Five Minutes Here and There

When I first arrived to learn in Eretz Yisrael in 1974, I asked the Rosh Yeshivah when I should learn halachah, which wasn’t part of the yeshivah’s curriculum. The Rosh Yeshivah asked me how long my lunch break was, and when I told him it was an hour and a half, he told me, “You don’t need more than half an hour for that; use the other hour to learn through Mishnah Berurah.”

I countered that if I followed the Rosh Yeshivah’s suggestion that would mean I’d have to learn without a chavrusa. Incredibly, the Rosh Yeshivah responded that he would be my chavrusa. He told me to come by each Friday afternoon and that he would answer any questions that had arisen while I was learning halachah on my own. That was an offer that I could not refuse, (and one that planted the seeds for my sefer, Sh’eilos uTeshuvos Divrei Chachamim).

Often when I would ask a question on a particularly difficult segment of the Mishnah Berurah, the Rosh Yeshivah would ask me if I had looked into the Aruch Hashulchan on that siman. When I would respond that I hadn’t, the Rosh Yeshivah would invariably quote the relevant words of the Aruch Hashulchan by heart.

One time, I mustered up the courage to ask the Rosh Yeshivah when had found time to learn the Aruch Hashulchan so well. His mind-blowing response was, “Five minutes here and five minutes there.”