It seemed like the most natural thing to do

Rabbi Dovid Newman, legendary founder of V’haarev Na, the initiative that engages boys to take ownership of their learning through systematic chazarah, hosts an annual end-of-the-year barbecue and kumzitz for his talmidim. The relaxed atmosphere gives bochurim an opportunity to connect with one another outside the confines of the classroom and reflect on a year of growth and learning.

During this year’s kumzitz, one of the bochurim got up and shared an incident that highlighted to him how far he had come in learning. The bochur related that he was driving upstate on New York’s Route 17, near Exit 115, when his car started overheating. He quickly turned to the side of the road, turned off the car, and waited for the engine to cool off. Sitting on the side of the road, he reached into the back seat of his car, pulled out his well-worn Gemara, and squeezed in a half-hour chazarah until he was ready to resume his journey.

It seemed like the most natural thing to do; only later, thinking back to what had happened, did he realize with wonder that he hadn’t always instinctively used any spare time to learn Torah.

The bochur ended by crediting the V’haarev Na program with helping him taste the sweetness of learning, and emotionally thanking Rabbi Newman.

When he was done, Rabbi Newman added a postscript.

“Rabbosai,” he began, “about 35 years ago, I was involved in a terrible car accident and was in need of rachamei Shamayim. Baruch Hashem, after many tefillos and intense medical procedures, I made a complete recovery.”

Rabbi Newman took a deep breath and continued. “The scene of the accident was Exit 115, off Route 17.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 969)