Letters to Rav Dovid Luria

Rav Baruch Epstein, the Netziv's nephew and brother-in-law, relates that there were stretches in the early years after the Netziv's marriage when the young man felt low. He had given himself to learning in his father-in-law's house, and no one yet saw what he was becoming. There were days when he even thought he might turn to business.

At that time he began to exchange letters on Torah with Rav Dovid Luria, the Radal, one of the great scholars of the age. The Radal answered him seriously, as one scholar to another, and the young man's spirits lifted. He felt understood and strengthened, and he returned to his studies with new energy.

Years later the letters had another result. His son Rav Meir Bar-Ilan recalled that through them, Rav Yitzchok of Volozhin came to realize what his son-in-law carried inside him. Until then the Netziv's humility had hidden his stature almost completely. The Radal also gave his approval for the first part of the Netziv's sefer, Emek She'elah, printed in 5615 (1855), and the Netziv's way of drawing on the Geonim and early Rishonim carried the Radal's encouragement from the beginning.

So a few letters from one honest reader saved a Torah career that was close to being redirected.