The following story was told over by Rav BenSion Felman, who was very close to the Chazon Ish.
When he was still single, he had a grandmother that lived in his house, and she wasn’t well. The grandchildren set up a rotation system to visit her. For some reason, the grandmother had a special place in her heart for this boy and she asked him to come more often than the others in the rotation- twice a week, instead of once every two weeks. The boy was learning in Yeshiva at the time, and wasn’t sure if he should give up his learning time to visit his grandmother.
As he often took walks with the Chazon Ish, he decided to ask him what to do. The Chazon Ish listened very carefully, and asked some questions to get some details about why she wanted him specifically, what was special about him, etc.
Once he got the full picture, the Chazon Ish told him that he should spend as much time with his grandmother as she wanted.
“But what about Talmud Torah,” the boy asked.
The Chazon Ish replied,
“Not only are you fulfilling the mitzvah of hesed and bikur holim, you are also fulfilling the Mitzvah of Talmud Torah.”
This was even harder for the boy to understand. How could he be learning if he was visiting his grandmother? The Chazon Ish said, “Torah is a spiritual, high and lofty concept. We want the Torah to connect to us, yet we are physical beings. How can the spiritual Torah connect to a physical being?”
The Chazon Ish explained that, “The Torah only connects to a refined soul.”
In order to merit that the Torah becomes part of you, you need a refined soul. That is the receptacle for the Torah. And that is how you connect to the Torah. How does one acquire this refined soul? It happens with hessed, by giving into others, and middot Tovot. When a person gives up of himself for others, as in this case when he was asked to give up his learning in order to visit his grandmother, that creates refinement of the soul, and that will cause the Torah to connect. He said that it doesn’t mean that you have to close your Gemarah to go looking for opportunities, but when an opportunity does come, you have to take advantage of it.
“Now that you have this opportunity, you should realize that every second you spend with your grandmother, give her medicine and involve yourself with her, you are creating refinement in your soul and that will cause the kedusha of the Torah to better connect to you.
This is not just a fulfillment of the Mitzvah of hesed, but it is also fulfillment of the Mitzvah of Talmud Torah.”
What a powerful lesson for all of us who want to be great learners, and yet sometimes feel that when we visit somebody, we are missing out on our learning. That is not the case. If anything, we are enhancing it.
Have a wonderful day.