Wisdom & Wit

Wisdome & Wit for Parashat Sh'mot

Once, R’ Avraham of Sochachov was in great distress when he failed to understand a Talmudic passage, and burst into tears. Somehow, he was helped from Heaven and he overcame his problem. From then on, whenever he was faced with major problems in understanding something he was learning, he would pray to Hashem and burst into tears as he beseeched Him for help. Indeed, he was often helped from on High.

Once, as R’ Avraham was learning, he was faced with a particularly difficult topic, which he simply could not resolve. Finally, he prayed to Hashem for guidance and began crying bitterly because of his anguish.
Seeing this, his father-in-law, the Kotzker, said to him, “Avraham, when you don’t understand something, the solution is not prayer. As difficult as the topic is, you have to use your mind and your logic, and you must solve it on your own.”

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Once, when two women were walking, Rav Aryeh Levin came up behind them. They slowed down to let him pass, but he had stopped walking. Softly, he told them, “there is a kitten drinking milk ahead of us, and I would suggest we wait a little, so as not to frighten it.”

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