“From the time of my bar mitzvah, I never slept in a bed except for Shabbos, and I attribute that to why I was saved”
He once shared that when he was a young child in cheder, there was someone who had taken something that belonged to another boy, and the rebbi asked each boy in turn if he had taken it. When it was the young future Reb Yaakov’s turn, the rebbi asked if he had taken it, and he said he had not.
“I don’t believe you,” the rebbi responded, and he gave him a potch. Eighty years later, Reb Yaakov told me he was mochel the rebbi immediately for the undeserved potch.
“However,” he continued, “for the fact that the rebbi did not understand my nature, that I am unable to say something that’s not true, for that I am not mochel.”
When I shared this story at a public forum, someone came over to me and shared a story in turn. This young fellow, who had originally learned with Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, once escorted Reb Yaakov home on a Friday night when he was in Boro Park for Shabbos.
Create a free account to keep reading.
