Baruch slowly reached to pick up the piece of paper. Mr. Shpeiter seemed not to have noticed. In fact, he was already sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.
It was as if he didn’t even realize that Baruch had just disappeared and reappeared. Baruch picked up the paper and saw that there was a letter on it. The letter “Beis.” Strange, thought Baruch. What exactly had just happened? He was staring at a salmon, the next thing he knew, he was in Kerestir! He had lost his appetite in any case. Mr. Shpeiter was finishing up his snack. “Baruch, are you ready? Let’s go!” The two of them walked back towards the basement door. Mr. Shpeiter yanked the rope that turned on the light in the basement. Baruch didn’t have time to think. Before he could say a word or do anything, he started to spin. Spinning, spinning, spinning.
Where Baruch landed, was dark and cool. He looked around and surmised easily that he was in Eretz Yisrael. A yeshivah bochur walked into the house in front of him. Boruch followed him inside. He could hear voices coming from upstairs. “Rebbe,” the voice said. “The doctor said that Rebbe needs to get sleep.” Boruch peeked inside the room. Rav Shach! Just looking at the Tzadik took his breath away.
The bochur closed the lights and left the room. A few minutes later, the bochur went to check on his Rebbe. The lights were back on. Rav Shach was sitting at the table, learning. “Rebbe,” he said. “The doctor says that Rebbe needs to get sleep.” “But I need to learn,” he said. “Please, Rebbe,” said the bochur. And he closed the lights again. A few minutes later, the lights were back on and the Tzadik was learning. “What are we going to do? Rebbe needs to sleep. Let’s turn off the lights from the circuit breaker so Rebbe can’t turn them back on.”
However, minutes later, Rav Shach was sitting outside his room, using the light of the hallway to learn. What to do? They turned off the hallway lights as well. Sure enough, minutes later, Rav Shach was sitting by the stairs with a sefer learning.
One bochur decided to do something extreme. He turned off every single light in the house from the circuit breaker so no one could turn them back on. “That should work,” he said, smiling. Twenty minutes later, one bochur went up to check. “He’s gone!” he screamed. “Rebbe’s gone!” Immediately, the bochrim spread out, searching… One bocher came upstairs, and in hushed tones, said, “Follow me.” Baruch snuck down the stairs as well. And there by the boiler, next to the little teeny tiny pilot light, was Rav Shach, with a sefer, learning. The bochrim looked at each other and smiled. Forget it. We can’t stop the Gadol from learning. Smiling, they turned the lights back on and went back upstairs. Such a tremendous love for learning! Nothing could stop the Tzadik! And suddenly Baruch was spinning back through the tunnel. Soon he found himself standing on the top step of Mr. Shpeiter’s basement. On the second step was a note. Baruch looked down. On the note was the letter “Reish.” What was going on!?!
To be continued…
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 34 Komarna Yahrtzeit Edition.