The Secret to Rabbi Wosner's Success in Torah Study

On the upcoming first day of Passover, it will mark 8 years since the passing of Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner, a prominent halachic authority of our time. He served as the head of the Rabbinical Court, the head of the Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin in Bnei Brak, and the rabbi of the Zikhron Meir neighborhood. In the book 'And Not the Tribe of Levi Alone,' several touching stories are shared about the many prayers Rabbi Wosner fervently offered before Hashem, yearning for success in Torah study.

1. Rabbi Wosner understood the tremendous power of prayer, which enables a person to achieve all his desires. Many times throughout his life, he testified that the secret to his success in Torah came from the fact that not a single day went by without his shedding tears during the blessings on the Torah, hoping for success in Torah and fear of Heaven.

2. How did Rabbi Wosner recite the blessings on the Torah? His grandson, Rabbi Mordechai Yehuda Wosner, once had the privilege of hearing how his great-grandfather blessed the Torah. The grandson described: "Rabbi Wosner recited the blessing with immense emotion, his words laden with deep feeling, tears, and pleadings before Hashem."

3. Rabbi Wosner's devotion wasn't limited to just the blessings on the Torah. "When I studied at Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin," he once told his students, "I would retreat and pray next to a certain tree. Even though many years have passed, I still remember the spot and the tree where I regularly stood and prayed. There, by the tree, I pleaded with Hashem, with rivers of tears, to crown me with the crown of Torah."

4. Rabbi Wosner often told his descendants and students that he could show them the corner tree near the Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin. "Under it," he recounted, "I poured out my soul night after night, praying with deep emotion," saying, "I wish to become united with the Torah and to know all of it."

5. Near the yeshiva where I studied was a small forest," he told his student Rabbi Chaim Lieberman, "and I used to go there to have solitude and pour out my soul to Hashem, praying for the ability to teach Torah in Israel." Similarly, his student Rabbi Yaakov Meir Stern shared that Rabbi Wosner expressed to him that, as a young man, his constant prayer was to merit ascending to the Land of Israel and to teach Torah there, and to reach the truth of Torah.

6. Rabbi Wosner not only prayed for himself but also for his children and grandchildren. "I once asked," recounted his son Rabbi Yosef Tzvi, "my father how he merited having about sixty scholars from his descendants actively engaging in the battle for Torah and serving as religious authorities in Jewish communities worldwide." He told me: "Know that this came at the cost of many tears"—saying the verse from UvA Letzion, "The words shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, from now and forever," I shed many tears. Success in this does not come easily; one must pour out much prayer and supplication before Hashem."

7. Rabbi Wosner further elaborated on his prayers concerning his descendants' Torah: "Not one tear, not two, not one cup of tears, nor two; instead, I poured rivers of tears," he said, "over 'the words shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, from now and forever.'"

Rabbi Hertzl Chodair shares wonderful stories about Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner: