Pride in a Son, Pain for the Single

Rav Yehuda Zev once visited a sick man and noticed that the man's siddur held an inscription praising his son's excellence in tefillah. With a glowing smile, Rav Yehuda Zev said, "You must be so proud of your son." Then he saw the boy's photograph on the wall and exclaimed, "That boy looks like a Tzaddik. May you have much nachas from him."

Another time, someone asked him to daven for several older bochurim still waiting to find shidduchim. He looked down the long list of names and said, "I feel terrible for them. May Hashem help them."

Just before a minor operation of his own, he looked in on a man who was terminally ill. A smile spread across the patient's face, and his pain seemed to ease.