Today [Sabbath, 27th Av] marks four years since the passing of a great scholar, perhaps one of the rare ones who have lived with us in recent years, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Schulzinger zt"l, author of 'Mishmar HaLevi'. A quick look at one of Rabbi Moshe Mordechai's dozens of books, Pninim ve Igrot, Mishmar HaLevi on Shas, on Torah, Shlome Sarah, Sima Beta, Nerot Shlomo, Shiuri Mishmar HaLevi, and more draws the reader into a wonderful world where nothing exists except Torah, love of Torah, desire, genius, and the holiness of our great rabbis of recent generations, such as our Rabbi the Gerizh, the 'Chazon Yehezkel', the 'Kehilot Yaakov', the 'Avi Ezri', and more.
Diving into the world of Rabbi Moshe Mordechai forgets, in other words: makes all the conventions of this world superfluous. Academia, psychology, sociology, computing, journalism, news, Hamas, war, Bennett, become marginal playthings in Rabbi Schulzinger's civilization. There is nothing there but Torah, almost irrational happiness from the settlement of a problem by the renowned Jew, a shower of blessings and joy bursting upon the head of a burner who hid an innovation by the author of 'Mishmar Halevi' and made him stand on his 'error', courage and trembling from a sharp statement by the Chazon Ish, and a fear of the Holy One from an act in the name of Maran HaGri'z.
It seems that the term that best describes Rabbi Schulzinger's character is 'sweetness.' The love of the Torah and its innovations that flowed from his books and sermons were so sweet to him that it seemed as if the Torah could be tasted on an empirical, truly sensory level, like honey and milk.
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These are the words of Rabbi Aharon Papoifer, zt"l, rabbi of the Maharsha community in South Africa:
""And while I was writing these words, a messenger came to me and gave me a terrible book called "Mishmar HaLevi" on the tractate of sacrifices, which was written by the wonderful gaon, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai HaLevi Schulzinger, may God have mercy on him... And I stopped writing the letter for about two hours, during which I studied the book, and how wonderful it was for me to see, the genius of the gaons of Bnei Brak, and their deep babbling, and the one who reads the words will seem to him like the babbling of Othniel ben Kenaz and Joshua ben Nun. At the beginning of this book, a whole world stops, neither destruction nor exile, there is nothing else besides him and his Torah, and it is all Torah, nothing external influences or touches it, and perhaps this is the secret of the eternal existence of the Torah in the people of Israel." .
In preparation for the anniversary of this challenging and wonderful rabbi, I have chosen to bring a number of quotes from his letters that teach us something about the love and desire for Torah, realms that some of us have not visited in a while.
In honor of... I thank God, blessed be He, that I was able to make my friends, the Shelita, happy with the investigation they just conducted in the Beit Midrash: Is it in the third house... and may the hearts of those who seek God rejoice to read the Toss. Hagiga 16:2... [Pinini Mishmar Halevi, p. 11].
In honor... and I thank God, blessed be He, that I can rejoice in the exaltation of the honor of His Torah in Baha'i Anina in what we were privileged to learn in the Bible from the hands of our esteemed Rabbi, the Gaon Rabbi Mordechai Shulman, zt"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Sloboda [Shlomi Sara, 3rd ed.].
In honor of... Here on the night of Shavuot 5788, in the Rabbinical study of the sed, we studied the subject of Bovad Zara, page 24, and we had as our illumination in studying the subject the holy words that enlighten the eyes and gladden the heart in the book 'Chiddushei Maran Ri"z HaLevi' on the Torah in Parashat Yitro [Pininei Rabbeinu HaGri"z, p. 18].
After the request for his well-being... I will not refrain from writing here the sublime gratitude that I have to the great and exalted Pamech, Shlita, for what in the last days of the holiday [Bhoshanah Rabbah and Simchat Torah...] we studied in the rabbinical study of the rabbis in the 2nd chapter of Get, a simple page of Kast, and when we came to the rabbinical study of the rabbis on page 2 that he took from the robber... I hastened to look it up in the Sifra Demar Niyo Rabbah Shlita, and I studied in the rabbinical study of everything that he brought and that he brought up there in Hani Anina... and everything was of great benefit to me in this, and we discussed it in the rabbinical study of the rabbis on Simchat Torah in the afternoon... [ibid., p. 577].
May the eternal institute be filled with joy. I have just received your very nice and pleasant letter. And here is my sincere apology for the delay in writing to express the immense pleasure I have [I am not writing ""That was" me" but ""marble "For me," because this is the lasting pleasure] of all that the Lord has prolonged to pepper and curl in the words of the 16th... [Nerot Shlomo, p. 10].
Thank God, blessed be He, that I am able to please His Eminence, the Grand Master, with very valuable information about this holy matter, just as one of His Eminence's wise men, the Grand Master, made me happy with this [ibid., p. 16].
I would be very grateful if His Excellency, Shlita, would allow me to review the new book 'Mishmar HaLevi Berakhot' marked with the letter 'Zad' and please let me know his holy opinion on it, and if I have made a mistake, a tzaddik Hemad will be pleased to enlighten me and set me in the light of his light [Shiuri Mishmar HaLevi Berakhot, p. His name].
Your Excellency... In the Lord's day I was sitting in the Midrash, and my father-in-law, the great-grandfather, brought me his precious book, the Torah, and I immediately began to read it, and I did not move from my love for it until I had read it from beginning to end, and I cannot restrain my pen from writing deep words of gratitude for the immense spiritual pleasure I had [Shlomi Sara, p. 111].
I received with immense joy his very precious letters, good years, two gifts that are many... and in my case I did not come to a clear conclusion, I said I would like to speak a little before my friend Shalita and perhaps I will benefit from the Sasd [Mishmar Halevi Megillah].
May His Eminence, may He be pleased to reassure me and tell me whether they have spoken about this question, and whether they have discussed it and decided to be afraid...and may He be rewarded double from heaven and may He be blessed with all the blessings that are said to enlighten the eyes of the wise in the Torah, as the holy sages said in Tractate Tmura, page 16, a [Mishmar HaLevi, page 22].
Thank you very much for the immense joy you brought to the students who will live on the night of the Holy Sabbath and will be sent after midnight, in the wonderful and wonderful question: How did the Lord come to all things from Him to the people... [Mishmar Halevi on the Torah, p. 597].
I greatly enjoyed and was deeply moved by the evidence that the high Torah scholar, Shlita, brought from the Rashi in Matnitin Detmura 20, 2, which he wrote... [Mishmar Halevi, Bava Metzia, p. 221].
I said, "Please speak before my friend, may it be beneficial to me, that the Lord God Almighty, may it be beneficial to me, has grasped for the foundation of an institution what is apparently taught from the words of the teaching minister, the mitzvah of Rafaz, that there is no dedication of the knesset of the Akko... and I am convinced of its virtues, as stated by the great Rabbi, may he be pleased to explain to me what my mistake is in this, and may he merit the great mitzvah of establishing me in a clear light in this, and may his reward be immense, as promised from heaven... [Mishmar HaLevi Kiddushin, p. 138].
My dear friend... I would like to ask for your forgiveness for not writing immediately after receiving his prompt letter regarding the letter from Maran Birkat Shmuel, and I hereby express my great gratitude for everything he wrote to the Shev, and it made me very happy, and may God make them happy. And for that I have now come... In the Tosafot of Rabbeinu Yonah, the Birkat Reish chapter, how to bless... That's all the question. And I hereby turn to the honorable friend of my friend Shlita: Perhaps he knows which of the authors speaks on this question in the spirit of the Tosafot of Rabbeinu Yonah mentioned above?... And I would be very happy if he would inform me [ibid., p. 583].
I thank God, blessed be He, that I can please the honor of the great genius, Shlita, with what I have just seen in the Bible, a wonderful find in the Avni Nezer Responsa, part of the Orach Chaim..., which addressed the question of the great genius [Mishmar Halevi, Brachot, p. 11].
Here, by the mercy of God and His infinite grace, we have risen today from the 'sheva' of the crown of my mother's head, my teacher, may God be pleased with her. And thank you. That He remembered us to come to comfort us on the days of the sheva... And here is Torah and I need to study, and I will not be able to restrain my pen from offering it before the greatness of his genius, because of the shortness of the understanding and the difficulty of understanding to understand what he spoke. At the time of comforting the mourners, here I am like a man astonished, unable to remain silent, until he offered what is in my heart, the heart of stone, before the honor of the great God, may God be pleased to make me understand something and place me in a ray of light in this. Or he will take the quality of the holy sages and say that the things I said are my mistake [ibid., p. Ramat].
I will end with a difficulty that indicates a difficulty, and the journalistic maxim: one difficulty is worth a thousand stories.
Tractate Berakhot, page 4, page 1: "And why was his name called Mephibush? He would shame David's face in Halacha." And Rashi: "In the words of Halacha that came out of his mouth, David was ashamed, because sometimes he would make a mistake, and he would tell him, 'You are mistaken.'".
The student who wrote said: Here the Rabbi stopped, and turned to the students in amazement: I don't understand! And is it conceivable that King David, may God bless him and grant him peace, felt any shame when his father came - on instructions - from Mephibosheth and explained to him his mistake? Didn't he kiss him again every time! And he was happy and content!
And isn't this the highest aspiration of the soul of every student of our holy Torah, to have the privilege of reaching the true truth, and if he comes from a place of shame and is established in the truth, it is a truly happy day for him! On that day he rejoices and is overjoyed with immense joy that he has been honored to be established in the light of light - 'There is no joy like the joy of the Torah', this is the greatest joy there is, and what does shame have to do with it at all??
The Rabbi added, "I have known people in this generation who would literally break out into a dance if someone came and told them they had made a mistake... How Rabbi Isser Zalman would be happy and say: Oh, I will make a mistake... I will make a mistake... How Rabbi Shach would be happy... And the Brisker Rav once shouted: Oh, I will make a mistake, and my Torah uncle Zeev told me on the boat: They could hear the shout all the way to the memory of Moses.
And one of the scholars asked: So how do we interpret all the endings of 'aksif' [ashamed] that we find in the vastness of Shas?
And the Rabbi zt"l replied to him: I confess to the truth that I do not understand all these conclusions. What is shame? What shame? There is no joy like the joy of the Torah! This is the greatest joy there is!... [From the lessons of Mishmar HaLevi, Berakhot, p. 5].
I quoted a little, a tiny bit of the sweetness of the lips of the late Gaon, whose name, as he used to express it, is 'Ta'o Nefesh', and I did not write much more than what I wrote.
