Thursday, April 7, 2016

Ta'avas Achila - Part 2: The Only Time Rav Nochum Was Seen Crying

One night some boys from the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalyim were hungry. They broke through the door of the kitchen and helped themselves to some food [not an uncommon occurence for boyss to sneak into the Yeshiva kitchen and take food...]. The next day, the Rosh Yeshiva Rav Nochum Partzovitz, came to shiur crying. The boys had never seem him cry before. He spoke for 45 minutes and it made an indelible impression on the students who clearly rmember it until this day. He said "What are we teaching you here? What is the point if that is the way you act??! In the Mir [in Europe] we had nothing to eat but we would NEVER steal food from the yeshiva. This all happened because of תאוות האכילה - unbridled desire for food. I can't give shiur."

He added "I don't believe that the boys who did it are sitting here and even if they are - they won't understand the shiur anyway". [Meaning, if a person acts like an animal, there is no way he will truly understand the G-dly Torah]. 

[Yeshurun Vol. 22 Page 196]