Through Lenses of Love

Entering the large Ponevezh beis medrash, I beheld the animated milchemta shel Torah waging throughout the room. While Rav Shach was aging, when he gave shiur, or even just talked to avreichim in learning, his vitality and youthful energy were still clearly evident. I watched the Rosh Yeshivah standing up and waving his fists, trying his best to outshout the dozen or so avreichim standing in a circle around him and directing questions at him simultaneously, all at a rapid-fire pace.

When Rav Shach noticed me standing there, he quickly prepared to return home. And while I needed to speak to him, I felt a pang at missing out on the animated discussion happening in the beis medrash. I wondered if I should have joined rather than proceeding to my appointment. However, the lesson I would soon learn from Rav Shach has remained with me all these years, long after the memory of the chiddushei Torah would have remained.

As I escorted the Rosh Yeshivah into his home, he noticed a rather large machine with a headlamp on top of it sitting on the table. When he inquired about it, one of his close talmidim explained to him with much excitement that it was a device that would illuminate the pages of a sefer. The talmidim were well aware of the difficulties the Rosh Yeshivah had been enduring over the last few months with his vision, and the trouble he had learning as a result.

The doctors the Rosh Yeshivah had consulted with had not been able to help him and naturally, he was very disturbed by these developments. Wanting to help, his talmidim had researched different options, and after much research, they’d found this machine and ordered it.