ONE OF US

I wrote recently about the importance of having models of gadlus in Torah who are relatable specifically because they did not have the proverbial glide path to greatness but instead struggled and overcame significant hurdles to achieve eventual success. But the same could be said of gadlus in any area, not just in Torah. And Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein, to whom I wrote an all-too-brief tribute in these pages last week, is a case in point.

As Yanky Elefant, Reb Zechariah’s brother-in-law and partner in so much of his work, said, paraphrasing the Gemara’s statement (Yoma 35b) about Yosef Hatzaddik and others, “Reb Zechariah mechayev es kulam, he obligates every one of us, because he was one of us.” What he meant is this: When we ask ourselves why we, in our own lives, haven’t achieved even a fraction of what he did in his short 64 years, it will not do for us to say, “But after all, Rabbi Wallerstein exhibited astounding resources of dynamism, ingenuity, ahavas Yisrael, generosity of money and spirit and much more, and I don’t have those capabilities.”

It won’t do, because neither did he know he had many of those resources — until he discovered them dormant within, waiting to be actualized. Is there anyone among us who has attempted to mine the motherlode of potential within yet come up short? Until that happens, Reb Zechariah mechayev es kulam, indeed.

Rabbi Wallerstein’s life story holds manifold lessons about what it means to truly care about other Jews, individually and collectively, what it means to give of oneself, one’s time and money and energy, without boundaries, what it means to live — as Rav Chaim Volozhiner said we were created to live — for the sole purpose of bringing benefit to others.