Penina faltered. Was that it? Would Avi Korman cut funding to the yeshivah because she had a rich cousin?
I
t did rain, at the end. Not a very convincing rain at first, the drops stopping and starting so Sholom wasn’t sure about whether or not to make the Simchas Beis Hashoeivah in the large succah or indoors; every decision he made, he explained to Penina, would have chinuch ramifications well beyond this event.
Once, he told her, when he’d been about 14 or 15 years old, he’d been sitting during Krias HaTorah and the rosh yeshivah had stopped by his seat and whispered, “You should try to stand up,” and since then, he’d always stood. At the time, Sholom reflected, he hadn’t realized that the rosh yeshivah was changing his life, but that’s the effect of a rebbi.
More somberly, he told Penina, “And that’s the achrayus, every decision has to be weighed.”
She nodded. She knew this speech and knew how much he enjoyed giving it.
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