Today is Rav Shmuel Birnbaum's Yahrzeit (anniversary of death). I'd like to tell you a phenomenal story. He passed away about—I would say 16 years ago, exactly 16 years ago. This past year, I was in Israel, and I had a driver taking us around to see the different Gedolim—this rabbi, that rabbi. One of the rabbis sent a message saying he needs an extra hour, and we can't see him now; he needs one more hour. I said to myself, “Oh my goodness, what are we going to do for that hour now?” We were in the area, in that rabbi's area. Now to travel back, and to travel back, we have to be in the area.
The driver said, “I'll take you to Sanhedria. Sanhedria is a cemetery, and we'll see Chacham Ovadia Yosef.” His, his, his, what is his name? What's it called? The, the, the, yeah. His, yeah. So see Chacham Ovadia Yosef in the—what's it called? You could say some Tehillim (Psalms) by his kever (grave). That's what he said. I said, “Okay, great idea. Let's go.” When we got there, the second I walked up the steps, I saw, at the entrance, the grave, the kever of Rav Shmuel Birnbaum. This is insane. Why was it crazy? I'll tell you. Because that year, which was the previous year, every week I would go through his chiddushim (Torah insights) of the parasha. And it happened to me that week, at that moment, that I bumped into his kever right there. It was like—whoa.
I want to tell you one quick story about Rav Shmuel Birnbaum: he was very, very, very makpid (strict), even about a minute of learning. There was no such thing as just wasting time and not learning. There was a guy in his yeshiva who was leaving. The yeshiva ends tomorrow; he was leaving that day. He said, “Wait, you have one more day of learning. Where are you going?” I said, “Rabbi, if I change my ticket for one more day, it'll cost me an extra $500.” He said, “No problem.” He went home, got $500, and gave it to me. He said, “Take this and postpone your ticket.” He said, “Because for one day of learning—you must understand, for one day of learning—we don't realize what it is: one word, one day. If we realize, we would learn nonstop. If we realize how important one minute of learning is, we'll nonstop.”
I'll just tell you very, very quickly: David HaMelech asked Hashem when he was passing away, and he said he was passing away on Shabbat itself. He said, “Okay, fine. You know what? Let's pass away when? On Sunday.” No, he said Sunday first—the next day. He says, “No, I can't do that.” Why? Because Shlomo HaMelech is supposed to take care of the kingdom. And nobody can take anything away from him. Nobody can take anything away from him. Nobody can take anything away from somebody else. If it was already decreed, nobody can take away that decree. And therefore, he's going to be the king. He has to be on Shabbat. He says, “Okay, go on Friday.” He says he can't do it on Friday. I said, “Why not?” He says, “Because Friday, you're going to lose one day of learning Torah.” You hear what's going on over here? He—why not? And therefore, he said, “But it's not over.” He said, “What does that mean? The one day that you learn Torah is great, great for me. Greater? Than a thousand korbanot (offerings) that Shlomo HaMelech is going to bring.” Ki tov yom bachatzerecha. One day in your chatzer (courtyard) of learning. Me'alef. What does it mean? Me'alef? From a thousand korbanot that Shlomo HaMelech is going to bring. And therefore, a person has to understand and a person has to realize the importance of Torah learning. Any spare moment, you should really take advantage of that. Have a great day.