Adapted from: Moments of Greatness by Rabbi Yitzchok Hisiger

R’ Eliezer Yosef Lederberg was a storekeeper who lived in Batei Varsha in Yerushalayim; he used every spare moment to learn Torah.

R’ Eliezer Yosef was diagnosed with a disease that affected his eyes and was informed that he would have to undergo surgery, which would likely cause him much discomfort afterward and possibly even render him blind.

“How long can I wait until I undergo the surgery?” asked R’ Eliezer Yosef.

They told him that he can wait six months, but not longer than that.

R’ Eliezer Yosef realized that once the operation was performed, it was probable that he’d never be able to look into a Gemara ever again.

If that was true, he had work to do.

For the next half a year, he spent every waking moment of every day focused on one thing: learning two masechtos by heart. He learned Rosh Hashanah and Beitzah over and over, day in and day out. The only thing that consumed him was mastering those masechtos. R’ Eliezer Yosef prepared himself for the challenge that he might be forced to face on the road ahead.

On the day of the operation, his family wept while saying Tehillim, hoping and davening for a positive outcome.

As he was about to be brought into the operating room, he gazed at his family, knowing that this might be the last time he would be able to see them.

He thought of all the moments he had wasted during his lifetime. But now he had achieved something remarkable. He had mastered those two masechtos.

When he woke up after the surgery, his eyes were bandaged. They wouldn’t know for a few days if the operation was a success and whether he’d ever be able to see again.

Finally, the day arrived. Thick apprehension filled the air. R’ Eliezer Yosef took off the bandages and couldn’t hold himself back from crying.

He was able to see!

For the rest of his life, wherever he went, he reviewed the masechtos that he had mastered before his operation.

After his petirah in 1954, his children read his will. In it, he instructed them to write on his matzeivah that he had learned Rosh Hashanah and Beitzah over 4,000 times. He explained his reasoning: “Perhaps one day someone will read this and accept upon themselves to do the same.”

When I heard this story, I wondered if it was true. Then a friend of mine told me that he had gone to Har HaMenuchos himself to find the kever. There, he saw that the words were indeed inscribed on R’ Eliezer Yosef’s matzeivah.