This past week, somebody came to me to discuss a certain matter, and during the
conversation, he told me a remarkable story. He said that his father was very close with the
great poseik Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l , and would often drive him to where he needed to
go. Once, during an intense winter storm, Rav Moshe asked if he could drive him to visit his
dear friend, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky zt”l,
because he heard that Rav Yaakov was not well. The driver asked Rav Moshe why he found
it necessary to visit Rav Yaakov specifically that day, during a fierce storm, rather than wait
until the next day, after the storm subsided.
Rav Moshe replied by telling him a story about his esteemed colleague, Rav Yaakov. He said
that each year, he – Rav Moshe – would go to a bungalow colony in the Catskills for a
vacation, as he needed to do for health reasons. One year, he decided not to go. His family
and others who were close to him asked why, but he didn’t give a reason, even after being
asked repeatedly. Rav Yaakov heard that Rav Moshe chose not to go to the Catskills, and so
he went to speak to him, to find out why Rav Moshe was not doing what was needed for his
health. Rav Moshe explained that the previous year, he heard a woman singing from a
nearby bungalow. He discovered that in the bungalow right next to his, there was an elderly
widow, and her daughter would sit by her bedside and sing to her in order to alleviate her
discomfort. Rav Moshe did not wish, Heaven forbid, to interfere with this woman’s rest, but
at the same time, he could not violate the prohibition of kol isha (listening to a woman sing),
and so he decided not to go to his bungalow.
Rav Yaakov told him that he was taking it upon himself to find the best possible solution.
Indeed, several days later, Rav Yaakov informed Rav Moshe that he purchased a tape
recorder, and asked the widow’s daughter to sing into the tape, so that her mother could
listen to her recorded singing without her having to sing to her each night. This way, the
widow could listen to the recording on low volume, and even if it was heard outside the
bungalow, some poskim maintain that the prohibition of kol isha forbids only listening to a
woman’s actual voice, and not to a recording of a woman’s voice.
Rav Moshe said to his driver, “You see how Rav Yaakov invested all his energy and wisdom
so that I could go rest in the mountains? Should I not go to visit such a loyal, beloved
friend?”
This provides us with a beautiful example of Rav Moshe’s outstanding middos (character
traits), how he would never allow himself to cause any sort of distress, Heaven forbid, to a
widow, to the extent that he chose to forego on his annual vacation to avoid doing so. This
story also shows us the middos and wisdom of Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, how he went
through the trouble of finding the best possible solution for Rav Moshe’s dilemma, teaching
us the importance of exerting effort to help each and every one of our fellow Jews.
Tolna Rebbe Shlita
