One of the greatest students to come out of Europe was Rebbi Abba Berman. They used to call him "Einstein", ostensibly because the only person they could think of who was nearly as smart as Rebbi Abba was Albert Einstein. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz once remarked "I hear that a bochur came to the yeshiva with a really strange name - "Einstein". After they got to know each other, Rav Chaim would say "the goyim have Einstein. We have Abba Berman". He had many intellectual capabilities except for one - he didn't know how to forget. He knew every Rabbeinu Chananel in the masechtos yeshivos would customarily learn, by heart. It was only after he became sick that he started to forget so he had to review his learning more.
He was once on the train in New York [where he spent most of the years from after the war until 1979 when he permanently moved to Israel] with his student Rav Peretz Disson and a Korean man stood up and started BUGGIN' OUT. He was going nuts and people were afraid. Rav Abba calmly rose and whispered something in his ear at which point the man calmed down and sat down. R' Disson asked what he said?? How did he perform this miracle?? Rebbe Abba explained that it was no miracle at all. The man was screaming in Korean that he didn't know where to get off and nobody understood what he was saying. Even the Chinese people on the train couldn't understand him because they spoke Chinese but not Korean. I, explained Rebbe Abba, merely told him in Korean when to get off.
His student was stunned. How does Rebbe know KOREAN?? He explained that he had a special knack for languages so he picked up Korean from people who used to work around the Yeshiva. Their screaming to each other in Korean disturbed his learning but at least he learned the language. In fact, he knew 22 languages. [He was also was very good at physics and had to overcome his love of physics with his much greater love of Torah. Had he made a different decision then he doubtless would have been a world class physicist.]
He was in the Mir in Brooklyn and he was 30 years old bochur. A 16 year old girl named Itka Greenberg whose father was a simple man [either a plumber or shoemaker] inquired who the top boy in Yeshiva was and heard that it as Abba Berman. She was a good Beis Yaakov girl and said that he is the boy she wants to marry [back then girls weren't generally going for yeshiva bochrim who wanted to spend their lives learning]. People tried to dissuade her that she has no chance. He is the top boy from the top Yeshiva in Europe and loads of very prominent people would LOVE to get him for their daughters. She didn't relent. She was told that he is a European boy with a completely different mentality who lost his entire family in the war and went through tremendous suffering in Shanghai while she was an American born, English speaking girl. Too different. It won't work. Plus, he is 14 years older!! She wouldn't back down. She got a meeting with him and promised him that her entire life will be devoted to helping him grow in Torah and raising the family. She had no interest in asking anything for herself. All she wants is for him to grow. He saw that she was sincere and married her.
During the sheva brachos there was a misunderstanding. He thought that she wanted him to spend time with her so that is what she did. In fact, she was in crisis because she just wanted him to learn and couldn't understand how her prize chosson was not learning. After the sheva brachos, she later related with a twinkle in her eye, he opened up the Gemara and never closed it again...
They were zocheh to raise six daughters, all of whom married great Talmidei Chachomim [one of them was HaRav Moshe Twersky Hy"d who was killed in the terrorist attack in Har Nof a number of years go].
He was niftar gimmel iyar 14 years ago. זכותו יגן עלינו.
