By Yoni Schwartz
Rav Yaakov Galinsky, ZT”L, had a son who was an incredible genius, Rav Nachman Galinsky. Unfortunately, he got sick and passed away all too soon. When his family was sitting shiva, a man whom they did not recognize walked in and sat down.
When they asked him how he knew Rav Nachman, he replied with the following story: “Now I am a Rosh Yeshiva myself and have hundreds of talmidim who learn under me. However, when I was young, in middle school, I struggled with learning.
“One hot day, I decided to make a state-of-the-art F-16 airplane from a piece of scrap paper. When my piece of art was finally complete, I threw it over to my friend who was sitting nearby, whom I knew was also not paying attention during shiur. I did not realize, however, that the fan was blowing strongly, and when I threw it, the jet rerouted its course and headed into a danger zone. It landed on the Rosh Yeshiva’s desk, on his Gemara, while he was in the middle of giving a shiur.
Immediately, he stopped, banged on the table, and said, ‘I’m not continuing until whoever threw that airplane gets up and leaves the classroom.’ I was already on thin ice with the yeshiva, and that would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. I simply could not risk getting kicked out of yeshiva.
Suddenly, Rav Nachman stood up and walked out. Everyone knew, including the Rosh Yeshiva, that he didn’t throw that airplane. He was a star student. However, the Rebbe was forced to continue his shiur. After that scare, I decided to start taking things seriously in my learning and found tremendous success. Rav Nachman changed my life.’”
Reprinted from the Rosh Hashanah 5786 email of Torah Sweets.