Kissing His Parents' Hands

Rav Ben Tzion spared no effort in honoring his parents. In the years of the War of Independence his home was in Katamon, yet every Friday afternoon he made his way across the city to his parents, who lived close to the Jordanian border, in order to kiss their hands. He then walked home through the dark streets, when it was dangerous to be outside. He followed the teaching of the Arizal in Shaar HaKavonos that one should kiss one's parents' hands every Shabbos. On Shabbos mornings he again walked to their neighborhood to daven in the Ohel Rachel shul that his father had founded.

His respect for his wife, Rebbetzin Hadassa, was just as well known. He taught his students that when a husband and wife merit it, the Shechinah rests between them, and where the Shechinah rests, the Soton cannot enter, nor can poverty or illness. He urged them to honor their wives in deed, thought and speech, to buy them jewelry and things they like, to speak pleasantly, to think well of them and to judge them favorably. He practiced what he taught.