What we know about Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach’s gadlus in Torah is just the tip of the iceberg. Rabbi Yerachmiel Fried, rosh kollel and the author of sefarim based on Rav Shlomo Zalman’s psakim, witnessed a small window into his greatness.
Often, when Rabbi Fried would ask him a shailah or give him something to look over, Rav Shlomo Zalman would direct him to look at a certain Magen Avraham, one of the main mefarshim in Shulchan Aruch.
But when Rabbi Fried would go look at the Magen Avraham, it would seem to have nothing to do with the topic. Rabbi Fried did not understand. He looked at the words again and again. What was going on?
Finally, at the end of the Magen Avraham, he saw the words ayin sham, see another source. Rabbi Fried look at the other Magen Avraham or whatever source he was being directed to. There, he would find another “ayin sham.” After a few ayin shams, a picture was painted that applied perfectly to what he had been discussing with Rav Shlomo Zalman.
Rabbi Fried was shocked. Rav Shlomo Zalman had at his fingertips not only the words of the Magen Avraham in the four chelkei Shulchan Aruch, but also all of the ayin shams of the Magen Avraham, and everywhere the mefarshim could send the reader. He had all that on instant recall!
Courtesy of Agudas Yisroel of America
