The Purim That Held Up the World
The Kotzker Rebbe once revealed why Rav Zev Nachum merited a son as great as the Avnei Nezer.
A story ofRav Avrohom Borensteinהרב אברהם בן זאב נחום בורנשטייןProfile ›
It is told that the Kotzker Rebbe once spoke to Rav Zev Nachum of Biala, who would one day be his mechutan, and explained how he had earned such a son. The Rebbe took him back to a Purim long before. Throughout the Jewish world it was a day of joy, and even the people who sat in the beis medrash all year were caught up in the day's preparations, the meals and the gifts. For a few hours the Torah, it seemed, was left unlearned by everyone.
Everyone except Rav Zev Nachum. While others celebrated, he sat quietly with an open Gemara. The Kotzker said that the world cannot stand for even a moment without Torah, and in that hour it was his learning that kept it standing.
In Heaven there was a great stir. The Heavenly court looked for Torah and found none, until they noticed one Jew bent over his book in Biala. It was then decided on high that he would be rewarded with a child whose Torah would light up the very world he had sustained.
That child, the Kotzker told him, was his firstborn, Avrohom, the future Avnei Nezer, whose responsa and shiurim would indeed fill the world with light.
Source: Abir HaRo'im (Piotrkow, 1935), p. 7.
Even on a day full of obligations, there can be one quiet hour set aside for what lasts. Choose a time this week, ten minutes or an hour, and protect it for learning, tehillim or a real conversation with Hashem, even while everyone around you is busy with something else. Tell the people close to you so they can help you keep it. You are not abandoning your responsibilities. You are giving them a source. Quiet steadiness can hold up more than you imagine, and your children will notice what you keep.