After he ate, he returned to his town and to his studies. From this time forward, he did not budge from the study house and they would bring him his meals there. And if it was not for the beadle, who would remind him that it was time to say Kiddush and eat the festive meal, he would not have returned home even on Sabbath eves, so engrossed was he in his studies. The elders of the study house would say, “If you have not yet seen a man prepared to kill himself for his studies, just take a look at Rabbi Moshe Pinchas.”
17.
One day Reb Moshe Pinchas vanished from the town. People assumed he had gone to his mother, but finally it was discovered that he he had gone to see his first teacher, our renowned scholar Rabbi Gabriel Reinush, the author of Horeh Gaver, a commentary on Yoreh De’ah. For what reason did he go to his teacher? Let us listen and find out: he came to his teacher and found him lying on his bed reading a book. He said to him, “Is my teacher ill?” He responded, “Why?” And he said, “Because I see him laid out on his bed.” He responded, “I am an old man and it no longer pays for me to get new clothes made, so I lie in my bed in order not to wear out my clothes from sitting. Turn away and I’ll get dressed.” The old man donned his clothing and stood up straight. Before long he had begun to hold forth to his pupil awesome and wondrous new insights, from the mere tip of which the rabbis of today’s generation would compile voluminous books. Finally, he began to direct the conversation to the name of the town where he had attempted to obtain a rabbinical post and had raised, in his astute expertise, some doubts about whether it was permissible to arrange divorces there. In the midst of speaking, the teacher looked at his pupil and noticed that he was not happy, but how could that be when “God’s precepts are straight and good, making our hearts rejoice.” The teacher said to him, “You’re sitting there as if you’re listening to something insignificant. You know, Moshe Pinchas, we may need to send you back to primary school.” Reb Moshe Pinchas lowered his head and said, “It is for that reason that I came.” The teacher was moved by compassion for his pupil and said to him, “My son, what has brought you here?” Reb Moshe Pinchas whispered and said, “Woe is me, my teacher, for I have strayed from the path of righteousness.” The old one responded, “The Torah protects and the Torah rescues.” Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “This refers to someone who learns Torah for the sake of Torah.” The old one said, “God Forbid that a man who learned Torah from me did not learn Torah for its own sake.”
Reb Moshe Pinchas heaved a sigh. “What can I possibly say?” he said. “There are things I know to be true and yet I twist them around so as to remove them from their truth.” His teacher said to him, “You have to set your heart straight by delving into ethical literature, such as Kav HaYashar and Shevet Musar. Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “The Holy One blessed be He does not bother with the minor books.” The old one smiled and said, “In that case, we shall turn to the major books.” And he immediately began discoursing on the various halakhic midrashim, and Tosefta and the entire Talmud until the house expanded like the foyer of a grand hall and yet there remained not one item that Reb Moshe Pinchas could not complete from memory, nor one legal ruling from which Reb Moshe Pinchas had not drawn a genuinely true outcome. At the end of three days when Moshe Pinchas was about to take leave of his teacher, the latter said, “Here I am a man of seventy three years, and I have never before had the privilege of spending three days as joyful as these. Come sit down and I shall sign your rabbinic ordination, authorizing you to issue halakhic decisions. Though I am a small town rabbi, I am widely known and it is also known that my ordination is reliable since I was ordained by the Rav of Buczacz, the renowned sage Rabbi Hershele Kra, about whom our Rabbi Meshulam Igra said, “He is an ironclad rabbi!” The old man took a sheet of paper and wrote: “He shall teach! He may judge!” — the ancient formula for rabbinical ordination. He placed the paper in his pupil’s hand and said to him, “Here you have a talisman against melancholy.” The old one gazed upon Reb Moshe Pinchas and said to his household, “This pupil will not shame me when I appear before the authority of the heavenly court.” Reb Moshe Pinchas returned to his town and to his studies.
18.
What more can we tell that we have not already told? Reb Moshe Pinchas returned to his town and to his studies and tried diligently to put these matters out of his mind. And once again he was studying the way he had been taught. The renowned sage, author of Horeh Gaver, who was fond of his pupil and was proud of him, used to tell anyone and everyone that he had ordained Reb Moshe Pinchas as an authorized rabbi. And in that generation, the rabbis would not grant ordination to anyone other than an accomplished scholar. Word had reached Reb Moshe Pinchas’s father-in-law. His father-in-law said to him: “For the time being, you sit at my table and you share my food, but what will you do after my days on this earth are over? Perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider a rabbinic profession.” Reb Moshe Pinchas shrugged his shoulders by way of refusal. When his father-in-law tried to bring up the subject again, Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “If my father-in-law keeps me from my studies with idle conversation, I will end up being a complete ignoramus.” Reb Meirtche walked away from him, sighing and dejected.
19.
The Lord giveth and he taketh away, dethrones kings and installs others in their place. At that time, Reb Shlomo’s father departed to his final resting place. After they had returned the expired sage to the earth and eulogized him, the entire holy congregation stood and anointed Reb Shlomo in place of his father. After the seven days of mourning, Reb Shlomo went to his town to collect his wife and children. The town leaders asked him, “Rabbi, whom should we appoint to your chair?” He said to them, “Remember the day that I delivered my first sermon and that young scholar tried to trip me up with the law? I tell you that there is no one more worthy of being a rabbi than he.” The town leaders heard this and were astounded; here was a man who had publicly embarrassed him and had attempted to dishonor him and yet here he was advocating on his behalf. Reb Shlomo clutched his beard and said, “Know this, gentlemen, this Rabbi Moshe Pinchas is as great in Torah knowledge as the ancient sages, and even in a subject in which he attempted to trip me up his greatness was evident; I was saved only by the merit of my ancestors in that Moshe Pinchas was forced to study from a defective book and thus came to err, and when a man falls into error that error leads him to further error. And certainly by now he has recognized his mistakes. Go to his town and accept him as your Rabbi. And you, my beloved brethren, are bound to be happy with him, because the rabbinate suits him and he is suited to the rabbinate. And even the holy Torah is destined to be happy that one of her worthy sons is sitting at her throne.”