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The following is a free translation of the original Yiddish:
Rav Oshrei writes (page 214):
The following is my comment:
22 letters plus 10 post cards = 32
It took him 131 minutes (two hours and 11 minutes) etc. It took him on average 4 minutes and nine seconds, (131/32 = 4.09) per each letter/post card; to read, write responses, and write the address. And not just plain writing, as we all have heard about the genius of his answers!
A lot of Gedolim stories bother me. What is the point of this story? We all know that the Rogochover was an incredible genius. We don’t need more and more stories to prove just how much of a genius he is. A Godol is not measured by the extent to which Hashem gave him mental capabilities. (Not to mention the fact that the Rogocover answered most letters by listing off Mar’eh Mekomos that discuss and will answer the question.)
The lesson to be learned from this story should be that the Rogochover took over 2 hours out of his incredibly busy schedule to personally answer these letters. I’m sure some of them were easy questions and he could have had a Talmid sift through them to weed out the simple ones or he could have not gotten to some due to time constraints. The lesson here is that he spent over 2 hours (immediately after not being able to write anything down for 25) answering questions from all over the world just because people mailed them to him.
“A lot of Gedolim stories bother me.”
Do stories of secular heroes bother you too?
Wonder who’s assistant he is..
More of these are necessary every day .We have to know what to aspire to and to realize more and more, who we really are and where we really need to get to.
Msseeker: Stories told with no point bother me. If you read my entire post, I was clearly bothered by the OP missing the entire point of the story.
The point you chose to focus on was not the “ENTIRE” point. What inspires you is not always what inspires someone else. And who said the op missed the point of the story as defined by you, just because he pointed out another aspect?
Rogachovers Assistant:
I’ve heard that R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky Zt’l was against biographies of Gedolim that emphasise their natural genius rather than their hard work at Torah and Avodas Hashem. It just causes kids to give up from the start when they hear about a Godol who knew the entire Tanach when he was 7, knew Shas before his Bar-Mitzvah and was paskening Shaalos at age 18.
The Rogachover was an unbelievable masmid who learnt Torah every waking moment (except when forbidden) and hardly slept. One cannot in mere words do justice to the Hasmadah (diligence) of the Rogachover. Stories about his Hasmadah inspire us to work at our own Hasmadah.
But your story about his natural genius and phenomenal memory ,while fascinating, in reality does nothing to inspire Avodas Hashem any more than the guy in Japan who has memorised ‘pi’ to 100,000 decimal places.
who said it is natural genius?
you dont think maybe he was given such a gift because of his greatness in Tzidkus, or his masmidus, or some other area, or the zchusim of his parents, or from his Tefillah?
Fair point Mod-80 but my objection still stands whether the genius is natural or a zchus of some sort. The point remains that if you do not have the same genius, then the story does nothing for you as an inspiration.
But your story about his natural genius and phenomenal memory ,while fascinating, in reality does nothing to inspire Avodas Hashem
you mean it does nothing to inspire Avodas Hashem for you. it inspires me.
That is interesting. How does a story about his genius rather than his mesirus nefesh inspire you? Does it inspire you to become a genius with an amazing memory? I’m not being facetious – I just want to understand.
To me it is inspiring to hear (read) about how Gedolim used their great capacities (mental, emotional, spiritual) for Avodas HaShem and to help another (also Avodas HaShem).
btw I’m also looking for an assistant..
Mod, what point is there at all about bragging about anyone’s level of genius, even a Godol? We should be inspired to wish we were born with that ability? People tell stories about Gedolim to inspire with us an appreciation of their caring, Ahavas Yisroel, Dikduk B’Mitzvos, and things like that. Things that we can emulate and do. These people did not become Gedolim simply because they were born with a stronger memory or better intellectual capabilities. I’m not telling anyone what to be inspired by. I’m just pointing out that the part of the story that emphasizes the Rogochover as a leader of K’lal Yisroel is not the part the OP focused on.
i dont think its a problem if you talk about gdolim that they are genius Evrybody have to work with his tools you could say its not a plus that he was a genius but its sure not a mines btw i once read a story that the king were where the rogetchover lived asked him once how much leafs is on this tree he tought for a minute and answred him so the king asked him how do i know if you are right so he told him take off from the tree a amount of leaf’s and i will tell you how much you toke off and he was right so we should be proud of our gdolim with evry thing
There is no reason to filter out stories that you like or don’t like. Yes, we are supposed to be in awe of the great Tzaddikim. You like stories of how ordinary people became greater and greater? There are plenty. You can read All For the Boss.
“But your story about his natural genius and phenomenal memory, while fascinating, in reality does nothing to inspire Avodas Hashem”
There is a book called Making of a Gadol.
That book has been withdrawn from publication at the direction of the gedolim shlit”a. In any event, it is unrelated to the point you quoted.
While I don’t neccesarily agree with those who discourage stories like these, let’s put things into perspective for everyone’s benefit. The Rogatchover attributed his genius to the Tzemach Tzedek, who gave him a brocho when he was a very young child that he will be a Talmid Chochom. This is the magnitude of his genius. The implications of a Tzadik’s power is awe-inspiring.
My aversion for this thread has not improved after 7 months…
?
My aversion to this thread would include posting the reason for my aversion, which would require my expressing my opinion on the matter, which make me part of this thread, which make me averse to myself…
That makes no sense. Out with it.
My aversion for this thread has not improved after 7 months…
Yet you chose to bump a thread that you had not previously been involved in. (Or perhaps you have another screenname?)
Are the mods playing tricks with the approvals. I’m pretty sure that when I made my last post Kozov’s first post (368704) wasn’t there.
I did not bump it, kozov did.
Last time I read it, I was not a member.
On the ball said:
The Rogachover was an unbelievable masmid who learnt Torah every waking moment (except when forbidden)
My response:
I heard that he learned on Tisha Be’av and during Aveilus too. He explained that he couldn’t help it, such was his Ahavas Hatorah.
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