A Different Set Of Accounts

Yes it’s been ten years. And you thought it was only yesterday that Rav Shach ztz”l departed to his eternal rest. Who can keep track of time? It mocks us as it flies past us. But it’s a fact; Rav Shach’s tenth yahrtzeit is here and as soon as we realize it the memories begin to surface memories of a great teacher and leader who in one way or another influenced and changed so many of us.

Of course the day will be replete with memorial gatherings and the frum papers will be full of articles bringing out every aspect of his extraordinary personality and deeds to give us a sense of how much he enriched the Torah world and what we lost with his passing. There was no area in which he wasn’t the gadol hador be it in Torah in yiras Hashem in leadership of the yeshivah world in the battles against those who sought to undermine Yiddishkeit and in his capacity as a source of counsel and aid.

When I look back it’s the memories of  his “small” acts that come to mind the stories that took place at the edges of his life of great accomplishments stories that bear witness to the truth of the saying that a great man is measured especially by his conduct with smaller people than himself. I’d like to share a few of these stories with my readers. The motto behind these stories is a statement that Rav Shach made to his faithful talmid Rav Menachem Cohen shlita who heads Mishpacha’s Hebrew spiritual advisory board and who enjoyed a chavrusa with Maran for five years. Rav Cohen remembers a conversation he had with Rav Shach when the latter was at the height of his strength and political influences. Although things seemed to be going his way Maran seemed dissatisfied and noticing this Rav Cohen asked him why he wasn’t pleased.

“Believe me Reb Menachem” Maran replied “I get no enjoyment whatsoever out of all this political activism; I get enjoyment only when I can do good for a Jew.” This was his defining mark.