Wisdom & Wit

Wisdom & Wit - Vayakhel P'kudei

R’ Isser Zalman Meltzer, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Eitz Chayim in Yerushalayim was once hurrying down the road to the yeshiva, where he was due to give a shi’ur. As he walked accompanied by one of his students, a sudden rainfall soaked them to the skin. They proceeded along their way in the fierce rain, when suddenly, a beggar approached them. “Rebbe,” he asked, “would you have any Tzedaka to give me?” R’ Isser Zalman stopped in his tracks and began to search his pockets until he found some change to give to the beggar.
After the beggar had left, the student with him asked, “Rebbe, I don’t think it was right of that beggar to stop you in the rain, especially when you have to give shi’ur.”
“My son,” replied R’ Isser Zalman, “I have my job to do, which is to give a shi’ur, and he has his job, to collect alms. Who is to say which of us has the greater mission in life?”

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On the words at the end of the fourth blessing of Birkas HaMazon, “umikol tuv l’olam al y’chasreinu” “Let Him cause us never to lack any good,”  R’ Pinchas of Frankfurt, the author of Hafla’ah, had a beautiful interpretation. He interpreted l’olam as referring to Olam Haba (the World to Come), explaining that we pray that Hashem not deduct from our reward in the World to Come because of any good we might have in this world.

Shmuel Himelstein’s Words of Wisdom, Words of Wit; A Touch of Wisdom, A Touch of Wit; and “Wisdom and Wit” available at your local Jewish bookstore

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