Shavuot
On Shavuot we celebrate receiving the Torah. I would like to share with you a story that epitomizes love for the Torah, to put us in the mood. The story is about R’ Eliezer ben Horkenos as related in Avot de’Rebi Natan (6:3).
Horkenos, who lived in the time of the destruction of the 2nd Beit HaMikdash, was an extremely wealthy man. Horkenos made his fortune from real estate and owned vast tracts of land. His sons, including Eliezer, were all part of the family business.
From an early age, it was clear to Horkenos that Eliezer was not the “sharpest quill in the ink jar. So, unlike his other sons who helped run the business, Horkenos sent Eliezer to do physical labor, working the land.
One day, when Eliezer was 22 years old, Horkenos went to visit him out in the field, only to find Eliezer sitting on a knoll, bitterly crying his eyes out. Horkenos, who was very fond of Eliezer, was shaken by this strapping, grown man weeping. “Eliezer, why are you crying?” Horkenos asked. “I want to study Torah!” Eliezer sobbed, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Torah? You?” replied Horkenos smilingly, “You know that since age 3 we have been trying to teach you the simple aleph bet, but it is like chiseling on a diamond with a wooden peg. It goes in one ear and out the other!”
Horkenos tried to read between the lines and figure out what was “really” bothering his son. “Perhaps he finds working in the field too difficult,” thought Horkenos, so he instead assigned him to supervise the counting of the sheaves of wheat in the granary. After a month of this light work, Horkenos again paid a visit to his son. Eliezer was sitting on a bale of straw, weeping incessantly. “Eliezer my son, what is wrong? Is this work not easier than being out in the field?” Horkenos asked. “I want to study Torah!” was the reply, the tears starting to form a rivulet at Eliezer’s feet. “You know that is impossible” said Horkenos.
A few weeks later Eliezer ran away from home and journeyed to the big city of Jerusalem. He stopped a passer by on the street and asked “Where do I go to study Torah?” The reply, “If you want to study Torah, there is only one place – the yeshiva of R’ Yochanan ben Zakai, the Gadol HaDor!”
Eliezer arrives at the yeshiva and heads directly for the office of the great R’ Yochanan Ben Zakai and asks to speak to the Gadol HaDor himself! The secretary takes one look at him and refuses point blank. Eliezer sits down on the bench in the waiting room of the office and starts to wail. The sounds of his sobbing are so heart wrenching (and loud) that R’ Yochanan ben Zakai exits his office to see what the furor is all about. “He refuses to leave,” says the secretary “Says he wants to speak to you.” R’ Yochanan beckons to Eliezer to come into his office. “What can I do for you, my son?” he asks. “I want to study Torah” sobs Eliezer. “Wonderful” replies R’ Yochanan, “What is your name?” “Eliezer,” with a sniffle. “Have you ever studied Torah before Eliezer?” “No, I can’t even read and write,” wiping the tears from his cheek.
Immediately R’ Yochanan ben Zakai realizes that this is a special project and takes it upon himself to teach Eliezer. “I will begin teaching you one line at a time. You must repeat that line over and over again, until it sinks in. Now repeat after me ‘Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad.'”
Eliezer tries to repeat the sentence, but the words muddle. “Shema” goes in his left ear and evaporates midway. “Yisrael” goes in his right ear and straight out his left ear and then also dissipates into thin air. R’ Yochanan ben Zakai sees that the only way to make progress is to assign a tutor to Eliezer, to keep repeating the sentence over and over again to him. He sends Eliezer and his tutor off and tells Eliezer “When you have memorized that sentence, return and we will continue.”
Three weeks go by and Eliezer returns. R’ Yochanan asks him to repeat the sentence. Eliezer replies “‘Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad.‘” He got it right, but R’ Yochanan is repulsed by a foul smell coming from Eliezer’s mouth and he steps back. From a safe distance, R’ Yochanan gives Eliezer the next line to learn. Eliezer begins crying all over again “I want to study Torah!” he sobs “But this is Torah I am teaching you,” replies R’ Yochanan. “No, I want to study real Torah, like the other students in the yeshiva” sobs Eliezer. “You will” replies R’ Yochanan, “Keep doing what I tell you and you will.”
After he sends Eliezer on his way, R’ Yochanan calls to the tutor and asks him “What was going on in the three weeks since I last saw you?” The tutor sighs “For the first two days he couldn’t even remember one word. I kept repeating the same word over and over from morning till late at night, until on the third day it finally sank in. Then the next word … and the next, until now, three weeks later, he remembered that one sentence!” “And what is that horrible smell on his breath?” asked R’ Yochanan. “He told me that ran away from home and that he is penniless and has no money to buy food. He was sucking on cow dung to alleviate his hunger.” R’ Yochanan made an arrangement with the owner of the inn where Eliezer was staying, to bring him food to eat.
And so, it continued, week after week, year after year.
Fifteen years later, R’ Yochanan was presiding over a fundraiser, attended by all the wealthy donors of the yeshiva. R’ Yochanan ben Zakai said to his pupil Eliezer “I want you to give the shiur.” Eliezer replied “How can I teach in front of my teacher” and refused. R’ Yochanan insisted and said that he would step out momentarily during the shiur, so that Eliezer could give the shiur.
One of the guests of honor at the event was none other than the millionaire Horkenos. Just a few weeks prior, Horkenos’ other sons approached their father demanding that he erase Eliezer from his will. “He rejected our family and our business. He ran away from home and we do not know what has become of him” they claimed. After the function at the yeshiva, Horkenos intended to visit his lawyer and remove Eliezer’s name from the will.
Eliezer got up to speak and his shiur was so sublime and uplifting that angels descended from Heaven to listen to the incredible insights that Eliezer expounded. R’ Yochanan ben Zakai, his teacher, was listening in the doorway and afterwards he came up to Eliezer and kissed him on the forehead and proclaimed “R’ Eliezer my teacher, you have taught me!”
Horkenos was also blown away and asked who was the prodigy who had delivered such an incredible shiur. He did not recognize his son, now Rebi Eliezer. When he discovered that it was his own son, Horkenos embraced Eliezer and said “I came here to remove you from my will, but instead I am removing the other brothers and making you sole heir and leaving all my assets to the yeshiva.” When R’ Yochanan ben Zakai learned that Horkenos was R’ Eliezer’s father he was dumbfounded “Why did you not tell me that Horkenos the millionaire was your father?” he exclaimed. They all sat together at the table of honor and celebrated in the Torah of R’ Eliezer ben Horkenos, R’ Eliezer HaGadol.