We know of Rav Sholom Schwadron as a speaker and storyteller, but we have to remember that he was a tremendous talmid chacham and a baki in halacha. Rav Sholom never left Eretz Yisroel without asking daas Torah first—he would ask Rav Chatzkel Levenstein, and after Rav Chatzkel was niftar, the Steipler. Before one trip, Rav Sholom sent his son Rav Ariel to get permission from the Steipler to go to America. The Steipler said to Rav Ariel, “There was never a speaker like Rav Sholom and there never will be a speaker like Rav Sholom. I give him permission to go, so that he should be able to inspire people.”
When Israel first became a state, buses were not allowed to run on Shabbos, except in Haifa. The rabbanim of Haifa asked Rav Sholom to come to the city to speak about shemiras Shabbos.
He arrived in Haifa on a Friday, which was Yom Haatzmaut. The city of Haifa held a parade, which included a contingent of female soldiers who rode at the head of the procession in the same car as the mayor. Rav Sholom was incensed by the immodesty. Instead of speaking about Shabbos, every speech he gave during his visit was about tznius. Sunday morning, back in Yerushalayim, Rav Sholom got a phone call. The municipality of Haifa had decided to ban him from speaking there ever again.
Rav Sholom went to the Brisker Rav. “Did I do the right thing?” he asked.
The Brisker Rav told him that he was wrong. “You should have stuck to the topic of shemiras Shabbos,” he said. Rav Sholom accepted this, putting his own ideas aside—daas Torah was daas Torah.
Courtesy of Agudas Yisroel of America
