What Did The Roshei Yeshivos Discuss On Their Vacations In The North?

Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau, who is on a summer break in the Ohr HaGanuz moshav in the north with his family, heard that Rosh Yeshivas Ponevezh, HaGaon HaRav Baruch Dov Povarsky, was also in the north and expressed his interest in visiting him.

HaRav Landau explained: “I learned with the Rosh Yeshivah in Ponevezh Yeshivah. I learned a lot from him but there’s one thing that I really feel obligated to him out of hakaras hatov. Since my parents lived in Rechovot –  I had almost no one to learn with or speak with in learning when I went home during Bein Hazemanim. Once, I expressed my tza’ar about it to Rav Berel and from then on he used to visit me every Bein HaZemanim and learn with me.”

“The trip from Bnei Brak to Rechovot wasn’t easy – you had to go to Tel Aviv and from there on a long circuitous bus ride that traveled through the yishuvim of the Shfela [Judean lowlands] to Rechovot. The Rosh Yeshivah made this exhausting trip to visit me and now after 70 years, I have the opportunity to visit him.”

HaRav Landau visited the Rosh Yeshivah on the Alma moshav in the Upper Galil on Tuesday and asked him if he remembers those long-ago visits.

HaRav Povarsky immediately responded: “Definitely – at the Moledet store.”

The Rosh Yeshivah explained to those present that HaRav Landau’s father, HaRav Tuvia Yosef, z’tl, had a stationary store called Moledet. “You think it was a regular store?” he said. “It was a Beis Medrash. He would sit with a Gemara and learn and every once in a while – he would sell a pencil. During Bein HaZemanim, he would sit there and learn with his son HaRav Dov and I would join in.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)