Tales from a Farbrengen

Stories from the Alumni Farbrengen with Rabbi Yaakov Goldberg
Celebrating Hadar Hatorah Yeshivah’s 50th Anniversary
Shabbos Naso, 5772
Transcribed by Rabbi Bentzion Elisha

The Ink of A Farbrengen

There’s a story told about Rabbi David Halevi Segal, known as the TaZ (Torei Zahav), the famous commentator of the Shulchan Aruch. He got married to the daughter of the famed Rabbi Yoel Sikis known as the Bach, the Bayit Chadash, another great Shulchan Orech commentator about whom it’s said that when he passed away, Gehenom was cooled down so he would pass through to Heaven without being inconvenienced.

For a living, the TaZ owned a store which his wife operated while he sat and learned. After some years, she requested that he help her in the store. He would come and help for a few minutes, a quarter of an hour or maybe even half an hour, and then he would disappear, going back to his studies.

His wife, at some point, confronted him about this phenomenon, asking why is he only helping her for such a small amount of time.

“Why did you marry me?” asked the Torah giant.

“Obviously I married you because you were considered an outstanding Illuy, Torah prodigy. That’s why I married you.” His wife answered.

“Well, what is an Illuy? An Illuy is someone who can learn and master in a few minutes what it could take someone else to learn well in a few hours. Well this also is the case with helping in the store, I can achieve in a few minutes more than others can in several hours!”

Likewise with drinking at a Farbrengen, for me, drinking a small portion of L’chaim can achieve more than for some other people a whole bottle is necessary…

Dovid Hamelech, King David, says in Tehilim, Psalms, ‘Leshoni Et Sofer’, my tongue is like a writers quill.

Before fountain pens and ballpoint pens there where quills. Quills are writing utensils utilizing feathers that were sharpened at their ends and used ink to write.

With a quill the writer had to dip the quill in the ink every so often to be able to continue to write.

So it is by Farbrengens as well, we must dip our tongue is some L’Chaim to moisten it a little so the words can come out, bypassing any barriers.

Just like without the ink it’s impossible to write, without a little L’Chaim, it’s difficult to get beyond the boundaries of oneself and bring the necessary words out on the table.

L’Chaim Uvracha!

More Precious Than Pearls

A Rabbi who was trying to recruit students for his Yeshiva, traveled to some nearby towns and villages where he met many Jewish families whose children where not given the opportunity to learn Torah.

One particularly bright boy of Bar Mitzvah age caught the rabbi’s eye.
Attempting to impress upon him the importance of learning Torah, the rabbi told him that Torah learning is more precious than pearls.

This boy was taken aback by this piece of information, and instantly enrolled in the Yeshiva.

This boy was so motivated by the rabbi’s words ‘learning Torah is more precious than pearls’ that he learned with diligence, dedication and toiled for a whole decade!

By this time, the once simple village boy became quite a Torah scholar, having developed his mind and heart to become a fine young man of high morals, a vast knowledge in Judaism and a refined pure character.

The rabbi took him aside in yeshiva one day and told him that since the boy now was of marriageable age (he was 23), it was time that his parents make a Shidduch, marriage arrangement, for him. Therefore he should go back to his parent’s village.

The boy packed his belongings, and set out home bound.

On the way back to his parents, he stopped over at an inn. In the inn the boy started learning a complicated topic in Rambam which made him lose all sense of time until he satisfactorily settled the problem almost a week later.

At the end of his stay, he informed the innkeeper he will be leaving.
The innkeeper, a simple observant Jew, presented the yeshiva student with the bill which amounted to 1000 coins.

Upon seeing the bill, the student told the innkeeper he wanted to share with him what he had been laboring on for his entire duration in the inn.
With the innkeepers permission, he started on an elaborate exposition.
The boy first mentioned what the Rambam had stated and then presented the Raved’s question on the Rambam. He introduced the Kesef Mishna’s answer to the Raved’s question which didn’t sit well with the boy because of a few variables which he shared. Then the boy continued to explain how he managed to answer the objection of the Ravvad and delivered an astounding Chidush, innovative explanation, that brilliantly settled all opinions which took the words of the Rambam, the Ravvaad and the Kesef Mishna to a much deeper level of understanding, a beautiful tapestry of thought.

After the delivery of the inspired discourse, the boy offered the innkeeper a unique deal.

“Dear innkeeper. I have just presented to you a most complicated and complex question, with a thorough comprehension of a few commentators as well as my original solution for this intricate subject which took me several days to learn and solve.

Since you have presented me with the bill for my stay here in your cozy inn, I’d like to make you a special proposal.

I learned from my teacher that Torah study is more precious than pearls, and here I presented you with not one pearl, but a whole necklace of pearls, strung together by an organized original Torah insight. Surely, a strand of pearls costs at least 5000 coins. You are requesting of me 1000 coins. Since Torah study is worth more than pearls, I should charge you more than 5000 coins for listening to my words of Torah, however, I will only charge you 5000 as a discount. The 1000 you ask will be settled by your debt to me, and the rest, the remaining 4000 coins, you will give to me. Surely this is a fair exchange with a great incentive for you…”

Even though the innkeeper was a simple Jew who admired Torah scholars and appreciated hearing words of Torah, nevertheless he didn’t agree to this ‘business deal’.

“I must say that your Torah words were very moving to me and I’ve never heard such inspiring teachings, however, I need real money. I can’t buy my necessities with your words,” said the innkeeper.

“My dear innkeeper. I see that you drive a hard bargain. Listen, even though this is completely beneath its worth, I will give you the privilege of having listened to my Dvar Torah, Torah insight, as even exchange to my stay’s cost. My Torah presentation, which surely is more precious than even pearls, easily exceeds the worth of 5000 coins. However, I will let you have it for 1000 coins, the amount you are charging me.

This is a deal of a lifetime. Have you ever heard of such a find?!” The yeshiva scholar exclaimed.

“I’m sorry young rabbi, but you stayed here almost a week, eating three meals a day. I really need actual money!” insisted the innkeeper.

Displeased, but out of no other choice, the boy took out the bag where he had put the money his parents gave him, and paid his debt.

Proceeding on his journey, instead of going back to his parents’ home, he changed his course and traveled back to his yeshiva’s rabbi.

Completely disillusioned and depressed, the boy confronted the rabbi, telling him the whole story. After he went over the whole exchange with the innkeeper, he asked him, weeping, “rabbi, when I met you as a young boy you told me that the words of Torah are more precious than pearls. I studied so heard completely believing in what you had told me. How come the first experience I had coming out of the yeshiva seems to contradict your words? How come the innkeeper not only didn’t respect my words of Torah as something more precious than pearls, he didn’t respect them as even matching the price of pearls? In his mind, not even something the fifth of the price of pearls?”

The rabbi asked his student to come to his home where he would answer his question.

The rabbi lived in a house with a barn in the back of it, as many houses did in the village.

When they arrived at the rabbi’s home , the rabbi asked his wife to lend him her strand of precious pearls, which she did.

The rabbi then took his disenchanted student to the barn, where his animals lived.

The rabbi took the pearl necklace and proceeded to place it next to his cows head.

The cow looked at the pearls, grunting and mooing in a lazy song of apathy.
After sniffing them, the cow just walked away.

The rabbi then took the pearls and placed them in front of the sheep.
The sheep glanced at the pearls momentarily, and immediately after glanced away focusing its concentration on something more to its liking.

The rabbi continued this experiment with the rest of his livestock, however the response was the same as the cow and the sheep, disinterest and indifference.

The rabbi put the pearls away in his pocket, and then took some dirty moldy hay from inside the barn and faced the animals. When the animals saw the ‘treasure’ in his hands, they all started getting excited, making a lot of noise with each one pushing the other to gobble the hay from the rabbi’s hand.

After the rabbi let the livestock consume the hay in his hand, he walked over to his student who was watching the scene in the corner.

“My dear student. The words I told you were, and are, 100% true, Torah learning is more precious than pearls. However even though pearls are really pearls it doesn’t change the fact that Behemas, animals, are just Behemas!’

***

Rabbi Yaakov Goldberg is an admired and beloved educator who merited to be called a Lamdan, a diligent scholar, by the Rebbe. He is the Rosh Yeshivah of Hadar Hatorah and a Meshiv in Tomchey Tmimim in 770 where he answers questions on all Shas and Halacha.

Rabbi Bentzion Elisha is an award winning photographer
(ElishaArt.Com) and writer based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.