The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-עדויות מפעימות מימי נעוריו של הינוקא רבי שלמה יהודה בארי לפני שהעולם ידע חלק ד'

2:54 Anyone who wants to come for a bracha — I came here today — people come, receive a bracha — we welcome them with a warm, friendly face, doing what we can, with all the pressure and crowds here. I've known the Rav for over 20 years, since he was 16 years old. We were the ones encouraging him — I'm older than him, I'm more than twenty-something years older than him — and yet he was the one strengthening everyone.

3:20 He taught others, and he knew pesukim by heart, by heart — he knew them. With such wisdom and holiness, he would bless the sick. He blessed everyone — he was modest. He welcomed every Jew with love. He strengthened everyone — everyone loved him. Even when he was very young, he was a true oved Hashem, sitting and learning Torah, immersed in Torah, for all of Torah, with real self-sacrifice.

3:53 An extraordinary love of Israel, like nothing you see, like we hear about the true tzaddikim of every generation — that's how he is... He lived the stories of tzaddikim. I wasn't personally present for the Baal Shem Tov stories that he would always tell in Sinai on Motzaei Shabbos, but we were at other shiurim. I had the merit of driving him many times to shiurim. We were together — we went through a lot together. The army wanted to draft him, and then he saw there was no way out — they really, really wanted him.

4:26 so I told him: listen, Rabbi, we have to take action about this. And then in truth... there was no way out, so he entered the army system (military prison, because he refused to enlist). And then they took him — they took him to Prison 6. And I had to produce a few letters that would get him released, and then I wrote the letter... what letter? That I wrote that the army has no...

4:53 the army doesn't need him — and he doesn't need the army, and the army has nothing to do with him, and he isn't "with the army" — he has a great mission, a very great mission in serving Hashem for the Jewish people. It would be best for the army to release him. That was the purpose of the letter. And then we went to the prison commander, and then it turned into... I went with my friend, Rabbi Aryeh, and we arrived outside (the military prison), we played him music from outside, and... then the Rav came out — we gave him the letter, and immediately afterward, he was released.

5:32 From there I took him straight to a shiur, I remember, straight from there to a shiur in Netanya, by Rav Busi upstairs, and from there I took him home. That was his release from prison. He embodies Torah. He is middos walking — good character traits. What people call "good middos" — he embodies "good middos". Such deep care for the Jewish people, from the smallest to the greatest — he sees everyone equally.

5:57 No favoritism. Anyone who truly saw him, anyone who truly heard him, feels it in their heart — how afterward, when they left a meeting with the Rav, or left a shiur with the Rav, they left with a love of Israel you could feel completely, with tremendous giving — and it was as a way of life for him. Even today — ben poras Yosef. Rabbi, I knew him in his youth, even before he was married, before he was married. Yehoshua, the Rav's father-in-law, would bring him as his driver.

6:30 We would arrange shiurim in Jerusalem synagogues, with Daniel Cohen — may Hashem protect him — and we would set them up in synagogues in Jerusalem. And if we set it up in one synagogue, opponents would come and they wouldn't let us give shiurim. They threw us out every week in Jerusalem, so each week we did it in another synagogue in Jerusalem. And the Rav would give shiurim — people didn't understand what shiurim, what level he was teaching at, as a child.

6:59 The Torah he had, the nobility, the... There was something special in him that drew people in — people would come just to see him. And the Rav would light candles, he would sing, and he would give shiurim. We would set a time — the Rav would say, I'm coming at 8:00, and he would arrive in Jerusalem at 9:30, at 10:00, and the shiur would go until 11:00, 12:00 — the Rav would teach. And we'd set it in a synagogue in "Jarmukalim" in Jerusalem, and in the end they came — they wouldn't let us give the shiur — they wouldn't let the Rav give shiurim. They threatened the Rav — they threatened us, that we must not let the Rav appear in Jerusalem.

7:36 Did you hear that? Back then... what he has today is exactly what he already had in his youth. It's the same — nothing changed in him. He always had love for the Jewish people; he loved the Jewish people — he brought every single person close, and he had time for each one to speak with him. Even if it was twelve or one at night in the Jerusalem cold — the Rav didn't neglect anyone. He gave every single person an answer and true attention.

8:01 Do you still remember his album — the pictures of tzaddikim? Of course — it was something special. He would always open that album on the table by the keyboard — he had a keyboard — the Rav would bring a keyboard to play. And the album was there — it was... I don't know if there's a collection like that — for a child, or even a young man of twenty — someone with a collection of rabbis like that, who would bring teachings from rabbis, open their pictures, and kiss their pictures.

8:29 The Rav has a special fondness for very old sefarim. He truly loves old books of the great sages. And then he would... Daniel Cohen always said: one day people will stand in line to receive brachos from him. All the time the Rav sat and learned from sefarim. There was nothing like it. He had derech eretz — a gentle, refined warmth. There's nothing like it — he related to each and every person. The Rav didn't see anyone around him; the Rav saw... he is a man of truth. A man of truth — he has Torah of truth.