began to think of a little child walking past the store and wanting a new pair of shoes. The shoes aren’t that cheap so his mother told him to wait a little till she saves up enough money to buy him the pair of shoes. Finally the day comes, the little boy comes to the shoemaker to measure his little feet and on the side is his mother shining with happiness looking at her darling little boy wearing a brand new pair of shoes. What the father feels at that moment I can imagine, I can still remember by me, but the joy and excitement that the mother feels is beyond my imagination. But even though I cannot grasp her feelings, I can still be a partner in sharing happiness together with her.
The heart of a loving mother exists here in this world, in Gan Eden there aren’t any feelings. Adam Harishon was in Gan Eden and Hashem said that it isn’t good that Adam is alone, he needs a partner. Adam was in Gan Eden with Malachim roasting meat for him and pouring him wine, is that called being alone?
The answer is that Malachim don’t have a heart so one cannot share with their feelings because they have none, and the Malachim have no feeling to Adam, that’s called being alone.
With this Rav Chaim explained a Gemarah (Sotah 36:) on next week’s Parsha. Binyamin had ten sons. All their names were connected to his brother Yosef’s suffering. There was Mupim and Chupim. The Gemarah explains that one was called because Yosef couldn’t partake in his (Binyamin’s) wedding, and one was called because Binyamin couldn’t partake in Yosef’s wedding.
Rav Chaim said that he understands the pain of Yosef not being able to take part or rejoice in his wedding, but to miss Yosef’s wedding, is that such a terrible tragedy? And Rav Chaim answered, yes it is, if one can’t take part or rejoice with your friend’s simcha, it is such a tragedy that Binyamin felt it even deserves giving a name to one of his children to express that terrible pain.
During the six day war in Eretz Yisrael in 1967 the boys in the Mir Yeshiva took shelter in the dining room which was the lowest floor. But everyone was terrified that a bomb may fall on the Yeshiva roof and penetrate through till the dining room. After the war they checked the roof of the Yeshiva and found three bombs that had landed on the roof but never exploded. It was an open miracle.
The Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Chaim Shmulevitz gave a lecture in Yeshiva. “Do you think that it was in your merits that we had such a miracle? It wasn’t” the Rosh Yeshiva asked the boys. “I will tell you in whose merit we were saved,” he continued. “Near the Yeshiva there is a lady who didn’t have a shelter in her building so she took shelter with all of us in the Yeshiva dining room. This lady is an Aguna. Her husband left her many years ago without giving her a divorce and therefore she was never able to get remarried. He left her with five small children and the oldest was only seven! No one can even imagine the suffering this poor lady has endured, left alone without any help or financial support.
She was sitting a few meters away from me and I heard her having a conversation with Hashem, and this is what she said:” ‘Ribbono Shel Olam, I am sure that on the day of judgment I have a very powerful claim against my husband who left me on my own with so many small children and no financial support. I have to go and work as a cleaning lady in order to make a bare minimum to support my family and provide them with food and the basics. I have no doubt that I would win the case and my husband would be found guilty.’ ‘But, Ribbono Shel Olam, let’s make a deal. I am willing to forgive my husband for everything he did to me and wipe out all the hard feelings, pain and suffering that I have in my heart against him, and you Hashem forgive us for all our sins, and we all come out of here alive and healthy.’
“You should know’” said Reb Chaim to the boys, “that lady’s prayers that came from such a broken heart and said with such sincerity, in her merit we were all saved.”
Rav Chaim used to stress the importance of having feeling for others. He once passed by a shoemaker’s store and saw newly made shoes outside drying in the sun. They were children’s shoes. Rav Chaim became very emotional and his next Musser Shmuess (lecture) was based on his experience of what he felt when he saw those shoes.
