Rebbetzin Kanievsky, a”h
Rav Shlomo Levenstein related an incredible story that was told over by Rav Eliyahu Brunner: One of the times that I took Rebbetzin Kanievsky, z”l, to visit her father, HaGaon Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l, her brother, Rav Avrohom Elyashiv pointed to the floor and told me, “On this floor tile, the Rebbetzin stood when she was a single girl, and each and every morning, without fail, she would recite the entire Sefer Tehilim from cover to cover!”
When we drove back to Bnei Brak, I gathered the courage and I asked the Rebbetzin, “What caused you to recite the entire Tehilim, every day, without fail?” At first, she tried to avoid answering, but she eventually agreed to tell me. She said, “There was no money in my father’s house. My mother, A”H, did not desire anything. Her only desire and goal was that my father should be able to learn Torah without any disturbances. This was her life’s work.
“ I was the oldest daughter, and at that stage, I already understood how to manage Parnasah, so I found a job and went to work in order to help support my family. However, naturally, the atmosphere of the workplace had practically no Torah atmosphere.
“Therefore, I decided to wake up very early every morning to stand and say the entire Tehilim, as a Zechus that the coming day should pass by with complete goodness and joy, and with faithfulness to Hashem, in the way I was brought up in my father’s home. And that I should not Chas V’Shalom be influenced by any negative surroundings that I may face in the working world!”
Reprinted from the Parshas Lech Lecha 5785 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
