[Avodah] shelo asani isha

[Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer]

On 8/18/2011 7:14 PM, Yaacov Shulman wrote:
> Incidentally, R. Salanter urged others to eat should they need to. He
> himself did not eat.

http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tprofile/rsalanter.html#t17

   Since Reb Yisroel never rendered any halachic decisions in Vilna,
   not even for his own household,[16] he must have experienced enormous
   personal conflict during the peak of a cholera epidemic that devastated
   Vilna in late summer 1848. Reb Yisroel had committed himself to the
   city's welfare - renting hospital quarters with five hundred beds,
   while his own talmidim nursed the stricken around the clock, seven
   days a week, with patient care on Shabbos no different than on the
   other days of the week. As Yom Kippur approached, he feared that the
   fast would weaken the people and make them dangerously susceptible to
   the often-fatal disease. Reb Yisroel hung placards throughout Vilna
   urging all who felt weak to eat on the fast day, to stave off any
   threat. He did this without consulting others because he apparently
   realized that he would not gain a consensus for such a radical, yet
   - in his view - essential move. Immediately after Shacharis on Yom
   Kippur, he himself rose to the bimah, and according to some accounts,
   publicly made Kiddush and ate some cakes to encourage all those in
   need to follow suit. Needless to say, there were great protests,
   but Reb Yisroel ignored them and reportedly made his way to other
   shuls as well, to urge others to join him.[17]

   This daring episode provoked strong and mixed reactions in different
   circles, and was long debated.[18] For all the esteem he commanded, the
   Beis Din of Vilna summoned Reb Yisroel for an uncomfortable exchange,
   [19] with Reb Yisroel demonstrating clearly that his command of Torah
   knowledge put him beyond their ability to challenge him.

   ----

   16. Sridei Aish, R. F.F. Weinberg, IV, 289. Some have attributed
   Reb Yisroel's reluctance to serve as a Rav to his having arrived at
   halachic conclusions different from many established local minhagim,
   Tnuas Hamussar p. 377.

   17. Tnuas Hamussar I, pp. 160-161, no. 8 for sources.

   18. Rabbi Boruch Ber Lebowitz, many years later, said a shiur to
   analyze the halachah in question.

   19. R Yaakov Kamenetsky related details to the writer, as transmitted
   to him by Rabbi Dovid Lebowitz, who had heard a report from the
   Chofetz Chaim, who had been in Vilna at the time.