Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spektor (1817-1896) was a great rabbinic authority and chief of the Jewish community of Kovno, Lithuania. When Simon J. Finkelstein was a boy of twelve, on his way to hear Rabbi Isaac (his grandfather) speak, his leg was fractured by a log that fell from a construction site. On the day before Yom Kippur, the venerable Rabbi came to the hospital to visit the sick; hearing about the accident, he placed his hands on Simon’s head and said, “You will live a long life and become a great rabbi in Israel.” In Kovno there was a Reform shul, known as the “Choir Shul.” Being progressive and patriotic, they decided one year that the shul should fly the Russian flag. When Rabbi Isaac Elhanan heard of this, he was aghast at the sacrilege, and he let the members of the shul no the flag didn’t come down, he would leave Kovno. So the Choir Shul had a meeting. The general feeling was that they could not possibly be the cause of Rabbi Isaac Elhana...
Come for a dose of inspiration from some of the greatest (and at times oddest) minds of history. The table is set. Come eat.