It’s A Good Kashe
January 23, 2022
As a young boy I had the good fortune of living near to the great Goan HoRav Eleizer Kersner zt”l, distinguished Rov of the Bnei Yehuda Shul in Boro Park. He was an acclaimed scholar and sage par excellence, from “The Alter Heim”, who basically knew everything there was to know. He strictly lived by the principles and etiquette of the old country. As a warm, concerned, caring person he befriended me, a youngster growing up on the streets of Brooklyn in the early sixties. Since my father and I davened in his shul Shabbos night, the Rov took an interest in my progress and developed a close relationship with me.
One day I came home from yeshiva with a question that perturbed me. Naturally I went to the Rov’s home to share my dilemma with him. He thought for a moment and said “Yankele, doz iz a gutte kashe” this is a good question. Needless to say I was pleased to hear that. “Ein minutkele, ein minutkele” one minute, just one minute the elderly Rov said, as he took a moment to think of an answer. He then took a ladder, braced it against one of the bookcases lining his dining room walls, climbed up, stretched his hand out high and pulled out an old sefer from the very top shelf. He climbed back down, blew off the dust, placed the sefer on the table, flipped some pages and then called me over pointing to a specific spot on the page and said smilelingly, “here Yankele is the answer to your question”. Can you imagine! There must have been hundreds of seforim in his library and he knew exactly, which sefer dealth with the question, where the sefer was located amongst all the other seforim, what page to turn to and the exact spot on the page where the answer was discussed. Unbelievable. As a youngster it was difficult to fully appreciate the giant in who’s company I merited to be. Looking back now, I am humbled to have had the great opportunity of being exposed to one of the great Goanim of yesteryear. Wish I would have taken a little more advantage of the relationship. We should never underestimate the greatness of those who teach us Torah. Their wisdom and knowledge only came through great toil and effort. One day we will look back in time and say to ourselves how lucky we were to have known that great Rosh Hayeshiva. Let us make sure today that we won’t have to say tomorrow “If only I would have taken more advantage of the relationship I had in hand. Take advantage today. Cherish the moment.
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