Shamai Called

I said that I was going to focus during these nine days only on The Nine Days. Yes. And yet.
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Today one of my dearest friends called me out of the blue, from Israel (where we both flew in 1980, where he stayed). It's a blessing to have a friend who knows Shas like the back of his hand. I asked him about Rabbi Wein's story regarding people being imprisoned with questions, awaiting answers. He told me in the blink of an eye that the pivotal pasuk of the story is interpreted in Nedarim (81a) and in Bava Metziah (85a), stating that The Temple was destroyed because Jews did not say a blessing before studying Torah - but that the story is not there. He said that he once heard Rabbi Chanoch Teller say that he asked Rav Shlomo Zalman if he was allowed to be imaginative and embellish his true stories and that Rav Shlomo Zalman said yes. (I hope that he he didn't apply that psak to his biography of the posek who granted it to him.)

good night

and G-d bless

he typed

wondering

how many times

he'd lived through

typing them before

and about writing

these words

again

he wondered

about so many things.