Preparing for Kabbalas HaTorah is the perfect time to set priorities. Interrupting Torah learning is known throughout the Torah observant world as something that should be avoided when at all possible. There are stories of gedolim sitting glued to their Gemaras as air raid sirens wail and as Nazis storm into the room. We even learn in Pirkei Avos (3:7) that a person should not interrupt his Torah learning to admire nature – Hashem’s creation!
But as this story of Rav Yehuda Addas teaches us, there’s a mitzvah that does in fact call for us to put our learning aside: One Thursday night, the entire Yeshiva Kol Yaakov was assembled in the beis medrash, avidly listening to the weekly Gemara shiur of their Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Yehuda Addas. The talmidim sat silently, concentrating on the Rosh Yeshivah’s brilliant words, when a poor man walked in. “I have no food for Shabbos,” the man announced to those assembled in the room. The talmidim watched and waited to see how the Rosh Yeshivah would react. But they did not have to wait long. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of cash. Handing it to one of the students, he said simply, “Please give this to the man.” It was enough to cover most of the man’s Shabbos expenses for that week. The shiur moved on as if nothing had happened. Amazingly, to the students, it was the shiur, not the poor man’s request, that had been put on hold.
