Three stories of gadlus

There is a book being published by Rabbi Shlomo Levenshtein, a renowned "maggid", and it is laced with anecdotes displaying the love and dedication, and mesirus nefesh, for Torah and mitzvos.

Mishpacha magazine printed some excerpts from the upcoming book. They selected a numer of stories. They were all good stories, but I found three in particular striking, and I want to share them with you.

1: Rav Shteinman said to one of his confidantes that on shabbos when bentching, one is required to add the paragraph of "r'tzeih". If one forgot to say it, he would have to repeat the bentching. If he is unsure of he said it or not, he would also be required to repeat the bentching, because we would assume that he said the most common bentching he is familiar with, which is the weekday version not including R'tzeih, meaning we would assume he skipped it and therefore he must repeat it.

Rav Shteinman continued, the question therefore is regarding me - I never eat bread during the week. So my regular bentching is one that includes r;tzeih. So if on shabbos I would bentch and be unsure whether or not I said r'tzeih, would the decision be any different?

Realizing that the question was not really relevant, one of the people present asked Rav Shteinman - how long has it been since the rav has not eaten bread during the week?

Rav Shteinman's answer: 70 years!

Similarly it is known that the rav only drinks hot water unflavored with tea, as drinking water flavored with tea is considered by him to be filling a desire. He would say "Why do I need to drink hot water that is colored brown?"

One time a doctor said to him that tea is good for his health, as it contains healthy nutrients. The doctor recommended he begin drinking tea. The rav agreed to drink a cup of tea. When he was about to drink the tea, he changed his mind and said,"For 90 years I have been fine without tea. Right now I have to start with new desires?".
And he did not drink the tea.

2: Rav Mordechai Reimer, the mashgiach of the Tchebin Yeshiva and a son in law of Rav Elyashiv, was in one of the concentration camps during the war. He was very weak and suffering from great hunger. Along with that he had contracted typhus. He knew that if he did not obtain some food to eat very soon, he was going to die.

He dragged himself outside, and all he saw was snow and ice. Suddenly he saw another prisoner holding four pieces of bread - a considerable treasure!

Rav Mordechai could tell that this prisoner had obtained the bread by stealing it from the kitchen, but he also knew this person would not share the bread with him.

Rav Mordechai gathered his strength and pushed the other prisoner down. When he slipped on the ice, he dropped the bread he was holding. Rav Mordechai grabbed one of the pieces and ran away.

He recovered from his disease, and he always knew that that piece of bread is what saved his life, and eventually he survived the holocaust.

Rav Mordechai eventually became a great talmid chacham, but he was always troubled by that incident of theft. He went into Rav Elyashiv once to ask about it, and split his question into three parts:

1. Was he allowed to take the bread back then?
2. Even if ti was ok, does he have to search out the prisoner and pay him back for the bread he took?
3. If he should have to pay for it, how much? would he have to pay based on the value of bread today, or based on what a piece of bread was worth back then in the camps?

Rav Elyashiv answered:

1. Because he had four pieces of bread, taking one of them did not put the other prisoner's life in danger, and therefore it was ok for him to take the bread to save his own life. A person is allowed to save his own life by causing damage to someone else's possessions.
2. But, when one saves himself at the expense of someone else's property, he is obligated to pay for the damage he caused. Since he does not know the person from whom he stole and has no way of finding him, he should return the money by donating to public funds, with the hope that the person he stole from would get some sort of benefit from those public funds.
3. Rav Chaim Kanievsky proved from the story of Avraham Avinu that he has to return the money based on the value of the bread in the camps. Because Avraham would give wayfarers food, and refuse payment. He would instead ask them to bentch and thank God. When they said they wanted to pay, Avraham would submit them with a ridiculous bill. The guest would complain saying the food was not worth that much, and Avraham would respond that maybe where they were from it was not worth that much, but out in the desert where he is living, it is worth those astronomical amounts. They agreed and instead would generally bless God. From that story Rav Kanievsky proved that the value is based on the location it was in.

I find it amazing that for so long he could be disturbed by the theft of a piece of bread that he stole in order to save his life. Not only was he bothered by it, but to the point where his question was how much to pay back.

3: A few years ago a woman in Bnei Brak died at the age of 97. Two years later, her sister in the US died at the age of 97.

These two women had been born in the town of Baranovich - the town famous for the great Rav Elchonon Wasserman.

They grew up during a very difficult time, and the students in the yeshiva had no food, and often did not even have bread to eat.

These two sisters, young ladies at the time, took it upon themselves to feed the yeshiva boys. They took a sack and went from house to house around the town asking each household to donate one piece of bread for the students of the yeshiva.

When they finished making the rounds, they brought the bread to Rav Elchonon Wasserman. They did this every day for a long period of time, thus the boys of the yeshiva ate and survived because of these two women. Rav Elchonon blessed them that they should merit long lives.

They both died exactly at the age of 97.