Years ago, while in Miami giving a lecture on Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, otherwise known as the Chofetz Chaim, the most beloved Jewish leader in the pre-World War II world, I mentioned a story, perhaps a legendary story, I had heard about a student in the rabbi’s yeshiva in Radin who was caught smoking on the Sabbath, creating a scandal. But before he was expelled from the yeshiva,, the Chofetz Chaim asked to see the student first and in two minutes, so the story went, convinced the young man to give up the folly of his way. I would give anything, I told the audience, to know what the Chofetz Chaim could have said in two minutes that one part of Israel has been trying for over thirty years to convince the other part of Israel to believe. But as I’m going on and on about the Chofetz Chaim in this Florida hotel, I notice an older man in the front row trembling uncontrollably. After the lecture he ran up to me and asked me where I had heard the story. But even before I c...
Come for a dose of inspiration from some of the greatest (and at times oddest) minds of history. The table is set. Come eat.