Life is Precious
HaGaon Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, zt”l, would often adjure his students to treat every moment of life as priceless. He would encourage them to take advantage of every moment to be involved in mitzvos and positive endeavors. Rav Kahaneman would quip that the Chofetz Chaim merited a long life. This wasn’t simply because he lived over ninety years. Someone may live ninety years, but his life could still be considered short. The Chofetz Chaim’s life was long because he took advantage of and properly used all the minutes he was allotted in his ninety-plus years.
Rav Kahaneman related that one time he and his chavrusa, Reb Elchonon, needed to research an item in an obscure sefer. They noticed that the Chofetz Chaim quoted from that very sefer in his work, the Mishna Berura. They approached the Chofetz Chaim and asked to borrow the sefer. The Chofetz Chaim responded that he didn’t own the sefer in question. He explained that when he needed to use the sefer he would borrow it from the library of the Reb Yaakov Brevda in Warsaw. (The Chofetz Chaim, in one of his introductions, specifically thanks Reb Yaakov for the use of his library.) The Chofetz Chaim realized that his visitors were somewhat perplexed as to why he didn’t just buy the sefer as it appeared that he used it enough to warrant its purchase. The Chofetz Chaim then gazed upon the seforim that were in his room and turned to his visitors and said, “These seforim are more than enough. Why should I be concerned about seforim which I don’t have? I am already pained about the seforim which I actually own!”