Parshas Vayeitzai 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
ויקח מאבני המקום וישם מראשתיו וישכב במקום ההוא ... (כח-יא)
Rashi explains that the posuk is telling us that Yaakov only laid down that fateful night, but throughout the fourteen years prior that he spent in Yeshivas Shem V’Eiver he did not lay down at night, even once. Such unflagging diligence in learning is the hallmark of our Gedolim, down to our very day. For example, it is known that R’ Yoelish of Satmar zt”l, and even more recently, R’ Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi zt”l, would not stop their learning to lay down and sleep on a bed, but preferred to doze off as they learned. Their lives were one long unbroken hemshech of limud haTorah and dveikus to Hashem.
It is told that R’ Elazar Menachem Mann Shach zt”l once went to discuss a difficult question that came up in his learning with the Brisker Rov zt”l. A satisfactory resolution eluded them, however, and still burdened by his question, Rav Shach returned home. In the wee hours of the morning, the Rov roused one of his sons and instructed him to go to Rav Shach’s home immediately to relay that he had found a terutz. The son was hesitant to knock on Rav Shach’s door at such a late hour; perhaps he was sleeping, or had himself found a solution? But the Brisker Rov told him, “You obviously don’t know Rav Shach very well! If you did, you would know that neither of those things is within the realm of possibility! If Rav Shach had come up with an answer to the question, he would have immediately come back here to tell it to me, so that I may sleep. If he didn’t come to me, that means he doesn’t yet have an answer - and if he doesn’t have an answer, he is not sleeping either!”
Indeed, the Brisker Rov’s son went and found Rav Shach pacing back and forth, immersed in his learning, toiling to find a solution to this very question!
Now, although this level seems beyond many of us, at least let us be misorer and learn from their ways so that at the very least, in the time that we set aside for learning, we do not let ourselves be disturbed by anything in the world, come what may.
And as our Zaida Yaakov did, we too will be zocheh to bracha v’hatzlachah as a result.