He looked up at me and said, “A bas Yisrael is in pain and I should not cry for her?”

PHOTO: CC BY-SA BACKSHT FAMILY

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round 45 years ago, I was fortunate to join a chevreh of talmidim a few years older than I at a meeting they had arranged with Rav Meir Chodosh ztz”l, the famed elder mashgiach of Chevron Yeshivah for more than 50 years and among the youngest students of the Alter of Slabodka in his last years. It was an opportunity to hear firsthand the Mashgiach’s recollections of this great founder of a whole new method of mussar application that is studied in great depth to this very day in yeshivos around the world.

A few months later I met the Mashgiach’s son Rav Moshe ztz”l at a simchah and told him about the wonderful experience with his great father. He responded that his father had retired from his position due to fragile health and was at that point living with him at his yeshivah, Ohr Elchonon. He said his father really benefited from his interactions with young bnei Torah being trained in the ways of mussar, so I should make the effort to see him regularly.

That was the only invitation I needed. Within the week, my chavrusa and I began a weekly Friday morning chaburah with the famed Mashgiach, learning the classic sefer Mesillas Yesharim. This arrangement lasted about a year; then my chavrusa and I returned home to begin the next phase of our lives.