The Night of the Open Doors

Rav Avrohom Yehuda Schwartz of Taplitza, a great-grandson of the Kol Arye, was the one who heard this from a Vizhnitzer chossid, Rav Mordechai Chuna Fuchs of Vilchowitz. Rav Avrohom Yehuda's father was Rav Yitzchok Meir Schwartz, who served in Dragmirest, and his grandfather was the Bais Naftoli.

The scene was a bitter winter evening at the yeshiva in Mad. In those months, with the days so short, Maariv was davened early, and a long learning seder followed before the bochurim ate. On this evening the sugya was unusually deep and intricate. The Kol Arye sat at the front of the bais medrash, so immersed in it that time stopped existing for him.

When supper came, the hungry bochurim went to the dining room. Returning, they were horrified and awed at once. A talmid had gone out without closing the bais medrash doors behind him, and the icy air had poured into the hall. Yet their Rosh Yeshiva had noticed none of it, neither the draft, nor the cold, nor the emptied room, and he stayed that way until deep in the night.

Far past midnight, when nearly all the bochurim had gone to sleep, a few of the greatest talmidim stayed awake like an honor guard, watching their Rebbe sit absorbed, in a world where only Torah was real. At last the Kol Arye looked up and was amazed at the hour. “I thought it was around nine o'clock,” he said. “It is so late. I must have lost track of time.” He apologized for keeping them up and sent them to bed, so that they would have strength for the next day's learning.

A second account comes from Rav Yehuda Greenfeld of Semihali, author of Kol Yehuda. Rav Yehuda was the son of the famed Rav of Semihali, Rav Shmaya Greenfeld, himself a star talmid of the Kol Arye's yeshiva. Rav Yehuda described how, when winter nights grew long, the Kol Arye rearranged the yeshiva's timetable to fit them. Every talmid was sent to sleep early in the evening and was woken a few hours later, around an hour before midnight. Like lions, they sprang from their beds and hurried back to the bais medrash. There they ate a quick meal and sat around the Rosh Yeshiva, whose deep and intricate shiur carried on until morning.