A Glimpse of Ruach HaKodesh

Rav Aharon was always asking when the yeshiva world would receive true gedolim. Rabbonim, he would say, there were plenty; the question was who would bring genuine gedolim. He wanted bnei Torah to grow into true gedolei Torah, and even of the older students he kept demanding more.

It is told that Rav Aharon once described to Rav Elchonon Wasserman a conversation he had had with the Chofetz Chaim. In the middle of it, the Chofetz Chaim suddenly said that when a person begins a masechta, he must always finish it and never leave it half learned. Rav Aharon thought about this afterward and realized he was guilty of exactly that. Many times he had started a masechta, learned a little, and put it aside.

"How did he know?" Rav Aharon asked. Reb Elchonon answered that the very same thing had happened to him. While he was speaking with the Chofetz Chaim, the Chofetz Chaim had broken in with the same instruction about finishing a masechta. Both agreed that it was genuine ruach hakodesh (divine inspiration).