From a Troubled Boy to the Rav of Slutsk

It is told that there was once a boy named Yossele who was unusually gifted—but was known far more for his wild behavior than for his learning.

One day, Yossele overheard a father rebuking his son.

“I will not let you grow up like Yossele the troublemaker,” the man warned him. “My son will learn in cheder. I will not let you become like him.”

The words struck Yossele deeply.

Until then, he may have known that people disapproved of his behavior. Now he realized that his name had become an example parents used when warning their children what not to become.

Yossele immediately resolved to change.

He went home and announced that he had decided to leave for yeshivah.

His parents could hardly believe what they were hearing. His father wondered whether this was simply another of Yossele’s pranks. But Yossele insisted that this time he was completely serious.

“Which yeshivah do you intend to attend?” his father asked.

“Volozhin.”

His father pointed out that Volozhin was a yeshivah for accomplished talmidim. A boy entering there was expected to possess extensive knowledge of Gemara, while Yossele had barely begun to learn.

But Yossele would not be dissuaded.

“I want to go to Volozhin and learn,” he said. “Even if you do not give me money for the journey, I will walk there.”

When his parents saw that his decision was genuine, they prepared what he needed and sent him on his way.

Upon arriving in Volozhin, Yossele asked to see R’ Chaim Volozhiner.

R’ Chaim asked him what he wanted.

“I want to learn in the yeshivah.”

“What have you learned until now?”

Yossele answered honestly that he knew almost nothing. But, he added, he truly wanted to learn.

R’ Chaim looked at the boy before him and saw that his desire was sincere. He accepted him into the yeshivah and arranged for several talmidim to learn with him and help him progress.

Yossele threw himself into his learning. Within a short time, the wild boy who had arrived knowing almost nothing had become a genuine ben yeshivah. As the years passed, he rose higher and higher, until he was counted among the distinguished lomdim of Volozhin.

Then messages began arriving from home.

The story is preserved in more than one version, and the details should not be blended as though they all come from one account.

According to one telling, Yossele received a letter informing him that a major fire had broken out in his hometown. His father was a tailor, and the workshop from which the family earned its livelihood had been completely destroyed.

The family asked Yossele to come home and help them rebuild.

Yossele brought the letter to R’ Chaim. His love for Torah burned within him, but his family clearly needed assistance, and he did not know what to do.

R’ Chaim collected a substantial sum of money for the family. He told Yossele to send the money home and remain in Volozhin, immersed in his learning.

Several months later, another letter arrived, this time from Yossele’s mother. His father had become ill and could no longer work at all.

Once again, Yossele brought the letter to R’ Chaim.

R’ Chaim sighed deeply and remained silent for several minutes.

At last, he told him:

“I cannot make this decision for you. But if you listen to my advice, you will not regret it. Return to your learning.”

Yossele followed his rebbi’s advice and remained in the yeshivah.

Harav Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman related another, more severe version of what occurred.

In that account, the letters were sent directly to R’ Chaim. The first reported that Yossele’s father’s business was failing and that the family needed Yossele to return and help them in the store.

R’ Chaim put the letter away without showing it to him.

Half a year later, a second letter arrived. The business had closed, the family had been driven from its home, and they were living without sufficient food. Once again, they begged Yossele to return.

R’ Chaim concealed that letter as well.

Another half year passed, and a third letter arrived with the news that Yossele’s father had passed away.

R’ Chaim still did not show him the letter.

Only much later did R’ Chaim place all the letters before Yossele. When Yossele read what his family had endured, he was shaken.

R’ Chaim explained that he had recognized the struggle taking place. The yetzer hara understood what Yossele might become and was exerting tremendous pressure to remove him from his Gemara before he could grow into a gadol baTorah.

The story is also told orally with a striking description of that struggle.

The yetzer hara suddenly noticed that an old friend named Yossele had disappeared. He began searching for him until he finally tracked him down and discovered him sitting in Volozhin, learning Gemara.

Once he found him, he tried one means after another to bring his missing friend back. Each time one attempt failed, he sent another reason—more pressing and more difficult than the one before it.

In that telling, whenever another message arrived calling Yossele home, R’ Chaim reminded him:

“Your Gemara is here.”

Years passed.

Eventually, the Rav of Slutsk passed away, and a group of respected members of the community traveled to Volozhin in search of a new rav.

R’ Chaim told them that he had an appropriate candidate.

He summoned one of his talmidim. When the young man entered the room, R’ Chaim rose to his full height in his honor. The visitors from Slutsk rose as well, though they were astonished that R’ Chaim showed such respect to someone so young.

R’ Chaim asked them whether they remembered a boy from their city named Yossele.

They certainly did. He had been so wild that his name was remembered throughout the town. But they had no idea what had become of him.

R’ Chaim pointed to the distinguished talmid standing before them.

“This is Yossele.”

The boy whose name had once been used as a warning was R’ Yosef Feimer—later known throughout the Torah world as R’ Yossele Slutzker, one of R’ Chaim Volozhiner’s outstanding talmidim and the renowned Rav of Slutsk.