This was not the first visit by the Sar HaTorah to the Mir

Last week’s visit by Rav Chaim Kanievsky to Yeshivas Mir was touted as a historic first, but Mir veterans recall that this was not, in fact, the first visit by the Sar HaTorah to the great yeshivah in Jerusalem.

Decades ago, his father, the Steipler Gaon, came to be menachem avel Rav Avraham Yafen, rosh yeshivah of the Novardok yeshivos in Europe, America, and Jerusalem. The Steipler was near the end of his life, and quite weak, but hakaras hatov dictated that he, a Novardoker talmid, make the trip from Bnei Brak to be menachem his rosh yeshivah. After leaving the Yafen home, the Steipler was too weak to return to Bnei Brak right away, so together with his son Rav Chaim, he headed to the nearby Mir yeshivah. There, they walked up to the dormitory and knocked on a door. The bochur who opened the door was startled to see who was standing there — the Steipler and Rav Chaim! Rav Chaim asked if they might borrow his bed so that the Steipler could rest, and once the bochur happily agreed, Rav Chaim went to the beis medrash to learn for an hour.

Last week’s visit, it turns out, was not his first one, but his second.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 883)