Adapted from: Hacham Baruch by Rabbi Nachman Seltzer

The Rabbi ran the school minyan for many years,” R’ Eli Mansour said. “He might have been the rabbi of the community, but he was busy dealing with children every single day. It didn’t faze him. But then very few things did.

“It would be very difficult to find a man who is so great and yet so humble at the same time.

“He was there every day of the week, running the minyan for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Even on Sundays, the rabbi was at Magen David teaching Sunday school.

“I remember one day we were nearing the end of the tefilla,” R’ Mansour recalled, “and I was talking to one of my friends — just as the hazan said ‘Barechu,’ which I missed because I was talking.

“As always, Hacham Baruch saw everything that took place in the room. There was no question that he was going to teach me a lesson — in his unique and memorable fashion.

“Looking at the dean, R’ Moshe Greenes, the rabbi said, ‘R’ Moshe, Eliyahu Mansour just lost a million dollars!’

“R’ Greenes, who immediately understood what the Rabbi meant, caught the ball and ran a few steps further, saying, ‘At least a million dollars!’

“That was the entire interchange. But there isn’t a day that goes by when I say the words ‘Barechu et Hashem’ that I don’t think that I just deposited a million dollars in my bank account. With that one line, the Rabbi changed my life forever!

“But the story isn’t over.

“Many years later, I was learning at Mercaz HaTorah in Yerushalayim. We were praying Arbit when someone came into the bet midrash to tell me that I had a phone call from overseas. In those days, that meant that your parents had called you on the yeshiva payphone — and because back then it cost a lot of money to call Israel from the United States, when you got a call from America, you picked yourself up and you ran to the phone.

“I stood in the bet midrash, struggling with myself. I wanted to run to the phone, but I also didn’t want to miss saying Barechu. In the end, I stayed in my spot until the hazan said Barechu. Moments later, I was out the door of the bet midrash and running to the phone.

“Later that evening I was informed that the Rosh Yeshiva, R’ Rotman, wanted to see me in his office.

“‘What do you know about Barechu that I don’t know?’ the Rosh Yeshiva asked me. I didn’t understand what he was talking about.

“‘I don’t know anything about Barechu more than the Rosh Yeshiva,’ I replied in confusion.

“‘No, you must know something.’

“I didn’t know what he was talking about, and told him so.

“‘Look, I know that I am correct about this,’ he said. ‘I watched you. You got a call from the States, but you didn’t leave the bet midrash until the hazan said Barechu. So, I’m asking you the same question again. What do you know about Barechu?’

“Now I understood what he was referring to.

“I have a rabbi in America. His name is Hacham Baruch Ben-Haim. And five years ago, my rabbi told me that Barechu is worth a million dollars.”

“‘That’s a good rabbi,’ the Rosh Yeshiva said. ‘If you are still affected by something that he told you five years ago — he’s a very good rabbi!’

“That story happened forty years ago, and I’m still thinking about how every Barechu that we say is worth a million dollars! That was the power of the Rabbi and his unique ability to make the kind of comments that a person never forgot.

“For some reason, when Hacham Baruch taught you a lesson, it stuck. That is why I consider him a master mehanech. A master educator.

“If I try to analyze why his words had such an impact, I must conclude that it had to do with the fact that he had yirat Shamayim. As Hazal tell us, when someone possesses yirat Shamayim, his words make an impact.

“Above and beyond that, when you were learning with Hacham Baruch you were also learning with his rebbi, Hacham Ezra Attieh, and his havruta, Hacham Ovadia. Sitting with Hacham Baruch meant being connected to the Ben Ish Hai (whose derashot the Rabbi’s grandmother had heard) and to his mother, who inculcated him with an understanding of what awaited him in Porat Yosef (‘My dear son… you will see angels’).

“Keeping all this in mind, we can understand why a few well-chosen words from the Rabbi had the ability to change a person’s entire life.”