I have always been enamored by stories of great people who demonstrate their greatness through their
attention to seemingly small details. Here’s a story told about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose yahrtzeit
was last Sunday, 3 Tammuz. The Rebbe was well known for handing out dollar bills. The Rebbe believed
that whenever two Jews meet it should create a benefit for a third Jew as well. So when the Rebbe
received people seeking his blessing, he would give each person a dollar bill to subsequently give to
tzedaka. On the day that I went to see the Rebbe as a young boy the Rebbe was giving out two dollar
bills to each person. Most people would keep the dollar that they received from the Rebbe as a
memento / segula and give a different dollar bill to Tzedaka. The Rebbe would also give out coins to
children as he was walking in Crown Heights. One time I received a coin from the Rebbe in this fashion.
As opposed to the dollars, the general practice was for children to immediately deposit the coin into the
nearest pushka. At public gatherings (farbrengen), children would sometimes be called up one by one to
receive a coin and a blessing from the Rebbe. The Rebbe would typically extend his right hand — as is
customary in Jewish tradition. One time a boy stepped up, and the Rebbe extended his left hand
instead. This puzzled many onlookers. The right hand is associated with strength and favor; why would
the Rebbe use his left? Later, someone close to the Rebbe asked him, and the Rebbe quietly explained:
“I saw that the boy is left-handed. I wanted him to feel the same comfort and honor as the others. If I
used my right hand, he would have had to awkwardly switch hands to receive the coin. Why should he
feel different or out of place — even for a second?” Another famous story about attention to detail is
told about Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, grandfather of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Rabbi in Brisk. Rav
Chaim was a serious Torah scholar and communal leader, yet he requested that on his tombstone only
the words “Rav Chesed” be engraved. One year on Erev Pesach, hours before the Seder, Rav Chaim
received a knock at the door. Outside stood a poor man who said: “Rabbi, I need to ask you a question
about Seder night. Is it permissible to drink milk for the four cups at the Seder?” Rav Chaim asked his
wife to him bring five rubles, which he gave to the man and wished him a happy Pesach. When the man
had departed, Rav Chaim’s wife inquired: “Why did you give so much money to that man? One ruble
would have been sufficient to buy wine for the whole of Pesach.” Rav Chaim replied: “Since he was
asking whether he could drink milk at the Seder, I deduced that he obviously could not afford meat
either! The extra money was to purchase meat for the festival.” In reading Parshat Balak one can ask:
what exactly did Bilam do wrong? Hashem never told Bilam to turn back, so why is Bilam punished and
villainized by our tradition? Rav Hillel Mertzbach of Yad Binyamin suggested that Bilam might have been
paying attention to the “text” but he was not paying attention to the context. Yes, technically Hashem
told him he could go but the context was that He really didn’t want Bilam to go. Had he been really
paying attention he would have known the truth. Pirkei Avot contrasts Bilam with Avraham Avinu.
Avraham paid attention to everything going on around him. Avraham noticed the sun and the moon and
wondered who created them. This attention to detail led him to become the father of many nations,
including ours. Another term for people who are religious and keep Halacha is “observant”. Yes, we
must observe the mitzvot. But greatness is also found in the way that we observe and are sensitive to
everything and everyone around us.
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