Attitude of Gratitude

AS a resident of Kiryat Unsdorf, I had the good fortune to know Rav Abish Eisen ztz”l, a tayere Yid and a soul-stirring baal tefillah and maggid shiur in Yeshivas Sha’ar Hashamayim (first in nigleh and in his later years in nistar). He was the son of Rav Shalom Eisen ztz”l, who was a renowned dayan in Meah Shearim — old-timers fondly recall the sight of hundreds of men lined up waiting to show Rav Shalom their esrogim before Succos to receive his approval. Just like his father, Rav Abish, too, was a true tzaddik, and a leading figure and role model for his many talmidim and followers.

In spite of the various hardships he endured in his life, he had an especially happy and appreciative nature. He lived in a tiny apartment with his large family before managing to purchase a more spacious, albeit simple and modest, apartment in Kiryat Unsdorf. When he moved into his new home, he literally danced on every single tile on the floor of his house to thank Hashem for his upgraded living quarters. Every Motzaei Shabbos when he came home from shul, he would dance all around the house, into and out of every single room, again — to thank Hashem for the beautiful home He gave him.

I always marveled at his exemplary simchas hachayim and inner tranquility, and then one day, when Rav Abish shared with me a powerful story from his youth, I realized from where and when it might have all stemmed.

“We were sending out invitations to my bar mitzvah to all of our friends and relatives,” Rav Abish related. “While we were working at it, my father mentioned that he was sending an invitation to Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer. ‘He was my rebbi,’ my father explained, ‘so surely I should send him an invitation. I don’t expect Rav Isser Zalman to be zich matriach [put himself out] to come, but certainly I should let him know that I’m making a bar mitzvah!’