Yesterday, we quoted from Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz, the Rosh Yeshiva of Kaminetz, regarding the concept of broadening yourself as a way to get to Ahavat Israel/ loving your fellow Jew. Love yourself, when your self is much bigger.
Rav Boruch Ber, this great rabbi, who was a giant in Torah and Yirat Shamayim, said that when the time comes for him to stand before the Heavenly Court, and they ask him how he thinks he will get into Olam Haba, if he answers that it’s with his Torah, they will question his level, for he felt minuscule in comparison to levels of previous generations.
If he’d answer that it was with his Yirat Shamayim/fear of heaven, he felt, again, that in comparison to previous generations, he’d fall short.
But, he said, there was one area in which he would be able to give himself merit: that he loved all Jews. He said,
“Whenever I walked in the street and saw a Jewish person coming toward me, I thought to myself, “A blessing on his head.“
So this great Rabbi, in his humility, felt that he wouldn’t know if his Torah would count, and he wouldn’t know if his Yirah would count. But he knew that he had his Ahavat Yisrael.
This is what great people worked on, and that was the secret to their success.
The Ponovizher Rav was a giant in his time. He started the Ponovizh Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael, named after the town in Europe where he lived, which was wiped out during World War II. He was a student of the Chafetz Chaim, but originally, he learned in the Novardok Yeshiva.
One day, on his way back to yeshiva, he decided to take a detour to go visit the Chafetz Chaim.
When he came to the house, the Chafetz Chaim’s wife told him to wait, because the Rabbi was busy.
Suddenly, he heard frightening cries. The Chafetz Chaim’s wife told him not to be afraid- that her husband had been praying for someone. He assumed it was a very ill, very close family member that the Chafetz Chaim had been praying for. But the wife said that it wasn’t. It was a local lady who was going through a difficult labor.
When Rav Kahaneman saw how deeply the Chafetz Chaim felt the pain of a stranger (who was a fellow Jew), he decided that the Chafetz Chaim had to be his rabbi, and he became his student.
That is the greatness of all the Gedolim.
Rav Wolbe quoted Rav Yerucham Levovitz as saying that a Gadol, a great man, is someone who gives to Ketanim/small ones.
The sun is called the great luminary, and the moon is called the small luminary, because the moon receives from the sun.
That is what great people are. Great people care about smaller people. And the more they care, the greater they are.