Wherever the Skulener Rebbe traveled, he always took along a pile of seforim as well as a reading lamp
“Who will answer the phone?”
Rabbi Yekusiel Sherhoffer still remembers the question that preceded every trip he took as the attendant and personal driver of the Skulener Rebbe, Rav Yisroel Avrohom Portugal, ztz”l, for over 20 years.
The Rebbe traveled constantly to fundraise for Chesed l’Avrohom, a tzedakah organization founded by his father. However, in those pre-cellphone days he knew that people were constantly calling his home for brachos and guidance, and he couldn’t make his peace with the idea of desperate people left hanging. Before he left the house, he’d always ask, “Ver vet zein beim telephone, — who will answer the phone?”
Once, Reb Yekusiel was driving the Rebbe from Boro Park to Monsey. The Rebbe was very agitated and kept repeating, “Mer zicht mich — they’re looking for me.” Reb Yekusiel called one of the gabbaim to check if someone was indeed trying to reach him by phone. It turned out there was no one monitoring the Rebbe’s home phone and, in fact, there was a yungerman who had been frantically trying to reach the Rebbe.
This fellow and his wife had been childless for many years and were finally expecting a simchah, but suddenly needed urgent guidance regarding an unexpected complication. Such was the Rebbe’s concern for a Yid; he sensed their pain long-distance.
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