“The Chazon Ish repeated the words ‘makom Torah, makom Torah’ and sat down. That was his entire derashah”

Living Higher

Dovid Aharon Diskind was just a baby when his father, Shmuel Binyamin a”h, perished in the Meron disaster on Lag B’omer 2021. Last week, little Dovid Aharon and his family returned to Meron, but this time it was for a simchah – it was time for the three-year-old’s upsherin. (Last year Shmuel Binyamin’s widow remarried, to a yungerman who was a friend of her husband.)

At the spot where his father perished, extended family members gathered to give Dovid Aharon his first haircut, joined by Rabbi Meir Nachman Elchadad, who lost two of his own sons – 12-year-old Moshe Mordechai and 18-year-old Yosef Dovid (Sefie) in the same tragedy.

Reb Shmuel Binyamin was a Gerrer chassid and young avreich who lived in Ramat Beit Shemesh and spent his days immersed in Torah learning.

That year would be the first time he traveled to Meron for Lag B’omer (for reasons of modesty, many unmarried chassidishe bochurim refrain from traveling in the crush of the crowd). Reb Shmuel Binyamin was one of 14 children, and at the time, his brother Yisrael – who’d left the chassidus – was serving in the army, stationed at the Gaza border. The two brothers, who remained very close despite their lifestyle differences, spoke that very morning. “Yisrael, you’re doing your job and I’m doing mine. You’re protecting the country from the south, and I’m going up to Meron with the thousands who are davening there, protecting the country from the north.”

For Reb Shmuel Binyamin, it would be his last mission. May his child, under the holy influence and protection of Rashbi, grow to make his father proud.

Overheard

“When the Chazon Ish arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 1934, he was asked to speak before tekios. At first, he refused, but eventually he agreed, on condition that he would speak only in a side room, and that he would only say one mishnah. The crowd went into the side room where the Chazon Ish said the mishnah in Avos, perek vav, ‘Amar Rabi Yose ben Kisma, eini dar ela b’makom Torah — I would not dwell anywhere other than in a place of  Torah.’

“The Chazon Ish repeated the words ‘makom Torah, makom Torah’ and sat down. That was his entire derashah.”

— Rav Avrohom Chaim Zahn

Rav Avrohom Chaim Zahn speaking at the opening of a new halachah chaburah within the Gateshead Kehillah Kollel. In recent years, the number of yungeleit moving in had plateaued. The Gateshead Kehillah Kollel was founded two years ago to bring more yungeleit to town. In the past two years, they have brought in some 30 yungeleit with plans for another 40, and Rav Zahn emphasized that the chaburah would secure the identity of Gateshead as a makom Torah.

Cycling Back

Fourteen years ago, well-known singer Sruli Williger visited a correctional center where he performed for the inmates. There was a frum inmate there who was learning daf yomi, and Sruli wrote him a note of brachah and encouragement. The inmate, who was moved by the gesture, placed the letter in his Gemara and eventually forgot about it.

Fourteen years later, when the daf yomi cycle again reached that same page, the note was discovered.

We may often do an act of chesed and move on, thinking little of the gesture or its impact. But sometimes, unbeknownst to us, the ripple effects are felt even 14 years later, our act of kindness continuing to spread joy, light, and the fortitude to go on.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 976)