Rav Shach's wisdom made him the most sought after dispenser of wisdom in the last generation
Gedolei Yisroel, Chazal teach us, don’t fall into an era by chance. They are planted — “shaslan” — at various historical junctures. Just like a farmer plants seeds at different locations, depending on conditions, soil, or weather, so too does the Ribono shel Olam place them exactly where they can have the greatest effect.
The era: the postwar rebirth of the yeshivah world in Eretz Yisrael. The emergence of the new army of bnei Torah called for a general.
Rav Eliezer Menachem Shach was an unlikely candidate. Diminutive in stature, his speeches were difficult to follow, and with the high litvishe yarmulke perched on his head, he looked like a relic from old-world Vilna.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Although the Rosh Yeshivah was born only nine years after the first automobile was invented and three decades before the first transatlantic flight, he displayed an uncanny understanding of the generation for which jet travel was a standard part of life. Few could match his grasp of contemporary events and political intrigue, or his three-dimensional vision. But they followed his advice, the bnei Torah and politicians, the Americans and Europeans, the Sephardim and Ashkenazim, and so many others who sent their thorniest and most complex issues to the little apartment across from the Ponovezher Yeshivah.
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