The Rosh Yeshivah asked a single question to the roshei kollel

Even those used to seeing the great centers of Torah are amazed. On a visit to America, Rav Baruch Soloveitchik, rosh yeshivah of Toras Zev in Jerusalem and one of the respected younger gedolei Torah of Eretz Yisrael, was invited to deliver a shiur at Kollel Cheshek Shlomo in Lakewood, led by Rav Asher Steinmetz and Rav Avraham Yeshaya Appel.

What impressed the visiting rosh yeshivah (a son of Rav Moshe Soloveitchik ztz”l of Switzerland) wasn’t just the caliber of yungeleit, each of whom took a bechinah on 200 blatt Gemara in order to be accepted, but also the physical space — including a day center in the kollel complex where yungeleit can drop off their children for the day, and a dormitory area where the avreichim can rest bein hasedorim — and the schedule, with kollel members learning whole masechtos, and seder nearly every day of the year, fast days included.

Before his derashah, the Rosh Yeshivah asked a single question to the roshei kollel. Could he, he wondered, also be accepted and merit being one of the avreichim in such a kollel?

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 867)