By Rabbi Shimon Finkelman
The year was 1951, and America was at war in Korea, when the draft notice arrived. Understandably, Daniel was more than a bit apprehensive. Daniel lived in Farmingdale, New Jersey, near Lakewood, where Daniel would study nightly.
Soon after the draft notice arrived, Daniel went to see R’ Aharon Kotler. After being told of the notice, R’ Aharon spent some time trying to allay the young man’s fears, even telling him of friends of his who had been drafted into the Russian Army during the First World War and had returned home safely
Requesting a Blessing from the Rosh Yeshiva.
As their conversation drew to a close, Daniel asked, “Could the Rosh Yeshivah please give me a berachah (blessing)?”
R’ Aharon, after a thoughtful silence, said, “Accept on yourself that throughout your army service you will study Torah every day without exception.”
Daniel was taken aback by the suggestion. Study Torah every day - in the army? It seemed impossible. There might be days when it would simply be impossible to open a sefer.
Daniel attempted to explain his views on the matter, but R’ Aharon was persistent. No, he contended, it was possible to fulfill such a commitment.
Thought that the Rosh Yeshiva’s Request was a Pre-Requisite for the Desired Blessing
Bowing to R’ Aharon’s wisdom, Daniel committed himself to daily study. Certain that R’ Aharon had intended this as a precondition to granting his request, he said, “Now, can the Rosh Yeshivah please bless me that I should return home safely?”
R’ Aharon responded with emotion, “You don’t understand - this itself is the berachah! Once you have accepted to study Torah daily, there is no need for any further blessings.”
Daniel reported for induction with a duffle bag which contained, among other items, his tefillin, a siddur and a few sefarim. He endured weeks of grueling training as part of an infantry battalion. He kept to his word; no matter how exhausted, he would not retire for the night without first studying from his gemara.
When their training was completed, Daniel’s group was assembled and told their assignments. Out of two hundred soldiers, one hundred and eighty were sent to fight in Korea. Daniel, however, was sent to Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, where he was assigned to a desk job. For the next two years, until his honorable discharge, he handled paperwork for a few hours a day and spent the remaining hours at his desk studying Torah. As he jokes about it now, “I was studying in kollel...” (Excerpted from the ArtScroll book – “More Shabbos Stories”)
Reprinted from the Parashat Toldot 5785 email of Rabbi David Bibi’s Shabbat Shalom from Cyberspace.
