The Short Vort by Rabbi Eisenman

Shavuos is a difficult time for a Rav.

The Rav is expected(?) to lead the Shul in learning throughout the night.

(Full disclosure, I have not stayed up the entire night in years)

Yet, as difficult as learning the entire night may be, preparing for the night's learning is harder.

Questions on Yom Tov are numerous, and people's challenges never take a day off, even on Yom Tov.

Even being able to rest and have the energy to stay awake the entire night is challenging.

Yet, one memory from learning on Shavuos night years ago helps keep me going.

The year was 1979, and I was learning in Yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel.

Even then, 45 years ago, the prospect of learning the entire night was a daunting challenge, and I was considering sleeping the night away.

I had not succeeded in arranging Chavrusahs to learn at night and faced the daunting possibility of flying solo.

As I struggled to devise a solution for my looming solitary night, the Mashgiach of the yeshiva approached me.

Surprisingly, there would be a group of boys from New Zealand (yes, New Zealand!) planning to spend Shavuous at the yeshiva, and they needed someone to learn with them. Was I interested?

At first, I adopted the "who am I to give a shiur" attitude.

However, the Mashgiach wasn't buying it and insisted that if I had no Chavrusa, I should learn with the New Zealanders.

And so began a five-hour journey that would bring me very unanticipated results.

I began the night with five uninterested 15-year-old high school boys.

Pretty soon, we were down to three, and as the clock hit 2 AM, it was just me and one New Zealand bachur.

We began with a Gemara in Massechta Brochus and, from there, traveled to wherever his inquisitive mind led us.

Before long, we were exploring difficult passages in the Rambam.

We delved into fascinating Aggadas in Massechta Shabbos and began plumbing the Navi Yechezekel's secrets, which, of course, is the Haftorah for Shavuous.

Before we knew it, it was almost five in the morning, and Shacharis was about to begin.

We literally learned the night away.

Exhausted, we both went to sleep after Shacharis.

I returned to my dorm, and he returned to his New Zealand buddies, and we never met again.

Shavuos ended, and eventually, I returned to the States, married, had a family, and became the Rav in Passaic.

Every Shavuos as I would struggle to keep awake, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, my mind would wax nostalgic as I would think back to the Shavuous of 1979 and wonder what ever happened to Noah Greenbaum*.

Where was he? What was he doing?

I never heard from him, yet I had always wondered about him.

That was until last year, a few days before Shavuos.

I guess you can call it a Mishpacha Miracle, as only through this column in the magazine was the mystery solved.

Last year, as I struggled with my annual "to stay up or not to stay up" challenge, I received an email from a man whose email address identified him as RavNoach@.....

Among other things, Rav Noach wrote, "….I wanted you to know that I am 60 years old and live in Beitar.

My oldest grandson will become a Bar Mitzvah on Shavuos.

I read your column in Mishpacha and realized I must contact you before Yom Tov.

I am now a Rebbe and have a wonderful family of Bnei Torah.

I must tell you that Shavuos, 45 years ago, changed my life.

I never did return to New Zealand and stayed in Israel learning.

I had to reach out to you to tell you, "Thank you."

Who knows which direction my life would have taken without that night of Torah?"

And to think I almost slept through it all.