By Rabbi Nissan Telushkin for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
When the great scholar Rabbi Dan Plotsky was in the United States, he told me the following story:
He was once traveling by rail with Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim, to a convention in Vienna, Austria. When they passed through Lithuania, residents of nearby cities and towns flocked to the train station to greet them.
Rabbi Plotsky disembarked the train to speak to the people. The Chofetz Chaim did not want to go out, saying that, according to the sages, honor in this world detracts from the World to Come.
“Author of the Chofetz Chaim!” Rabbi Plotsky responded. “It is worth missing out on part of the World to Come in order to bring joy to the Jewish nation.”
“I accede to you,” the Chofetz Chaim said, before leaving the train to meet those who had come to see him.
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It’s the difference between Anavah and Bitul
His full name was R Meir Don plotk and he wrote the klei chemda and my father when he learned under R elye lapian in England he met R Meir many times.