* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
Today we mark the 31st yahrzeit of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, the famous Torah scholar and posek (halachic decisor), who was renowned for his sweet nature and humility. Here are two of the loveliest stories I’ve heard about him, which can teach us valuable life lessons:
• Rav Yonatan Billet shared the following story: We had the great merit of growing up near Rav Auerbach in the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood of Jerusalem. Once I came to ask the rav if we were allowed to play a certain game on Shabbat. He didn’t make a decision if it was permitted or forbidden until he played the new game with us himself and shared in our excitement! He would always make another person feel important, as if he was his partner. Even a little boy who asked a question about a game was given serious attention.
• Rav Auerbach would say that we should not wait to come across opportunities to perform acts of kindness, but should set aside specific times to do so. If we dedicate time for prayers and Torah study, then we should do the same for helping others: to study with someone who is on a lower level in his learning, to visit the sick, etc. Rav Auerbach spent much of his time doing good deeds and thinking carefully about the most fitting way to help each individual. In the book of Tehillim (Psalms), it is written: “Praiseworthy is he who looks after the poor”— that is to say, praiseworthy is he who devotes time to thinking about how to help the poor and needy, who considers deeply what is the most appropriate approach to helping others — sometimes a person needs money, but other times he needs to feel that someone cares about him. We must treat others with wisdom and sensitivity.
May his memory be a blessing.
