Yes it’s been ten years. And you thought it was only yesterday that Rav Shach ztz”l departed to his eternal rest. Who can keep track of time? It mocks us as it flies past us. But it’s a fact; Rav Shach’s tenth yahrtzeit is here and as soon as we realize it the memories begin to surface memories of a great teacher and leader who in one way or another influenced and changed so many of us.

Of course the day will be replete with memorial gatherings and the frum papers will be full of articles bringing out every aspect of his extraordinary personality and deeds to give us a sense of how much he enriched the Torah world and what we lost with his passing. There was no area in which he wasn’t the gadol hador be it in Torah in yiras Hashem in leadership of the yeshivah world in the battles against those who sought to undermine Yiddishkeit and in his capacity as a source of counsel and aid.

When I look back it’s the memories of  his “small” acts that come to mind the stories that took place at the edges of his life of great accomplishments stories that bear witness to the truth of the saying that a great man is measured especially by his conduct with smaller people than himself. I’d like to share a few of these stories with my readers. The motto behind these stories is a statement that Rav Shach made to his faithful talmid Rav Menachem Cohen shlita who heads Mishpacha’s Hebrew spiritual advisory board and who enjoyed a chavrusa with Maran for five years. Rav Cohen remembers a conversation he had with Rav Shach when the latter was at the height of his strength and political influences. Although things seemed to be going his way Maran seemed dissatisfied and noticing this Rav Cohen asked him why he wasn’t pleased.

“Believe me Reb Menachem” Maran replied “I get no enjoyment whatsoever out of all this political activism; I get enjoyment only when I can do good for a Jew.” This was his defining mark.

And now I shall add a few pearls to the string a few personal examples of how Rav Shach treated his fellowman.

One of my friends who serves as head of a yeshivah ketanah had an appointment to meet with Rav Shach at five in the afternoon. Of course he arrived on time at Maran’s house. But Rav Shach was not at home. Nobody knew where he’d gone. Wherever it was he’d apparently gone unaccompanied although he was almost ninety years old at the time. My friend sat down to wait and after a long time he heard Rav Shach coming up the stairs puffing and panting heavily. Naturally he was very apologetic for keeping my friend waiting so long. And this was his explanation: one of the yungermen in the Ponovezh kollel had confided to him that his wife had become suspicious of her husband’s loyalty. She was needling him about it constantly and he didn’t know what to do. Rav Shach had just heard that the young wife was at home alone and since the couple lived not far away he’d decided to take the opportunity to pay her a visit and tell her what a tzaddik her husband was. “I sat and talked with her for a long time ” said Maran “and I hope that b’ezras Hashem I managed to influence her. I’m sure you’ll understand and excuse me.” Thus he completed his apology to a talmid many years his junior.

On another occasion a girl of Moroccan extraction came to him with a problem. She was studying in a Bnei Brak school and she’d been offered a shidduch with a yeshivah bochur from somewhere in the Sharon area. Her problem was that she had no connections in that area and couldn’t think how to go about getting information about the boy. After she left Rav Shach asked his assistant “Who do we know or know of in the town where that bochur lives?” It turned out that the local Rav there was close with Rav Shach. Maran picked up the phone to call the Rav and inquire about the boy but in the middle of dialing he changed his mind and said to his driver “Let’s take a trip there and meet with the Rav face to face.”  What was wrong with doing it by phone the driver wanted to know? “When you’re sitting right there with a person ” Rav Shach explained “you can see by the expression on his face how frank and honest he’s being with you.” And off they went… to get information for a girl who was a total stranger to him.

I heard this next story from an acquaintance of mine who once took Rav Shach by taxi to a bris. My acquaintance sat next to the non-religious driver and began making snide remarks about his failing to keep mitzvos. At one point he asked him directly “Do you keep Shabbos?”

At this Rav Shach pricked up his ears from the backseat and said to the driver “You don’t have to tell him!”

The driver took the cue and remained silent. The Rosh Yeshivah didn’t want the driver to be made uncomfortable nor did he want him to come right out and say that he didn’t keep Shabbos.

Some time afterwards this acquaintance of mine happened to ride in that driver’s cab once again. The driver hadn’t forgotten the encounter. “Do you remember when you were riding with me and you asked me if I kept Shabbos and that old man who was with you told me I didn’t have to answer you? Well I want you to know that I wasn’t keeping Shabbos back then but because that man was so considerate I don’t travel on Shabbos any more.”

Then there was the time a mother from Bnei Brak asked Rav Shach what gan she should send her child to. Yes he even had to deal with questions like that. He asked the lady where she lived and after hearing her address he told her to send the child to the gan of the Satmar Chassidim. Puzzled this litvishe woman asked why. “Because it’s on your side of the street ” Rav Shach replied. “This way your son won’t have to cross the road.”

After major disagreements within the ranks of Agudas Yisrael led to a split which pushed Rav Shach to start the new party Degel HaTorah an askan from an English-speaking country came before one of Maran’s assistants with the following sheilah: The askan was the head of an organization that helped new olim from the Anglo world to get settled and acclimate to life in Israel. Many of these olim were asking whom they should vote for Degel or Agudah? That was a difficult question for the askan since Rav Menachem Porush of Agudah had helped him to establish his organization. What should he tell them?

Some readers may recall that those were very tense times. The two sister parties were fighting for every vote. Most of this organization’s members would accept Rav Shach’s  ruling unquestioningly. Here was his chance to secure thousands of votes just by saying the word. But Rav Shach did not answer immediately; he asked the askan to return a bit later. When the man came back this is what Rav Shach told him: “Hakaras hatov gratitude comes first. You can’t tell them not to vote for Agudas Yisrael. The most you can do is to tell them that both movements are legitimate and that each person should do what he feels is right.” Who can tell how many votes the Rosh Yeshivah lost as a result?

But then again this gadol hador had a different set of accounts.

Food for Thought

The game of chess teaches us

how careful a person must be in all his ways

to weigh every act

and to think seventy and seven times before every step he takes

(Rebbe Simchah Bunim of Peshischa)

“When you’re sitting right there with a person” Rav Shach explained “you can see by the expression on his face how honest he’s being with you”