HaGaon HaRav Ya'akov Kaminetzky, zt"l, related that once the Roshei Yeshiva gathered for a meeting and a very wealthy and prominent man was supposed to participate. The man called to say that he could not come and that after the meeting, they should please come to his office to convey the content of the discussions to him. The Rosh Yeshiva ztz"l called him and said these words: "I am not a genius in arithmetic, but it seems that the distance between us and your office is the same distance between your office and us. If you want to talk to us, we will be here for another hour." He could not tolerate being treated with contempt by supporters of the Torah.
The degree of importance that a person attaches to things, concepts, ideas etc. determines and defines their very nature. If we are to test a person's character, the main question is the direction of their self-effacement [התבטלות]. Where does it lean? To what are they מבטל themselves? Although this power of recognizing importance has great resistance in the soul, and there is a sharp tendency in a person's soul toward contempt, in contrast to the power of recognizing importance, there is a process that does not want to endure the presence of importance and is filled with contempt. This is the כח הליצנות - the power of contempt.
He once noticed someone who held a Tzadik-Baal-Avoda in higher regard than a Talmid Chochom. He considered him a לץ. A לץ is not a clown. It is someone whose sense of importance is distorted.
He was a great expert in understanding the powers and psyche of the soul, and no less skilled in his ability to discover and penetrate the inner forces of each student.
Around him there was a sense of "וגילו ברעדה" - "And you shall rejoice with trembling" and especially during the holidays. The RY instilled this in a famous song that he composed and used to sing during times of joy. This melody is heard even today in the mouths of the yeshiva students throughout the generations. It said יראה ושמחה געפלאכטן אין איינעם אחוץ ביי יידן נישטא ביי קיינעם. Joy and fear are intertwined together; they are not found among any others except the Jews.
HaGaon Rav Yisrael Gustman used to meet with the RY ever ערב שבת either in the RY'S home or at least by telephone. When he came to be menachem avel he pointed to the doorpost and said that "when I came into this doorway, whatever state of mind I was in, I left with simcha."
