לזכות ידיד נפשי האהוב רבי אפרים אבא בן מרים שושנה לברכה והצלחה בכל מעשי ידיו, הוא אשתו וכל ילדיו כן ירבו!
R' Yitzchak Yochanan Freidman of Baltimore related the following story. He was returning from the funeral of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Shmuelevitz ztz"l with the Rosh Yeshiva of Be'er Yaakov, HaRav Moshe Shmuel Schapiro ztz"l and they were waiting for a taxi in Meah Shearim. He took advantage of the opportunity to relate that the Holy Beis Yisrael of Gur asked his cousin "How come you are wearing potatoes on your head every day?" The boy checked his tefillin and lo and behold they were pasul.
Another time a boy from Ponovitch came to speak with the Beis Yisrael who then called Rav Schach, the boy's Rosh Yeshiva and asked him "How come you have an uncircumcised boy in your yeshiva..." It turns out that the boy had not been given a bris milah.
Rav Moshe Shmuel was not impressed with the stories. He explained that the Zohar Hakadosh said on the pasuk ריח בני כריח השדה - The smell of my son is like the smell of the field, that every mitzva has a certain smell. When these boys came into the Beis Yisrael - he didn't smell those mitzvos, so he knew that they weren't keeping them.
So what's the big deal....
Zchusom yagein aleinu!!:-)
[Sefer U'va Hashemesh page 49-50]
