Every visit to a senior residence provides perspective. But Rabbi Aharon Zohar had a special visit, and this is what he wrote to me:
“One day, at eight in the evening, I arrived in Jerusalem and decide spontaneously: I'll pop in to visit Grandpa Shmuel. He's my wife's grandfather and he's 105 years old. Yes, 105! He immigrated to Israel alone after the Holocaust, and fought heroically in the War of Independence. He got up at dawn and climbed on a horse-drawn cart, without sophistication, to support his family.
He did this without going to horse lessons and learning, without saying ‘I feel like it' or 'I don't feel like it'. Once he told me that after the Holocaust he had nowhere to lay his head at night. The man built a successful tile factory, married an Auschwitz survivor and built a glorious family. And me? I had the priceless of marrying one of his granddaughters.
But what really amazed me was the next moment: I arrived at 'Ramat Tamir,' where he lives, and met the Indian caregiver Archana in the lobby. I asked where Grandpa was and she answered: He's in class, he'll finish in another 40 minutes. I entered the study hall, and tears came to my eyes.
Grandpa Shmuel sat with a giant magnifying glass, and with an even more giant volume of Talmud, listening attentively to the rabbi. Listening to the difficulty, and then to the answer, and thus at age 105, with inspiring perseverance, he doesn't give up on his fixed daily Talmud study.
And it's not him, it's us. Now is the holiday of Chanukah. If you ask me how it is that all the empires were thrown into the trash bin of history, and the people of Israel continued to flourish despite all the persecutions, this is the picture that explains everything. As we say when we bless the Torah - 'Who gave us the Torah of truth, and planted eternal life within us.' Even at age 105. Forever. Am Yisrael Chai. Happy Chanukah."
