When it comes to “Torah heroes” we want our children—and ourselves—to emulate, it’s safe to assume that Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlit”a will be on everyone’s list. This is a gadol who has all of Torah right at his fingertips, a gadol who is literally a “living sefer Torah.”
Whether it’s finishing all of Shas and poskim once a year; learning a masechta in his sleep (!); or getting lost in his Gemara while sitting in a tiny chair in a kindergarten class (you need to read that story to see what we mean!), the genius and hasmadah of Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlit”a are legendary. And wondrous things often happen to a person on this level…
Read all about it in A Living Sefer Torah, a collection of 25 awe-inspiring stories for children (and adults!), about a truly awe-inspiring gadol—the living sefer Torah, Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlit”a.
Click here to purchase online.
Posted by anamericanjew
It’s the story we grew up on. At Bnos or Pirchei events, around camp bonfires, or at some lucky families’ Shabbos tables, this was the tale the dramatic storytellers would say over, each one outdoing the other with their descriptions of the evil galach and his black magic capabilities. (“’Aaabra Kadaaabra!’ he would say, and then—POOF! The person disappeared!”) If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m referring to the amazing, legendary story of the Baal Akdamos.
Did you ever wonder what it was like to bring bikkurim during the times of the Beis Hamikdash? We hear so much about it—the tremendous joy that permeated the entire event, the different steps to the process, the excitement and anticipation that ran high as the bikkurim-bearers joined the procession to Yerushalayim… Wouldn’t it be amazing if you, as a parent, could give over this emotion-laden account to your children so that they, too, could appreciate what the bikkurim-bringing procession was all about?
Megillas Rus. We read it in shul every Shavuos, the yahrtzeit of Dovid Hamelech, Rus’s descendant. But who was this righteous convert named Rus? How did a former Moavite princess merit to become the wife of the Shofet Yisrael and the matriarch of the Davidic dynasty, culminating in Melech Hamashiach? Clearly, there are layers and layers of meaning behind this well-known story.
The snowy weather may be clearing up (and not a moment too soon, right?), but when
One of my sons has a boy named Tzion (short for Bentzion) in his class. Once I asked him, “What is Tzion’s last name?”
“Please talk quietly in the hall—we want to make a kiddush Hashem!”


