119th yahrtzeit 11 AV BURIED Har Hazeisim
Reb Itzele Blazer was one of the greatest talmidim of the famous Reb Yisroel Salanter, the founder of the Mussar movement. He was also a great gaon and became the Rav of St. Petersburg, then the capital of Russia, at the young age of just 25! His avodah during Chodesh Elul and the Yamim Noraim was famous for its deep yiras Shamayim, and everyone around him was inspired by it. In his later years, he moved to Eretz Yisroel, where he passed away.
Once, many great Torah leaders gathered in Reb Itzele’s city. The Beis HaLevi stood up and asked a difficult question on a sugya. The rabbanim discussed different answers, while Reb Itzele, the city’s Rav, sat quietly and did not say a word.
After the meeting, the Beis HaLevi came to visit Reb Itzele at his home. Reb Itzele then shared many beautiful chiddushim that he had on the very same sugya. The Beis HaLevi asked him, “If you knew all this, why didn’t you say anything during the meeting?”
Reb Itzele answered with great humility, “This question bothered me for a long time until I came up with the very same answer that you gave. When you asked the question, I became so excited that I had thought of the same question as such a great Torah scholar. Then, when I heard that your answer was also the same as mine, I was filled with such joy that I simply couldn’t speak!”
FUN FACT
Whenever Reb Itzele learned Torah, he would frequently say out loud that the idea he was learning was “Hashem’s reasoning.” When learning a machlokes, he would say, “Abaye holds that the Torah says this is Hashem’s reasoning, and Rava holds that the Torah says this is Hashem’s reasoning.” Sometimes, in the middle of learning, he would even stop for a few minutes to learn a little Mussar!
I WANNA BE LIKE …
Reb Itzele
Let’s learn from Reb Itzele to think about Hashem while learning Torah, to always act with humility and yiras Shamayim, and to keep working on improving our middos.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 91.