Y ears ago there was a comedy program that wryly billed itself as a “show about nothing.” How true. But in a very different way many Jewish stories are also about nothing like two I heard last week while attending a bris.
The first was told by the baby’s grandfather who was also his mohel. He heard it from Rabbi Yehuda Schwab z”l of Monsey whose own father the revered Rav Mordechai verified it as true. Rav Yosef Kahaneman was once waiting to speak with the Chofetz Chaim in his home when an elderly man arrived and asked his permission to go in ahead. The door opened and the Chofetz Chaim ushered the man into his room. After some time the door opened again and the Chofetz Chaim accompanied his guest not only out the door of his home but to the very edge of town.
Upon the Chofetz Chaim’s return home Rav Kahaneman asked about the identity of his visitor and the Chofetz Chaim said that because Rav Kahaneman had seen him he could reveal that it was Eliyahu Hanavi who had paid him a visit. Emerging from his meeting with the Chofetz Chaim Rav Kahaneman asked the others waiting there if they too had seen that eltere Yid. All had seen nothing.
As we were partaking of the seudah the person sitting next to me shared a story he’d heard from a talmid chacham who had gone to the Steipler’s Bnei Brak home to purchase two sets of the seforim he authored known to bnei Torah everywhere as Kehillos Yaakov. As always the Steipler explained that he wasn’t a seforim seller and declined to sell anything other than the individual volumes someone might need for his studies.
