Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach - 3 stories

amother

Mon, Feb 18 2008, 9:14 pm

From Hanoch Teller's "And From Jerusalem, His Word":

I once was troubled regarding a match I had arranged between a yeshiva student and a convert. I knew that if I apprised the boy of the girl's background at the outset, chances were that he would be unwilling to date her. However, I was convinced that once they had met and gotten to know one another, the boy would realize how wonderful she was and would not reject her over extraneous factors.

I had reasoned that it was important to "stack the deck" as much as possible in this girl's favor, but at the same time felt it was unfair to conceal information about her background from the boy until a commitment had already been made. I brought my dilemma to Reb Shlomo Zalman.

I could never have anticipated the Gaon's reaction. He did not see any drawback at all in revealing that the girl was a convert. "On the contrary!" he said with genuine wonder. "Can you imagine how fortunate he could be? Tell him he would have the privilege of fulfilling the mitzva of veahavta es hager - the commandment to love the convert - every single day of his life!"

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Reb Shlomo Zalman was not only openminded, but equally tolerant of others. There was no mistaking his perspective and the values he cherished, yet he was not quick to disqualify differing views. When Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, Rosh Yeshivah of the Hesder yeshiva in Gush Etzion, visited Reb Shlomo Zalman for the first time in 1962, the Gaon asked him what he did for a living. At the time, Rabbi Lichtenstein was teaching English Literature at Yeshiva University. Reb Shlomo Zalman did not bat an eyelash when he heard this, and afforded him the honor due him.

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Once, the Gaon was riding in a taxi with one of the rabbanim from Kol Torah. His companion began to relate that he had found the explanation of a complex subject under examination at the yeshiva, in a particular book. But when he mentioned the name of the sefer, Reb Shlomo Zalman stopped him and refused to hear the explanation, saying that the book contained denigrating remarks about Rav Kook.

OP - I was given this sefer by a talmid of Reb Shlomo Zalman himself, when I was first becoming frum. He said that the stories didn't begin to do justice to Reb Shlomo Zalman's ahavas yisrael...