Sunday marked 50 years since the passing of Rav Aryeh Levin, “The Jerusalemite Tzadik.” We can write a lot about the warm, wise attention he knew how to give to everyone – from prime ministers to street beggars.
He also managed to give hope to prisoners in jail, to sick people in poor condition, to everyone, in fact, who came into contact with him. But here is a story of a totally different kind that the author Chaim Be’er related:
“Once, when I was a child in Jerusalem, I couldn’t restrain myself and asked him: ‘Is it true that you are one of the lamedvav (36) tzadikim?’… R’ Aryeh smiled and replied with one
word: ‘Sometimes.’
“What a true, wonderful answer. He actually told me then that it is not a lifetime job or position, but a changing one. The world exists thanks to the lamed-vav tzadikim, and every time you get out of yourself and do something worthy, something good, you are considered one of them. And then you give your place to someone else after you who does something worthy.”