Twelve Hours by Train: A Journey of Pure Gratitude

The late Rabbi Chaim Walkin once shared a personal memory from his early days in the Mir Yeshiva. As a young student learning with a chavruta (study partner), they got into a disagreement over how to understand a particular passage from one of the early Torah commentators.

To settle the debate, they approached a fellow yeshiva student, a young man named Rabbi Chaim Kamil, who would later become the esteemed head of the Ofakim Yeshiva and one of the Torah leaders of the generation.

They each presented their view. Rabbi Kamil listened thoughtfully, analyzed both opinions carefully, and then turned to the study partner and said gently: "The reasoning you're suggesting doesn't match your usual style at all."

Rabbi Walkin later recalled this moment with deep admiration. “What a moral lesson lies in those few words. He didn’t say: ‘You’re wrong,’ or ‘That makes no sense.’ Instead, he honored his friend by saying, ‘You always express yourself so well and this time it just doesn’t sound like you.’”

The study partner returned to his seat not embarrassed or insulted but uplifted. He had just been reminded that he was someone whose ideas were normally clear and insightful. Rabbi Kamil had found a way to correct a mistake while still building someone up.

Rabbi Walkin added with emotion: “This kind of deep sensitivity between people is something only Torah and the study of mussar (Jewish ethical teachings) can cultivate.”

He then shared another story he had heard directly from Rabbi Nachum Ze’ev Dessler, the son of Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, author of the beloved ethical work Michtav Me’Eliyahu.

During the Holocaust, Rabbi Nachum Ze’ev and his mother were miraculously able to escape the horrors of war by passing through Australia and eventually reaching safety in the United States. One of the key figures who helped them secure the necessary documents and escape was Rabbi Eliezer Silver of Cincinnati, one of the leading Torah figures in America at the time.

After the war, when Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler was finally able to visit his son in the U.S., he insisted on traveling to Cincinnati to personally thank Rabbi Silver for saving his wife and son.

Rabbi Nachum Ze’ev gently pointed out that the journey would take nearly 12 hours by train and perhaps a phone call would be enough?

But Rabbi Dessler was determined. “A thank you like this,” he said, “must be given face to face.”

The next day, father and son boarded the train. It took the entire day to reach Cincinnati. When they arrived, they waited near Rabbi Silver’s home until he stepped out on his way to shacharit (morning prayers).

Rabbi Dessler approached him with a full heart and thanked him personally for all he had done. Rabbi Silver looked surprised and asked, “Surely you didn’t come here just to say thank you? Maybe there’s something else I can help with?”

Rabbi Dessler replied simply: “No. I came just to thank you. And now we’ll return to Cleveland.”

Rabbi Silver’s face lit up. “Now I see what the study of mussar can do,” he said. “It shapes and uplifts a person’s entire being.”

Rabbi Walkin ended the story by sharing a teaching from the Alter of Slabodka (Alter of Slabodka, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, was a leading Torah teacher who emphasized ethical growth and character refinement through the Mussar Movement) on a verse in Malachi: “The lips of a kohen (priest) should guard knowledge, and people will seek Torah from his mouth.” Our Sages explain that people will want to learn Torah from a rabbi only if he is like an angel of Hashem, meaning, he has refined and noble character.

The Alter of Slabodka explained: Only if a rabbi’s character is truly noble, if he is full of kindness, humility, and refinement, will his Torah teachings be accepted. Torah must be accompanied by good middot (character traits), or it loses its power to truly inspire and guide.

These stories remind us that the beauty of Torah isn’t only in what it teaches, but in how it shapes the heart.

Courtesy of the Dirshu website