Built to Endure

Rav Shimon Shkop would later confide to his close talmid Rav Yisroel Gustman (1908–1991) that his true rebbi was the Ketzos Hachoshen. Rabbi Yaakov Bienenfeld, rav of Young Israel of Harrison, shared with this author that he once heard a story about a rav who got lost when visiting Telz, and asked a local for directions to the yeshivah. The stranger responded, “Keep walking until you smell the Ketzos.”

Where Wits Were Sharpened

The intensity of study at Telz under Rav Leizer’s leadership is captured in this description from Rav Dov Katz in Tenuas Hamussar:

“The yeshivah was always roaring like a stormy sea, with groups standing and passionately debating halachah. Following the shiurim, which provided the foundation for further analysis, the intensity of discussion reached its peak.

The students spent most of the day in heated debates, through which they gained more than from the seforim themselves. And [these debates took place] not only within the walls of the yeshivah, but wherever you encountered the students — in the stantzias and in the streets, sitting in their homes and walking along the roads, when they awakened and when they lay down — they were immersed in Torah dialectics with boundless energy and fiery passion. The entire city of Telz had transformed into one great yeshivah, where the sound of Torah never ceased for even a moment.”