Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l lived his whole life in Yerushalayim. A brilliant posek with expertise in every area of halacha, his every interaction was conducted with the utmost sensitivity. Yidden from all over flocked to hear his wisdom.
Rabbi Yerachmiel Fried is a rosh kollel and the author of Yom Tov Sheini Kehilchaso and Maadanei Shlomo (psakim heard from R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach). Every Tuesday, Rabbi Fried was zoche to drive Rav Shlomo Zalman home from yeshivah. He had arranged this in order to work on a sefer on Yom Tov Sheini. Rav Shlomo Zalman had a lot of hakaras hatov to Rabbi Fried for driving him, and he would speak to him about the sefer during the ride. He would go over everything inside and make sure everything was exactly the way he wanted it to be stated.
Once, when Rabbi Fried got in the car with Rav Shlomo Zalman, he saw that the rav was unusually b’simcha, beyond his constant state. He was excited about something. As they were driving, Rav Shlomo Zalman told Rabbi Fried that he’d thought he’d heard it all, after fifty or sixty years paskening shailos on Yom Tov Sheini. But today, “I got a new shaileh on Yom Tov Sheini that I've never gotten before!” He was full of simcha because of the question.
By the time the sefer was finished, a second sefer—Maadanei Shlomo—came out too, full of other questions they had discussed and hanhagos Rabbi Fried had observed. Two sefarim, all during Rav Shlomo’s in-between time getting from yeshivah to home. Others’ lives can be built from the “in-between times” of gedolim!
Courtesy of Agudas Yisroel of America
