By Rabbi Baruch Lederman
SAN DIEGO — Sefirah reminds us to elevate ourselves each day. Sometimes we stumble and fall down. At those times it is more important than ever to elevate ourselves, brush ourselves off and carry on.
Rabbi Aryeh Leib HaCohen Heller was appointed Rav of Rosiantov at a very young age. In this small poor community he continued to lead a life of dire poverty. His table consisted of a board held up by two barrels. It was there that he wrote his famous work the Ketzos HaChoshen. It was so cold in his dwelling that he used to keep the ink under a pillow as he wrote so it wouldn’t freeze. Yet work he did, his painstaking pursuit of product perfection was legendary. He would write and erase; edit, revise and re-edit.
His Sefer Ketzos HaChoshen is considered one of the greatest works on Choshen Mishpat. The story is told that after completing it at the age of 40, Reb Aryeh Leib went to Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Boshka to receive a haskama (endorsement). Skeptical that that this young Talmid Chochom could add anything novel to what the famous Gaon Rabbi Yehonoson Eibushitz wrote in his Sefer Urim V’Tumim, he asked him to leave the Sefer and come back the next day.
The next day before Mincha, Reb Aryeh Leib heard an announcement that there will be Sefer Torah dedication that evening with the procession going from the Reb Tzvi Hirsh Boshka’s house. During the procession Reb Aryeh Leib came near the Torah hoping to have a chance to carry it. As he came up to the Torah, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Boshka lifted the cover of the Torah and lo and behold underneath was not a Torah it was the manuscript of his Sefer Ketzos HaChoshen that Rabbi Aryeh Leib gave Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Boshka the night before – A living Sefer Torah.
It is said that when Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz asked his Rebbi – Reb Chaim Brisker, why he spends so much time giving Shiurim on Kodshim and not Nashim and Nezikin, Reb Chaim Brisker said that he was scared to say something the Ketzos would disagree with.
Perhaps the greatest approbation came from the fact that the revered scholar Rav Yaakov MiLissa, cited the Ketzos extensively in his noted work Nesivos Hamishpat.
Dedicated L’zecher Nishmas Shlomo ben Yitzchok.
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Rabbi Lederman is spiritual leader of Congregation Kehillas Torah. He may be contacted at baruch.lederman@sdjewishworld.com