R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and the Bar Mitzvah Boy Who Prepared the Wrong Haftorah
A boy had spent months preparing his bar mitzvah haftorah, only for his family to discover that it was the wrong one. His father brought the shailah to R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach — and the answer did not end with the psak.
Reb Aryeh, who lived in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Yerushalayim had a son, Doniel, who struggled with learning.
Doniel was not like the other boys in shul. Learning did not come easily to him. But there was one part of shul that drew him with unusual strength: leining. Whenever the sefer Torah was opened, he would make his way closer and stand there, listening carefully as the baal korei read each word.
One of the mispallelim noticed.
“Your son has a special connection to leining,” he told the father. “For his bar mitzvah, you should have him lein the haftorah. Start early, and he will have time to learn it well.”
The father took the suggestion seriously. The boy’s bar mitzvah would be on Parshas Re’eh, still more than a year away, and arrangements were made for him to learn the haftorah of Re’eh.
Doniel worked at it slowly and steadily. It was not easy for him, but he kept going. Month after month, he reviewed the words and the trop, until the haftorah that had once been difficult became something he could lein.
As the bar mitzvah came closer, an uncle came to visit. Doniel, proud of what he had prepared, leined the haftorah for him. The uncle listened and complimented him warmly.
Then the uncle turned to the father quietly and told him the problem.
That year, Parshas Re’eh would be Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul. The haftorah was not the regular haftorah of Re’eh. It was Machar Chodesh.
The boy had spent all that time learning the wrong haftorah.
The father was crushed. After so much effort, how could he tell his son that he would not be able to lein after all? And even if they wanted to teach him the correct haftorah now, it was too late. This was not something the boy could simply switch to at the last minute.
The father went to R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and told him the shailah.
R’ Shlomo Zalman listened. He considered the situation and ruled that the boy could lein the haftorah he had prepared. It was not the regular lechatchilah, but since the haftorah of Re’eh is one of the Shivah D’nechemta, the seven haftoros of consolation read after Tishah B’Av, R’ Shlomo Zalman allowed it in this case.
The father now had a psak. But as Shabbos morning came, he was still worried. What would happen when the boy began to lein a haftorah that everyone in shul knew was not Machar Chodesh? Would someone object? Would someone call out? Would the bar mitzvah boy, after working so hard, be embarrassed in front of the whole shul?
The father walked into shul with his son.
And then he stopped.
Sitting there, in the Givat Shaul shul, was R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach himself.
R’ Shlomo Zalman had walked from his home in Shaarei Chesed to Givat Shaul on that summer Shabbos morning. He had already given the psak. But he understood that a psak on its own might not be enough to protect the boy from embarrassment. His presence in shul would make sure that no one challenged what was happening.
The boy had prepared his haftorah with all the strength he had. R’ Shlomo Zalman made sure he would be able to lein it with dignity.
The story is not only a story of a halachic ruling. It is a story of what it means to see the person standing inside the shailah.
R’ Shlomo Zalman did not only answer the father’s question.
He came to stand behind the answer.