What a difference the Chofetz Chaim's presence might have made in the development of Israel's chareidi community
Because of the coronavirus, I had the privilege of being almost alone with Rav Ariav Ozer, Rosh Yeshivas ITRI, when he was sitting shivah recently for his father, Reb Shalom Ozer a”h. Besides reinforcing one of my fundamental maxims of successful parenting — parental erlichkeit is one of the prerequisites for good children — in recounting his father’s life, Rav Ozer also mentioned two interesting footnotes.
An absolute abhorrence of any form of falsehood was something that Reb Shalom and his late wife Rivka shared. I have previously written about how she could not utter a false word. Even signing a reused form granting permission to go on a school outing that was not strictly accurate as of the signing was beyond her.
Rav Ozer related how one Leil Shabbos, a shalom zachar was announced in shul, and his father went over to wish the new father a mazel tov. That evening, despite having been unwell at dinner, Rav Ozer’s father, already in his eighties, insisted on walking down five flights of stairs and back up to attend the shalom zachar. He was concerned that by his mazel tov, he had implicitly suggested that he would come to the shalom zachar, and no amount of entreaties from his family could persuade him otherwise.
Reb Shalom had been one of the top electrical engineers in Israel until his retirement. In those days, it was common practice for the general contractor on large building projects to substantially inflate the cost of the electrical subcontractor, and then split the overcharge with him. Mr. Ozer absolutely refused to participate in any such schemes or to ever again have anything to do with a contractor who proposed it, a stringency that cost him many large projects.
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