Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l would recount the following story: The Chasam Sofer headed a prestigious yeshivah in the city of Pressburg. One day, a young man knocked at his door and said that he wanted to join the yeshivah. “What topics are you prepared to be tested on?” The Chasam Sofer asked him. The young man admitted that he was completely ignorant of Torah; in fact, he did not even know the Hebrew alphabet!
The Chasam Sofer tried to explain to him that the Pressburg Yeshivah was an academy for advanced study, and his lack of even the most elementary knowledge made him ineligible for acceptance therein. The young man, however, persisted, insisting that he had a strong desire to attain Torah knowledge, and the Pressburg Yeshivah was the place in which he believed he would achieve success in this pursuit.
When the Chasam Sofer saw how stubbornly the young man clung to his dream of becoming a scholar, he agreed to make a one-time exception and accept him into the yeshivah, despite his lack of knowledge. The Chasam Sofer assigned some of the advanced students to take turns tutoring the young man in the Alef-Beis and begin teaching him Chumash and other fundamental basics of Torah study. While the young man succeeded in absorbing these elementary studies, when the time came for him to begin learning Gemara, he found himself completely unequal to that formidable task. Try as he might, he simply could not wrap his mind around the complexities of the topics.
The more experienced students, who were serving as his tutors, recommended that he abandon his futile pursuit. “Be happy that you now have some basic Torah knowledge,” they told him. “Go find a job, get married, and raise your children to be Torah scholars.” The young man, however, remained adamant that he intended to learn Torah himself. The students, tired of trying, unsuccessfully, to teach him, sent a delegation to the Chasam Sofer, asking him to try to influence the young man to come to terms with reality.
The delegation was headed by the Chasam Sofer son and prize student, who would later achieve fame as the Kesav Sofer. The Chasam Sofer asked them, “Does the young man still insist that he wants to become a Torah scholar?” When they had to answer in the affirmative, the Chasam Sofer told them to keep trying to teach him.
Years passed, and the young man continued to try with all his might – and even with efforts surpassing his natural capabilities – to understand the Gemara. With time, he finally began to be able to understand the difficult topics. He continued expending superhuman effort on his learning, and eventually married and moved away from Pressburg.
Thirty years passed, and the Chasam Sofer, leader of the Jewish people, received a letter with a halachic inquiry from the rabbi of a distant town. He showed the letter to his son and successor, the Kesav Sofer, and asked him for his opinion of the writer’s capabilities. The Kesav Sofer carefully read the letter and told his father that the author displayed a knowledge of Torah that was both broad and deep and was certainly an accomplished Torah scholar.
“Do you know who the writer of this letter is?” his father exclaimed. “It is the young man who learned in the Pressburg Yeshivah many years ago, who you and your friends wanted to expel due to his lack of ability to learn! See, now, that nothing stands in the way of a sincere desire to learn Torah!”
Learning takes tremendous toil. With Hashem’s help, one has a real desire to learn, will soon become successful! May Hashem open our eyes and may we all see the beauty, and the amazing wonders of the holy Torah!
