A Reliable Source
It has been a pleasure to see the Aleh Zayis seforim that have begun to grace the shelves of our seforim stores here in Eretz Yisrael in the last few months, particularly the teshuvos of R’ Tzvi Hirsch Grodzensky, which arrived a few weeks ago.
Additionally, I immensely enjoyed the event marking Rav Meir Simcha’s hundredth yahrtzeit that Aleh Zayis organized. Thanks for arranging that, as I know many who benefited greatly from it.
Regarding the recent publication of the work of R’ M. M. Yoshor on the Chofetz Chaim, I would like to bring to your attention an excerpt from a Mishpacha article written by Eytan Kobre (issue 630), in his profile of HaGaon Harav Hillel Zaks:
Rav Hillel, like his brothers, is quite circumspect regarding the multiplicity of stories told about their legendary zeide…
Rebbetzin Faiga Chaya Zaks was once quoted as having said that 85 percent of the stories told about her father aren’t reliable. In response, Rav Hillel and his brother Rav Yaakov Yehoshua asked, “How could di Mamme have said that? It’s surely over 90 percent?!”
In the family, the biography written by Rav Moshe Meir Yoshor is considered the most reliable of all that’s been written about the Chofetz Chaim, in part because it was done during his lifetime. Reb Yisroel Meir once left a certain work on the Chofetz Chaim on the table just to see Rav Hillel’s reaction to it.
“You know, the writer of this book is afraid to face me,” Rav Hillel remarked.
“What’s wrong with it?” Reb Yisroel Meir’s wife asked.
“Let me show you,” said Rav Hillel. Opening to a random page, he read out loud a story about a Radin bochur who went to take leave of the Chofetz Chaim before going home. The Chofetz Chaim looked at him and said, “Is that the way a ben Torah looks when he goes home?” At that, he went into the back and came out with a jacket to replace the torn one the bochur was wearing.
“Now, what do you think,” Rav Hillel said. “The Chofetz Chaim had a rack of clothes in the back and said, ‘You know, you look like a 45 regular’? The only part of the story that could be true is that somebody came in to say goodbye to him.”
Twenty-two years ago, Rav Hillel, Rav Yaakov Yehoshua, and Rav Yisroel Meir sat shivah in Yerushalayim for their mother. A visitor sat down in the front and said, “I know for certain that the Chofetz Chaim had a ramp in his house, which he’d practice running up and down in anticipation of the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash.”
Just then, the brothers heard someone in the back of the room say with obvious dry humor, “Mir dacht zich az der salon fun der Chofetz Chaim iz nit gevehn azoy groys… [I don’t think the Chofetz Chaim’s living room was that big].”
It was the voice of Rav Avraham Yehoshua Soloveitchik.
Moshe Blechman
פעה"ק ירושלים
Rav Shimon Szimonowitz responds:
Thanks for your kind words. My father had the privilege of spending many Shabbos seudos in the presence of Rebbetzin Zaks. Invariably, when a story was told about her father, she would remark, “Er — the storyteller — hut aza gutten zikaron, er gedenkt zachen vos iz keinmul nisht geshehn” [He has such a good memory that he remembers things that never happened]. Her son, Reb Hershel, asked her how she heard what the storyteller told if she was hard of hearing, to which she replied, “Der Tatteh, zichrono livrachah, hut mir gelernt nor tzu heren vos men darf heren” [The Tatteh, of blessed memory, taught me to hear only what one needs to hear]. But when the story was told of how severely the Chofetz Chaim rebuked her for having learned to write Polish, she nodded along and authenticated the story.
