Protecting Oneself from Chevlei Moshiach

Question

The Gemara says that the way to protect oneself from chevlei Moshiach is to be misaseik, heavily involved, in Torah and gemillus chassodim. I can understand that it is possible for a man to be misaseik in Torah in this way, but I do not know what it means for a man to be misaseik in gemillus chassodim. Wouldn’t this prevent him from fulfilling the other responsibilities he has, such as Torah study? Can the rov please explain what this means?

Rav Dovid Cohen 

In order to be successful in Torah, one needs hasmadah, diligence. If you look at all the gedolim of past generations — for example (in alphabetical order), Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach, Rav Bentzion Abba-Shaul, and Rav Ovadiah Yosef, to name a few — they were all great masmidim. In short, hisaskus in Torah means to be involved with Torah all the time, without interruption.

However, when it comes to hisaskus b’gemillus chassodim, we cannot use the same parameters that we use with regard to Torah study. As you correctly said, if a man were to be involved in uninterrupted gemillus chassodim, he would have no time to study Torah. There must be alternative guidelines that we can apply.

I believe that we can explain as follows. Rav Chaim Volozhiner writes that the purpose of a person in this world is to help other people (see the introduction to Nefesh Hachaim). Chazal are teaching us that if a person develops the attribute of ichpatius, caring about others, then he can go throughout the day helping people in all sorts of situations without making major interruptions in his Torah study.

This is the way that many gedolim led their lives. Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach was always looking for creative ways to help people and make them feel good. Rav Shlomo Zalman was always using his greatness in Torah to develop new strategies to help people. His constant caring about others was considered hisaskus b’gemillus chassodim.

Another excellent example is Rav Gershon Edelstein. Rav Gershon would come home from a Kiddush on Shabbos exhausted. Before going to a Kiddush, he would secretly visit widows and orphans, sometimes climbing many flights of stairs, to give them chizuk. When he finally arrived at the Kiddush, he spent a significant amount of time thinking carefully about the right words he could say to give each person chizuk. A person who adopts this attribute is following in the footsteps of the gedolim and will be protected from chevlei Moshiach.