We have been sharing stories of Gedolim, to show that Avahat Yisrael is the defining factor of an Adam Gadol.
Rav Wolbe’s definition of an Adam Gadol/ a Great Man is, in the name of his teacher Rav Yerucham Levovitz, somebody who can influence others, like the sun can influence the moon, that is smaller.
Hacham Ben Zion Abba Shaul was my Rabbi, Baruch Hashem. For close to 13 years, when I lived in Israel, I was zoche to hear Divre Torah from him. He once said, “I don’t even know how a person can dislike another Jew. When I see a Jew praying in shul or learning Torah, I am filled with love for him, to the point that I want to kiss him.”
He loved everybody.
I still remember that in the Ohel Rachel Bet Knesset, in the Bucharian section in Yerushalayim, where we prayed on Shabbat and on holidays, little children would line up to kiss his hand, for a long period of time. He’d just smile. He loved little children. He loved giving every one of them a blessing.
He said it was a shame that people didn’t realize how beautiful little children were and give them the proper love.
At the end of his life, after he had a stroke and it was difficult for him to walk ( he had to drag his leg, as part of his body was paralyzed- later on he needed a wheelchair), on his way home from shul, hundreds of people would flock behind him after his shiur to ask him questions.
Eventually he’d get tired.
At one point he was too tired and said, “No more questions. I am too tired for questions.” Another man came over and said, “ I don’t have a question, I just want a beracha.”
The rabbi answered that he didn’t even have strength to give a beracha, but he gave him a short blessing.
One of the people walking next to him overheard this, and said to the rabbi in jest, “Just give me a beracha that I should be able to give people blessings instead of you. That way you won’t be tired.” The rabbi answered, “The first thing you need to do is work on yourself to have true Ahavat Israel. And then, even without my blessings, you can be sure that your blessings will work.”
On another occasion, someone asked him why his blessings were so powerful. He answered, “If you had Ahavat Yisrael like me, your blessings would work as well.”
I once heard an explanation thar a person is like a pipe. If you take for yourself, you clog the pipe, but if you aren’t taking for yourself the pipe is open.
Of Rav Hanina Ben Dosa, it is said,
כל העולם כלו נזון בשביל חנינא בני וחנינא בני די לו בקב חרובין מע"ש לע"ש
Simply this means, “The whole world gets their food because of Hanina, My son.And my son Hanina survives from week to week on one box of carob.
He had no food.
The Ben Ish Chai said that the word used here for “because” בשביל/Bishvil” can also mean “path.”
Rav Hanina Ben Dosa was the path. Through him, all the the blessings came down, because he didn’t take anything for himself.
He was a proper pipe. If you want to be a pipe to bring blessings to the Jewish people, you have to love them.
That’s the power of Gedolei Yisrael.