The Ascent Up 18 Flights Of Stairs That Changed History

Every month my wife buys "Zman" for the children which is a Charedi Magazine in Hebrew that I guess on some level is modeled after Time. Glossy pictures with interesting feature stories.

A crazy myse from this months edition: Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel was in chutz la-aretz collecting money for the Mir Yeshiva. He gets to this building and lo and behold the elevator is not working and the potential donor is on the 18th floor.

The person accompanying Rav Nosson Tzvi suggested that they return a different time when the elevator is working. Rav Nosson Tzvi had terrible Parkinson's and EVERY STEP was krias yam suf so 18 flights would be well beyond his capabilities. 

Rav Nosson Tzvi insisted that they came to see this man and they are GOING. So the Rosh Yeshiva painstakingly climbed the 18 flights. The businessman was so impressed with Rav Nosson Tzvi's determination that on the spot he wrote a check for A MILLION DOLLARS. If you go to separate supermarkets to buy different food items so you can save a few dollars here and there you will definitely appreciate that a million dollars is A LOT of money. Even if you don't, you can still appreciate that a million dollars is a lot of money. With a million dollars you can .... give a million beggars a dollar each. So many mitzvos you can do. For a million dollars - you can buy the services of an average third baseman for about 15 games. 

This person developed a relationship with the Rosh Yeshiva and later built the Mir a building [actually - the Arabs built it. He paid for it]. His name is Mr. Hershey Freidman from Montreal and his telephone number for donation requests is .... [I am joking. About giving out his number, that is. Not that I have it. But I know where Montreal is. My mother is from Montreal. And I am from my mother. If he gives me a million dollars I will gladly open a kollel and name it in his honor. Do you think he reads the blog? Do they have computers in Montreal? When my mother grew up there they didn't. One of my close friends married a girl from there so I must clarify this point with him. I will walk up 36 flights for 2 million and for three - 54. Then I will collapse. Not in the shape I used to be in].