Wisdom & Wit - Vayigash

Published December 24, 2009

R’ Akiva Eiger never referred to the students in his yeshiva as his students. As he wrote to his son, “You know of the many people who studied in our yeshiva ... Do not refer to them as my students, because never have I ever called anyone a student of mine. Who knows who learned more from whom? ... Indeed, if you find in any printed works of mine that someone is referred to there as my student, know that that was added by those who wrote down the text, and was certainly not put there by me. In fact, I would like you to remove such references from all of my books.”
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The Chasam Sofer had an attendant who was extremely haughty, of two reasons. First, he was the attendant of the Chasam Sofer, the greatest Torah scholar of his day. Second, his uncle was the owner of a large bank, and was very wealthy. When the Chasam Sofer heard of the man’s excessive pride, he called him over and told him: “Had you the Torah learning of your Rebbe and the wealth of your uncle, I would have understood your pride. However, you have the Torah learning of your uncle and the wealth of your Rebbe. What reason, then, do you have to be so proud?”
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R’ Yaakov Emden noted that when his father, the Chacham Tzvi, received letters which described him in all types of glowing terms - Rav, Gaon, Light of the Nation, etc. - he would make a point of reading these salutations in detail. As he himself said, he knew that these appellations were wild exaggerations, but if this was what people thought of him, he had to do everything possible to strive to attain these qualities.
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R’ Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld was the head of the Old Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael, and was a very great Torah authority. Yet, he never considered himself to be anything special. In a haskama (endorsement) which he wrote to a sefer, he wrote: “It pains me that I am referred to with titles of which I am undeserving, even in the slightest way. I am a simple, old, frail man ... while in reality I have neither Torah nor wisdom. I do not know of any virtue that I have, except that, through the mercy of HaShem, I was able to settle in the Holy City.”