His eyes, the only part of his body which would still obey his brain’s commands, flitted onto the special computer screen which recognized their message. Slowly, laboriously, words appeared on the screen, innovative words of Torah from a brain sparkling with knowledge. The words joined to form sentences, paragraphs, pages and even chapters. A book was created by those shrewd eyes which had taught so many students so many times the meaning of the texts they were studying.
However the peak of Rabbi Yaakov’s trials was yet to come. About 15 years ago, he was stricken with a debilitating disease which left him completely paralyzed- incapable of moving any part of his body besides his eyes. Most people would have been crushed and disconsolate to suffer such a cruel fate but Rabbi Yaakov, through a special computer-recognition program, was able to continue writing and amazingly produced some of his books even after the disease had set in.
Indeed, Rabbi Yaakov always appeared to know exactly what Hashem wanted of him and to do it in the best possible manner. His seven children all follow in his footsteps with some of them serving in distinguished yeshivas and others writing Torah books themselves. Rabbi Yaakov’s body may have failed him well before his death but his eyes were able to achieve more than most active people would produce and his profound legacy for us is that Torah can and must be studied in every possible situation. (VIN)
{Matzav.com}