Once, while Rebbe Yaakov Yitzchak of Peshischa, the "Yehudi HaKadosh", was studying with his students, he encountered a difficulty in the text and began to delve into it. One student decided to use the pause to go home and get a bit to eat.
When he arrived home, his mother asked him to bring some items from the attic. Not wanting to miss the study session, he told her he would do it later. But on the way, he reflected: Isn’t the whole purpose of learning Torah to fulfill it in practice? He turned back home and fulfilled his mother’s request.
When he entered the study hall, the "Yehudi HaKadosh" rose to greet him and asked, “What mitzvah did you just perform?” The student told him.
The "Yehudi HaKadosh" said: “When you walked in, I saw that the Amora Abaye was accompanying you. Abaye was an orphan from both father and mother, and he joins those who perform the mitzvah of honoring one’s father and mother — so that he may have a share in the mitzvah.”
This issue of Living Jewish is dedicated for an Aliyat HaNeshama for Moshe Shmuel ben David Betzalel (Noll), HY”D. Moshe Shmuel fell in battle in Gaza on the 12th of Tammuz while protecting the Jewish People.
