3 comments
- r
ruth_cohen3Apr 30, 2025
Great message-thanks!
- N
N SApr 29, 2025
By the way, guru means a real expert - and all involved!
- N
N SApr 29, 2025
R’ Yaakov Greenwald z”l was a frum psychologist in Monsey NY (who moved to Eretz Yisroel in his later years, and he passed way around 2019). He compiled an entire sefer of letters of questions that he wrote to the Steipler (Reb Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky – father of Reb Chayim zt”l). The sefer is called Eitzos v’Hadrachos Mei’eis HaSteipler. He has a question that a yeshiva student asked him that while he does his best to comply with rules and be respectful of everyone around him, still somehow, once in a while, there is always someone who dislikes something he does. He asked ‘is there something wrong with me?!’ The Steipler responded that the Ramba”m (Hilchos Deos) says that just as people look different one from another, so too they think differently. Therefore, you must know that it is impossible to make everyone around you perfectly happy. And he added to the effect that one’s job is to simply do his best, but not to worry if someone feels that something should be different. (i.e. ‘He’s davening or learning too loud/too low, too fast/too slow’ etc.) (You can, of course, explain yourself respectfully to the fellow, and that can lead to a nice conversation, but not to worry.) The Gemara says in Brachos (58a) that one makes the special bracha ‘Boruch Chacham Harazim’ upon seeing 600,000 Yidden in one place, as since they all think different and look different, it is an amazing Niflaos Haborei. (This actually took place, several years ago, at the levaya of a gadol in Eretz Yisroel.)
