Adapted from: Hacham Baruch by Rabbi Nachman Seltzer

Despite the fact that Hacham Baruch was such a scholar and so brilliant, he never made a big deal about the amount of knowledge he possessed or the fact that he had a mind and memory that were razor-sharp. He was naturally humble and instinctively shied away from drawing attention to his greatness. But the signs were there for anyone who cared to connect the dots.

David Abe Kassin recalls an incident that illustrates Hacham Baruch’s incredible memory. He was learning halachot shehita in the Shulhan Aruch with the Rabbi in the Lawrence Avenue shul. One day they were learning together, and Hacham Baruch was reading to him from the words of the Shach, breaking down the intricate laws in a way that was easy to understand. Suddenly David, who’d been looking into the Shulhan Aruch, realized that the Rabbi’s voice had become harder to hear. He looked up, only to see that the Rabbi had left his spot at the table and had gone to the nearby kitchen to make himself a glass of tea. What was fascinating was that, although he was no longer at the table and not looking into the sefer, he continued reciting the words of the Shach as if the sefer were still sitting open before him!

“Until today,” David said, “I’m trying to figure out how a person knows every word of the Shach on the very complicated halachot shehita by heart…”

In the Syrian community, there was a longstanding tradition in which people would come together at the office of a business that was being established and recite selected pieces from different sources (similar to a hanukat habayit), as a segula for the success of the new enterprise. Hacham Baruch was always invited to take part in these gatherings, and he always attended them, as he did every other celebration, shiva, or event in the community. There he would go through the Zohar they were reading, stopping every so often to explain what they were reading and adding stories to bring the lessons to life.

One day, a group of people gathered at a brand-new office in Manhattan to mark a firm’s opening. As the group took their seats around the polished conference table, people began asking one another who had brought the books containing the pieces of Zohar they were supposed to be read. To their chagrin and disappointment, everyone admitted that they’d forgotten to bring the sefarim, which were still sitting peacefully back in Brooklyn.

Now what? Who was going to go back to Brooklyn to bring them?

Hacham Baruch was not fazed.

“It’s okay,” he said.

Everyone there looked at one another. What did the Rabbi mean?

The question was settled moments later, when Hacham Baruch began reciting the words of the Mishnayot, Gemara, Rambam, and Zohar aloud without hesitation, from memory, without missing a beat and without skipping a word.

And on the topic of Zohar:

Hacham Baruch would recite the words of the Zohar at any event where it was called for, be it the opening of a business or the night before a baby’s berit. However, he had his own way of doing it. Whereas most people recite the Zohar as quickly as possible before carrying on with their lives, Hacham Baruch would stop after every two paragraphs and explain the ideas contained in the words that had just been read, usually bringing the message home with a story that resonated with the people in the room. It was his way of turning something esoteric into an idea that everyone was able to relate to in their own way.

R’ David Seruya understood why the Rabbi went out of his way to attend every huppa he was invited to. But he didn’t quite grasp why Hacham Baruch felt the need to go to every Zohar reading as well. He once asked the Rabbi to explain his reasoning.

“When I come to read the Zohar,” the Rabbi said, “I am being invited into a person’s home and tasked with giving a speech. This gives me an opportunity to tell every person and family what they need to hear. I cannot tell you how many lives were changed because I came to recite the words of Zohar in so many homes and businesses.”

Hacham Yaacov Ben-Haim had this to add:

“My father told me that the two places where he was able to have the most influence on the people were during the Zohar readings and when a family was sitting shiva for a loved one. And because he was able to change their lives during those times, he never missed going.”