Crying Over the Shach

Once the entire town of Rava went out to watch the training and maneuvers of the local army. In their haste to see the king himself preside, the parents of young Sholom forgot him at home. When they returned, they found the young lad crying. They soothed him and apologized, promising that next time they would take him along.

He did not understand what they were talking about. "Then why are you crying?" they asked him. He pointed to the large volume of Choshen Mishpat that lay open before him, at the commentary of the Shach. "I am crying because I cannot understand the Shach," he said. "If he could understand it, why can't I?"

His copy of Maseches Niddah bore his signature and the words, "Today I am nine years old and have completed Shas." It was followed by a deep pilpul that he had written himself at that young age.