Nodding Through the Procedure
The Rosh Yeshiva once had to go through a long medical procedure. To take his mind off the discomfort, the doctor made conversation, and Rav Ruderman nodded throughout as though in agreement.
Afterward, outside, he told the talmid who had come with him a beautiful way of understanding a sugya that had occurred to him during the procedure. Then he broke off and said, “By the way, did you happen to hear what the doctor was saying? I nodded to be polite, but what did he want?”
More stories of Rav Yaakov HaLevi Ruderman
All 13 ›Sick Over Rav Schneur’s IllnessIn 1982 a talmid arrived at the Rosh Yeshiva’s home to accompany him to Mincha. He noticed that Rav Ruderman’s face looked broken. The Rosh Yeshiva said he had just heard that Rav…Rav Nochum’s Late Chanukah CandlesRav Ruderman’s special consideration for his Rebbetzin had its roots in something he learned from the Chofetz Chaim, an account of a Chanukah night when the Chofetz Chaim was…The Wives’ Thank YouAt the last Knessia Gedola, in 5740 (1980), several women who were married to his talmidim in Eretz Yisroel asked to meet him. He asked after their families and then asked why…The Inkwell and the CreamA talmid came to the Rosh Yeshiva’s house before joining the yeshiva, to be tested. In the middle of the conversation he knocked over an inkwell, leaving a stain on the sofa that…How He Received Two NamesRav Yaakov Kaminetsky, Rav Ruderman’s cousin and namesake, told how Rav Ruderman came to have his name. A year before the birth, an elderly, childless man named Reb Yitzchok told…A Quiet Gift from Rav Chaim BriskerIn Minsk, at the height of the war, young Yaakov Ruderman was privileged to meet Rav Chaim Brisker. Rav Chaim seemed to sense how much the young illui could become, and understood…
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