Are you A Man who is really a Frog without Legs?

Are You a Man who is really a Frog without Legs?

Rabbi David E. Eidensohn

Years ago, men would come to my house and complain bitterly about their wives and their suffering. I sat silently until they concluded, and then I would say, “You are a frog without legs.” They were shocked and had no idea what I meant.

A friend of mine succeeded brilliantly until he achieved a prominent position as a teacher with many students. But then, on his own, he just quit. His wife was fed up by this and other unexplained moves, and he was evicted from the house. He slept in the car. The savage suffering of a very successful person who is expelled from his house and his family and sleeps in a car with no prospects of returning to his earlier success, is shocking. How many “frogs without legs” are there out there, sleeping in cars, wondering what happened, and not understanding. And these people may come to people like me who can do nothing for them, other than to tell them the truth. They made the mess. They are “frogs without legs.”

When the “frog without legs” is ready at my house, to hear more, I continue. From the age of twelve, living in Washington, DC about sixty years ago, a city extremely limited in Torah Jews, I merited with the kindness of HaShem to study in Yeshivas under the leadership of the greatest scholars of Europe. In Washington for three years I studied under the Malin brothers, from the family that produced the greatest leaders of the community of Brisk. Eventually, they, on the eve of the six day war, took their entire families to Israel, with no fear of what everyone else was afraid of, that Israel would be destroyed by the assembled mass of Arab armies, trained by the British to the teeth. They landed safely even as the senior leaders of Israel were fleeing in terror from what so many people feared was a terrible Arab success and the slaughter of the Jewish community of Israel.

The Malin brothers noted that the Israeli army had conquered large sections of Jerusalem that were always Arab communities and cities. The government told them, “Build what you want there, but do it quickly. Very soon, any vacant land will be possessed by the government before the UN enters the picture to give everything back to the Arabs.” The Malin brothers built some large Yeshivas and buildings, which eventually became one of the greatest and largest Yeshivas in Israel. The children of the Malin brothers ran these institutions as the new and younger Rosh Yeshivas.

My experience in Washington was to see how people from Europe came to America and behaved exactly as if they were still in Europe, with  absolutely no fear of the great antipathy in America for Torah Jews. When they realized that they were out of place in Washington and it was time to move to Israel, they turned their Yeshiva over to American students of Ner Israel Yeshiva of Baltimore, who could better deal with the large American student body in Washington, and the Malins set up shop in Israel.

I then moved to Baltimore to study for three years under the Gaon Rav Yaacov Bobrowsky, a senior disciple of the Gaon Rav Baruch Ber, a major Rosh Yeshiva. Reb Yaacov Bobrowsky was one of the greatest American Rosh Yeshvas, who taught American who came to Europe Torah at the highest level. From there, at the age of seventeen, I went to learn in Lakewood, under the Gaon Rav Aharon Kotler.

I pestered Reb Aharon using pure chutspah, and eventually, he became warm and spoke to me very frequently. I chased him to the Beth HaMedrash, to the Dining Room, and finally, to the small room where he ate his supper amid some peace of min in a hectic day. I learned most from him in that small room, when three rabbis came charging into it full of fire and Reb Aharon rose to great them, and for ten minutes, the four spoke a rapid Yiddish that was beyond me, and were absolutely furious about something. I noticed that they had put a book in the table, and I went over and read it, and was stunned. For this Reb Aharon is making war? I turned and left, and resolved, that I too would become a warrier, and fight the wars for HaShem.

Years later, I lived in Monsey NY with my family. The Gaon Rav Yaacov Kaminetsky moved there in his old age, and became a magnet for thousands of people who processed his incredible wisdom in dealing with all kinds of people. He was known by the great rabbis of the world as the leading man of wisdom and cleverness in the world. In seconds he could see complete strangers and figure out exactly what advice to give them, somehow figuring out things rapidly that nobody else could figure out.

I began with him a habit I began with Reb Moshe Feinstein, also in Monsey, when he would frequently visit the Tendler family where his daughter lived. Reb Moshe would doven often across the street in the shull that I taught in, and I would go to Reb Moshe with questions. The rule was, only ask questions that never would I be able to rule on alone without Reb Moshe.

I also asked these kind of questions from Reb Yaacov. Reb Moshe paskened from Shulchan Aruch and poskim and his mighty Torah understanding, but Reb Yaacov ventured into new areas where he could go anywhere and explain everything. While in Slobodka somebody visited who had studied under the Gaon Rav Chaim Brisker the Rov of Brisk, and then under Albert Einstein to help him design the Theory of Relativity. He asked the Rosh Yeshiva if he had somebody who knew science. The Rosh Yeshiva suggested that he speak to Reb Yaacov Kaminetsky. The two conversed and then other students came to listen to their discussion. One of them asked, “Who was smarter, Reb Chaim or Einstein?: He answered, Reb Chaim could explain better but Einstein was an incomparable genius.” Reb Yaacov interjected, “How old were you when you learned under Reb Chaim, and how old were you when you worked with Einstein?” He answered, “Eighteen years of age for Reb Chaim and 45 years old for Einstein.” Reb Yaacov then said, “From eighteen to forty five you surely grew much wiser, so why do you assume that Einstein was so much smarter than Reb Chaim, when you were much too young to understand Reb Chaim?”

Later that Orthodox scientist went over to the Slovodka Rosh Yeshiva and said, “I was impressed with Reb Yaacov’s command of physics, and his extremely quick ability to snap out a response.”

There were two of the greatest rabbis of Europe then who specialized in learning non-Torah subjects to broaden their knowledge in secular matters. Reb Yaacov was one as we explained, and Reb Elchonon Wasserman, the biggest disciple of the Chofets Chaim, was another. Reb Yaacov once became a Rov in a small community that had no Rov. When he discovered this, he stayed up the entire night and mastered a large book on medical law. This fact came back to Slovoka Yeshiva and people were stunned.

When Reb Yaacov came to Monsey I was one of the people who bothered him constantly with questions. I once asked him if politicians and public personalities are some anti-Semites who believe strongly in morality, and others are Jews who are quite lenient with morality, who does one vote for? He replied we must vote for the anti-Semite. In recent times the anti-biblical block in America is getting vicious and dynamic, and few people fight with them. According to Reb Yaacov and a published letter from Reb Moshe Feinstein produced by Rav Yehuda Levin and other Torah fighters and personalities, a Jew is obligated to fight strongly at City Hall against any effort to permit gay rights. Toeiva must be stopped and the world must be moral.

Obama and Harvard, men and women.

Men must organize. Reb Yaacov Kaminetsky was the genius of the generation, the sage of knowing human behavior, and a great Torah scholar. I would often talk to him, as it was my habit to pester the great rabbis of Europe, Reb Aharon Kotler, Reb Moshe Feinstein, Rav Yaacov Kaminetsky, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev, Rav Fishel Hershkowitz, and Rav Shmuel HaLavi Wosner, among others. I soon realized that what I could learn from these greats I could not figure out on my own, from any book. I was alone, and they were my sole hope. I knew it, and they sensed it, and responded. Some of the haskomose I received from them on my books, etc., were, I believe, unique in the world.

Reb Moshe and Reb Yaacov both gave me, in writing, incredible compliments, to establish me as a posek in complex Torah issues. Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev, at my suggestion, added that I can run my Beth Din using his name, something he never did for anyone else to my knowledge.