The modesty and humility of the late Rabbi Uri Zohar was known to all. In the book “Long Live Reuven” a conversation was brought by the famous Maggid Rabbi Reuven Karlinstein in which he recounted his story in which Rabbi Uri Zohar felt not high enough to greet him before going for dangerous surgery.
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Over twenty years ago, I was facing a difficult surgery in America. As is the custom of the world, the righteous go to ask for blessings – “Whoever has a patient inside his house, go to a sage and ask for mercy on him” (Baba Batra Katz AA) – I also decided to receive a blessing from a righteous man. The Torah ‘to ask for a blessing. Because in that yeshiva a Jew was sitting and studying, you may have heard of him – R. Uri Zohar.
I enter a beit midrash, he sits with tefillin and a tallit I think, constantly studying with the chevruta. I did not want to disturb in the middle, I waited for a moment for rehabilitation from its place, and then I approached him and said:
“Rabbi Uri, listen, I have to undergo a difficult operation in the United States. I go to the righteous, and I also come to you now to receive a blessing from you. “
He looked at me in amazement: “R. Reuven, you made a mistake in the address, I do not give blessings. For that, you have to go to the righteous, to the sages, not to me. No one asks me for blessings!”
“R. Uri, I come especially from Bnei Brak, to receive a blessing from you” – I begged.
“Be healthy, what do you want from me? What are you taking care of me?” He begged [וכבר אמר “תהיה בריא”…].
“Listen,” I told him, “it will not help you. I drive twice a week from Bnei Brak to Bat Yam, and on the way I pass on Geha Road. , At one of the junctions, hangs a huge sign, twice or three times like this beit midrash, huge letters, every letter meter and more. It does not belong not to see the sign. And what is written on the sign?
Lips Ishak: “Uri Zohar, after all, reveal everything to us, why did you leave everything?”
Do you hear?
“Uri Zohar, after all, reveal everything to us, why you left everything” because he Sheikh ‘left everything, fled from the filth, detached from the mud of the vanities of this world.
I said to him: “R. Uri, if you have been privileged to sanctify the name of heaven, I need a blessing from you.”
The rabbi gave his blessing.