By Isser Zalman Weisberg

We recently commemorated the Shloshim of my father-in-law, Rav Dovid Schochet OB”M, Morah D’asrah of Kehilas Chabad in Toronto for 66 years, and President of the Vaad H’Rabbonim of Toronto. He was niftar on Sunday night, 19 Shvat.

For the first 25 years of our marriage, my wife and I lived near my in-laws in Toronto. We moved to Lakewood in 2012. For several years after that, we had tried to convince my Shver and Shviger to spend Pesach with us. However, my Shver, who was responsible for selling the chometz of thousands of Yiddin, was not comfortable entrusting it to another Rov.

Finally in 2017, he told us he was comfortable entrusting mechiras chometz to a capable young Rov whom he had been mentoring for many years. He thus agreed to come.

My Shver had difficulty walking so it was extremely convenient to have a very warm and geshmaker Beis Medrish called Yeshivas Emek Halacha, literally a few steps from our home. The Beis Medrash is led by Rav Osher David Shlita. (May he be Gazunt!).

Rav Osher treats everyone with warmth and dignity, but he really went out of his way to make my Shver feel very welcome and respected, and honored him to give a shiur to his kehillah.

On the day after Pesach, before my Shver was about to leave back to Toronto, he thanked Rav Osher for his exceptional hospitality, and told him that he has regards from his father-in-law, H’Rav Tuvia Goldstein. My Shver said that he saw him the previous night. He continued: “Your Shver told me that this Pesach he finally repaid a debt he was carrying for many years”.

Rav Tuvia was nifter on 15 Iyur 5763 (May 17, 2003), fourteen years earlier.

Now here’s the backstory.

Rewind 39 years prior to 2017.

Rav Tuvia Goldstein Z”TL, who was a prominent Posek in Boro Park, was at a chasana in Toronto sitting next to my Shver. The wedding took place on 21 Sivon 5738, (June 26, 1978) at the Montecassino Hotel and Event Centre in Toronto.

The Kala was Sorah Freida Bobrowsky from Toronto, and the Choson was R’ Naftoli (Tully) Besser (currently Dean of Students at the Yeshiva of Flatbush) who learned by Reb Tuvia and therefore invited his Rosh Yeshiva to be his Mesader Kiddushin.

My cousin, Moshe Mayer Gluckowsky (currently the Executive Director of the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in Crown Heights) was in his early twenties and a close talmid of my Shver. He eyed the empty chair on the other side of my Shver on the Rabbonim table, and decided to occupy it, (ostensibly in the capacity of my Shver’s “gabai”), so that he could enjoy the Divrei Torah the Rabbonim would engage in.

He remembers the details vividly.

The discussion was about someone who cannot do a mitzvah on his own without someone else’s assistance. Do we say that he is exempt from doing the mitzvah, being that he cannot do it on his own?

Rav Tuvia believed he was not exempt, and my Shver felt that he was.

My Shver said that his position can be ascertained from a Rishon who holds that if someone is missing his right arm, he is not obligated to put on Tefillin, since he can’t put them on his left hand by himself.

R’ Tuvia said that there was no such opinion and if my Shver could find him one… “I will give you something nice to show my appreciation.”

My Shver promptly left the hall and drove 10 minutes to his home.

He had an extensive library, and went to fetch the sefer “Besomim Rosh” which was attributed to the “Rosh” (Rabbeinu Osher, d. 1327) by the publisher (R’ Shaul Berlin, 1740-1794). It was printed in 1793.

My Shver came back and showed R’ Tuvia, that indeed, in Responsa #100, he says that if someone is missing his right arm he is exempt from the mitzvah of Tefillin, being that he cannot put them on without assistance from another.

R’ Tuvia shrugged this off by declaring that the sefer was known to be a forgery.

On that night of Motzei Pesach in 2017, my Shver had a dream. It was R’ Tuvia. He told him: “You enjoyed davining by my esteemed son-in-law, Rav Osher, for the entire Pesach. I have repaid my debt through my Shliach.”

Here are my thoughts.

Although most scholars feel that the sefer “Besomim Rosh” was a forgery, the issue has still not been determined conclusively. Indeed, the great Torah giant, and one of the greatest bibliographers of Torah books, the Chidah, (1724-1806), felt that it was authentic. Rav Ovadia Yossef also did not invalidate it.

At the time of the event, R’ Tuvia felt he was not responsible to “pay” my Shver, because in his opinion it was indeed a forgery.

But as time went on in Gan Eden, R’ Tuvia felt that in deference to those who did respect the sefer, my Shver should be “paid” for bringing it to his attention.

Rabbi Moshe Mayer Gluckowsky made another interesting point. He told me that many years after the event at the wedding he came across a responsa from the Radbaz (R’ David iBn Zimra, 1479–1573) that if someone is blind (R”L) he is exempt from the obligation of Shnayim Mikrah because it is forbidden to read the Chumish text by heart. The only way he can fulfill this mitzvah is if somebody reads the text and he repeats it after him, word for word. However, since he cannot do it on his own, he is exempt. (Shut Radbaz 3, section 425)

He obviously shared this with my Shver who was very appreciative.

Thus, there actually is an opinion among the very early commentators that substantiates the view of my Shver – that one who cannot do a mitzvah on his own is exempt from doing it.

Therefore, in any case, it would be appropriate for R’ Tuvia to repay his debt to my Shver. He did this in an exemplary way 39 years later at a Beis Medrish which carries the very name of the one established by R’ Tuvia in Boro Park on 63rd Street many decades earlier (and the name of the multi-volume response that he authored – Emek Halacha), and was now led by his esteemed son-in-law at 1 Princess Court in Lakewood, New Jersey.