As we have said in the past, what defines Gedolim is their tremendous sensitivity to people’s feelings, tragedies and events.
Rabbi Lipa Geldwerth of Flatbush told the following story about Rav Shach at a recent Torah U’Mesorah convention.
When Rabbi Lipa was a young man learning in Yerushalayim, a terrible tragedy occurred. Four young boys from the Ponevezh Yeshiva were on a search team, looking for someone that was missing, and heaven forbid, they were killed.
The boys in the Yeshiva were in shock, they were distraught and could not be calmed down. They couldn’t learn for a few days. But to their wonderment, they saw that Rav Shach was learning with his regular hatmada, as if he had no feelings, heaven forbid.
After three days, Rav Shach entered the Bet HaMikdash. His face was white and he could hardly walk. Someone asked if the Rosh Yeshiva was sick. “Sick? I look this way because I have not slept for three nights. How can I sleep after what happened to these four boys?”
Rabbi Geldwerth added that he and his peers were not able to learn for three days but we could sleep. Rav Shach was able to learn, but how could he sleep?
This is a tremendous story about what a Gadol is.
Yes, as Rav Shach said in his lifetime,
לוּלֵי תוֹרָתְךָ שַׁעֲשֻׁעָי אָז אָבַדְתִּי בְעׇנְיִי
If not for Your Torah, my plaything, I would have been lost in my tragedies and difficulties.
Rav Shach went through a lot.
The Torah kept him alive and out of depression. He was able to learn even when difficulties happened.
But to fall asleep at night? That was impossible.
Simple people, when they are feeling people, can’t seem to pray or learn, or focus when life is difficult for others, but most of us can sleep at night, eventually.
In the words of Rav Avraham Kalmanowitz, the late Rosh Yeshiva who started the Mir Yeshiva of Brooklyn, “What defines someone who cares about the Jewish people is that if he hears of a problem and he can’t fall asleep at night.”
That is greatness.
We should all have that empathy and feeling which is the signature of Jewish leaders. That was Moshe Rabbenu, who went out to see his people, and that’s what Ahavat Yisrael is.