Today we have another beautiful story to share, with a message, from the new book about Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Gaon Yisrael ( page 377):
A boy who was a Baal Teshuva (came from an irreligious background and returned to his roots) had a close connection to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman.
One day, he was walking Rabbi Shlomo Zalman back to his home from synagogue, and while on the way, the boy shared all of his concerns and issues: he was in a new yeshiva, he was not yet acclimated to the new system, his parents were pressuring him to leave yeshiva… he was going through a lot of different challenges. Rav Shlomo Zalman listened and empathized as they walked.
When they got to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman’s house, they began to climb the many steps together. And as they walked up, the Rabbi would periodically grimace or groan, and say, “Oy it’s so hard..”
By the time they got to the 30th step, he was expressing pain and difficulty from the climb. The boy was in shock. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman was rarely seen with anything less than a smile on his face. This behavior was out of character.
But when they finally got to the top step and were in front of his door, the Rabbi put on a big smile and said, “It was hard going up the stairs, but I went one step at a time, and I was successful. I made it.“ He was sending a message to the boy. In life, quite often there are difficulties and challenges, but if you walk up one step at a time, you will eventually get to your final destination or goal. And he didn’t just tell this to the boy, he acted it out. With his great wisdom, he was able to immediately apply an analogy in a real life way. This is an example of his brilliance, and at the same time, his ability to soothe and calm somebody that was suffering.
In another lesson from his life, when the Yom Kippur war broke out, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman was in the hospital recovering from a small procedure. Fearing that there would be many incoming casualties ( which Baruch Hashem there weren’t) the hospital discharged most of the people that weren’t seriously ill.
Right after he was released from the hospital, one of his students came to visit him and saw that the Rabbi was dressed in his regular fashion, walking around as if nothing had happened. His student questioned this. Here he was, was walking around fine although he should’ve been in the hospital. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman explained a rule, “God gave snow based on the wool,” which means if there are a lot of wool blankets, God will send snow, but if there are no wool blankets, God will not bring the snow because no one has protection.
He said that along as long as the hospital was available, he was able to suffer because the hospital was there to take care of him. But now that the hospital was closed. Hashem could not keep him in a situation where he would need a hospital if there was none available to him.
These are very comforting words. Sometimes people get frantic when situations come up where seemingly, people can’t survive. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman applied this rule to the people that survived in Russia under the communist regime. Many almost-miraculous things happened to them.
Of course, we always have to do our hishtadlut.We need hospitals and medicine and everything else.
But it would be interesting to see a study on how many people in the Ukraine were able to survive without their medicine.
How could it be? The answer is that Hashem can only demand from you what you are able to do. God protects the foolish. If you don’t know, then you aren’t responsible. God cannot hold you responsible for not taking care of yourself when you aren’t able.
There’s a connection between the story about walking up the steps and the fact that God only asks us to do what we are able. The Nefesh Chaim says that when a king asks his servant to go up a flight of steps, he does not expect him to jump six steps at a time. He expects him to go one step at a time, according to his ability. And it is like that in life as well. One step at a time, and only as much as we can do. More than that is not asked of us.
Have a wonderful day.