Q:
You said we should become close to talmidei chachomim, to roshei yeshiva. How should one come close to a rosh yeshivah who is cold?
A:
You expect him to be hot? You supply the warmth. You be a warm talmid to the rosh yeshivah; if you’ll be a warm talmid he’ll respond to you. A rosh yeshivah has to teach, doesn’t he? You expect him to be hot when he’s teaching let’s say a shiur in palginan dibura? He has to be practical. It’s a mathematical question there.
However, if you’ll come over to him sometimes and speak to him you’d be surprised. He’s not cold at all. Sometimes he can become a good friend of yours.
I’ve spoken to people who have problems. I said, “You come from Boro Park and you’re calling me up about a problem? What about your rav in Boro Park?”
“Well,” he says, “I have no business with a rav.”
You have no business with a rav? What kind of business is that? You should go over to the rav and say good Shabbos! And sometimes talk to him. You’d be surprised. Rabbanim have something to say to you. They can be your guide, your mentor in life. So many people are at fault not because their rav or the rosh yeshiva is cold.
I remember in Europe I was in a small town and somebody told me the rav is a cold rav. I happened to know the rav. He was a very warm-hearted rav, a man who went out of his way to do favors to people. But the people are cold. They’re looking for faults. Come closer to him. Warm up to him. You’ll discover this man was a great ba’al chessed, a man who would spend days doing a favor for people. And people had the audacity to say he was a coldhearted man.
And so who says the rosh yeshivah is cold? Maybe you’re cold.
TAPE # 594 (May 1986)
