Who Has Olam Hazeh

At the young age of twenty, Rav Yudele Greenfeld of Semihali, mechaber of Kol Yehuda, Shu”t Maharshag and Zehav Sheva, studied under the Kol Arye.

He once retold how, as they studied all night long, Rav Yudele’s tired eyes began to close on their own with weariness. It was almost dawn and they had spent the entire long, cold winter night delving deep into Torah and her mysteries.

The Kol Arye seized his beloved talmid and shook him awake, yelling with glee, “Tell me, Yudele, who has Olom Hazeh? Do you imagine that the farmer sleeping with his horse in his stable has a taste of this world? Or is it us? We, who sit here revealing chiddushim and pilpulim in Tosfos? It is only we who have Olom Hazeh!” (Introduction to Shu”t Kol Yehuda)