Teshuvah Made “Easy”

Well over 20 years ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rabbi Shlomo Hoffman for my biography of Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler. Rabbi Hoffman had been one of the early leaders of the P’eylim movement, in which Rav Dessler played a large role, to rescue new immigrant children from Arab lands from assimilation.

Though I had never heard of him prior to our meeting, I left that meeting deeply impressed by both his wisdom and his pashtus, and I always regretted that I never found an excuse to visit again.

But I did, at least, subsequently gain confirmation that my judgment had been on target. Reb Shlomo, it turned out, was the figure whom mechanchim in Eretz Yisrael at every level, from senior roshei yeshivah to cheder rabbanim, consulted on all matters pertaining to chinuch and parenting.

Rav Shach used to regularly send bochurim to Reb Shlomo for counseling. In one famous story, Rav Shach called Reb Shlomo on Leil Bedikas Chometz and said there was a bochur he urgently wanted to bring. Reb Shlomo was aghast at the idea of Rav Shach coming to him, and immediately said he would travel to Bnei Brak. But Rav Shach would not hear of that, and simply said he would send the bochur in a taxi. The next morning in davening someone asked Reb Shlomo, “Why was Rav Shach pacing back and forth outside your building for over an hour last night?”