It seemed like the most natural thing to do
During this year’s kumzitz, one of the bochurim got up and shared an incident that highlighted to him how far he had come in learning. The bochur related that he was driving upstate on New York’s Route 17, near Exit 115, when his car started overheating. He quickly turned to the side of the road, turned off the car, and waited for the engine to cool off. Sitting on the side of the road, he reached into the back seat of his car, pulled out his well-worn Gemara, and squeezed in a half-hour chazarah until he was ready to resume his journey.
It seemed like the most natural thing to do; only later, thinking back to what had happened, did he realize with wonder that he hadn’t always instinctively used any spare time to learn Torah.
The bochur ended by crediting the V’haarev Na program with helping him taste the sweetness of learning, and emotionally thanking Rabbi Newman.
When he was done, Rabbi Newman added a postscript.
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