I recently had the privilege of visiting one of the Gedolim in his house in Bnei Brak. The visit reminded me of a famous story about the Chofetz Chaim. A wealthy man once visited the Chafetz Chaim. He was shocked that the Chofetz Chaim had no furniture in his house. The Chafetz Chaim explained as follows. He asked the rich man where is your furniture? The man answered at home in my house, now I am just travleing. The Chafetz Chaim answered I am also just traveling through this world to get to the next world, therefore I have no furniture here.
I felt like I was reliving this story. We walked into a dingy old apartment that you and I would never live in (in fact, we would call it a dump). The only furniture was a table, some chairs, and bookcases full of sefarim. It is clear that the gadol doesn't see things the way we do and has no problem living in this kind of apartment. After all, he has a chair a table and a bed (I am being serious).
This was very inspiring to me. I realized that this man was so far above me and that all his life was torah and only torah and the material things in this world did not concern him 1 bit. However, it scared me as well. Will there be anyone in the next generation willing to live like that, or are we all too spoiled? Who in our generation is willing to sacrifice for Torah like that?
