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In my first visit to the Rav on the night of Shavuos, I heard that he was teaching the Rambam's Sefer Hamitzvos, so I came and sat down at the table. During the shiur, I made a comment, and the Rav replied briefly. Later, I commented again and received another short answer. When I commented a third time, the Rav turned to me and said, "Come see me after the holiday." When I came, he received me very kindly, asked me about my family, and it turned out that he knew some rabbis who were relatives of mine. After a Torah discussion, he asked me to come see him often, and so I did. I would come and say before him my chiddushim, ask what was difficult for me, and his warm attitude towards me encouraged me greatly. He had a mystical influence on me, even though I am far from mysticism. I had experiences that could have harmed my continued studies, and he influenced me to stay in Torah study, not only by the power of his greatness in Torah, for he knew the entire Torah, but by his entire personality. He was a figure overflowing with light, and his light penetrated in its own ways. The matter of the people of Israel and the Land of Israel for him was not just emotional pronouncements, but it flowed from his depth, from his hidden world, and there was something mystical in it.
It is said in the Talmud Yerushalmi [Chagigah 2:1], regarding Elisha ben Abuyah, that a sinful thought of his father, whose intention was not for the sake of Heaven, is what corrupted him. And behold, a good measure is greater than the measure of retribution, one to five hundred (Sotah 11a). If the light of a pure thought enters five hundred times more, surely it is impossible to escape the influence of this strong light. The Rav invited me to study bi-chavrusa. We agreed to review the Tur with Beis Yosef, and he stipulated in advance that I should not prepare for the lesson, because if I prepare, he will also have to prepare, and that will lengthen the study. And since we mainly want to review...
If something comes up during the study, we will elaborate on it a bit, but the main thing is to study. The study time was set for one hour. We would seclude ourselves between six and seven in the evening in the room, and then of course the Rav would not receive visitors. The Rabbi later gave me his book "Reish Millin" as a gift with a beautiful dedication.
מתנת אהבת אמת לבחיר לבבי
הגר"ש ליברמן שליט"א
איה"ק פורים דפרזים תרצ"ה
I said to the Rav, "I don't understand anything here." The Rav replied, "Today, I also don't understand, but when I wrote the words, I understood everything." [The Rav's last words testify to his great humility towards Torah scholars, saying that he does not understand anything from what is said in "Reish Millin," as he [the Gra"sh] was very far from matters of Kabbalah. The Rav did not want to embarrass him that he was ignorant in Kabbalah.]
Greater is serving a Torah scholar than studying Torah [Brachos 4b]. While studying with the Rav, I absorbed various reactions that had great value for me, guiding and directing value. The Rav was wonderfully astute, and indeed we see this in the various problems that the Rav dealt with. In his quick grasp, he understood the matter from all its aspects, and his wonderful memory, which absorbed a great deal of practical details and a wealth of events, helped him to see everything against a backdrop of a reality with a very broad horizon. This was a unique figure, not such are born in every generation. The generation cannot tolerate a great man who is above it, and hence the opposition, the persecutions. His opponents fought against him because they recognized his strength, because they knew his greatness, and here too there was a special greatness in how he accepted the persecutions. The Rav was an artist, not only with a poetic sense, but a real artist. In his writing there is a greatness of holiness, his words are like the sounds of a Shofar.
