Adapted from: Precious Moments with Rav Chaim

The way we see the world is different from the way gedolei Yisrael see it.

A man who can’t decide which apartment to buy stops at Rav Chaim’s house to ask him what to do. “I have two choices,” he says. “I could buy an apartment in a central area, but it costs a lot of money, or I could buy a bigger apartment in an area that’s not as central.”

“Why do you need a big apartment?” Rav Chaim asks. “Do you need another room to check for chametz? Bedikas chametz will take an extra half an hour every year if you buy a bigger apartment.”

These words take the man to a new world, a world where an extra room isn’t a place, but a halachic issue that will come up every year when it’s time for bedikas chametz.

It’s the night of bedikas chametz.

It’s the only time that Rav Chaim looks in every corner of his house.

It takes Rav Chaim hours to do bedikas chametz. He looks under the table and under the chairs, and takes the mattresses off the beds so he can look at the boards. He looks in every corner and every place.

When bedikas chametz is over, he asks a grandchild to help him because everything has to be put back in its place. “Bedikas chametz is a mitzvah mi’deRabbanan, but upsetting Bubby is an issur d’Oraisa,” he says.