The Boy Who Knocked on Shabbos Afternoon
A young boy came to the Tchebiner Rav on Shabbos afternoon to be tested on a masechta in Mishnayos. When the Rav gently told him that people rest then, the boy innocently replied, “I thought the Tchebiner Rav surely does not sleep on Shabbos afternoon.” The Rav accepted the words — even from a child.
It is told that in Yerushalayim, young boys who finished a masechta in Mishnayos would sometimes go to the Tchebiner Rav, Harav Dov Berish Weidenfeld, to be tested.
One Shabbos afternoon, there was a knock at the Tchebiner Rav’s door.
A young boy had come.
He had finished a masechta in Mishnayos, and he wanted the Tchebiner Rav to test him.
The Rav did not send him away. He welcomed the boy inside, listened to him, and tested him on the Mishnayos. The boy knew the masechta well, and the Rav was pleased.
When they finished, the Tchebiner Rav gently told the boy, “You should know, Shabbos afternoon is not the time to knock on people’s doors. Many people rest then.”
The boy looked at the Rav with innocent surprise.
“I know,” he said. “But I thought the Tchebiner Rav surely does not sleep on Shabbos afternoon.”
The words of a child entered the heart of the gadol.
The Tchebiner Rav did not dismiss the comment. He did not wave it away because it came from a young boy. He accepted the words.
He kissed the boy and thanked him.
From then on, it is told, the Tchebiner Rav no longer rested on Shabbos afternoon.
The greatness of the Tchebiner Rav was not only in his Torah. It was in his humility before the truth. Even when a young child said something to him innocently, he was ready to listen.