Reply To: Setting up a MO girl with a serious Lakewood bochur = good idea or not?

Home Forums Controversial Topics Setting up a MO girl with a serious Lakewood bochur = good idea or not? Reply To: Setting up a MO girl with a serious Lakewood bochur = good idea or not?

#1691878

lacisr, this is the version of story as said by Rav Frand:
On a regular basis, Rabbi Pessach Diskind, grandson of Reb Yaakov Kaminetsky, tells me stories, practices, and opinions from his grandfather, Reb Yaakov.

One Shabbos morning when Rabbi Diskin was a guest of his grandfather, he noticed that after Kiddush, Reb Yaakov’s Rebbetzin served cake to Reb Yaakov and he made a borei minei mezonos. Afterwards, they went to wash for the meal.

Rabbi Diskin knew that his grandfather was not a chossid. He was, in fact, a dyed-in-the-wool Litvak. Rabbi Diskin asked his grandfather from where he picked up the custom to have mezonos after Kiddush. Reb Yaakov explained the origin of this custom to his grandson. Rav Yaakov, who had lost his first wife, was now married to his “zivug sheni” (his second wife). Reb Yaakov’s second wife came from Chassidic background. Both her father and her first husband were from Chassidic backgrounds. She was accustomed to having mezonos with Shabbos morning Kiddush. If he would not have mezonos after Kiddush, she would feel something was lacking in the Kiddush.

Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky was 70 years old when he married his second wife. That means that for 50 years he made Kiddush in the morning without mezonos.

How many of us would change after doing something for fifty years, and for what? “Because with my wife, this is how Kiddush is made”.

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky changed. To Reb Yaakov, it was worth changing a 50-year-old practice for Shalom Bayis — for the feelings of his wife. This is an insightful lesson for all of us.