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Years ago, I heard the following joke: Why was six afraid of seven?

As of this writing, the answer to the joke is largely irrelevant. When I attempted to tell this joke in front of my class this week, before I had a chance to say the answer, there was an uproar of kids waving their hands, alternatingly chanting, “Six, seven!”

If you’ve ever spoken to an Israeli, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that he or she says “ehhhh” a few times. I don’t have empirical statistics, but experience dictates that, on average, an Israeli says “ehhhh” once or twice per sentence.

Here’s the understatement of the day: Life is complicated, challenging, and confusing. But along the way Hashem provides us with guides – spiritual lights, emotional lights, and psychological lights, i.e., great individuals who infuse us with encouragement and chizuk to keep us going.

In 1833, Lord Alfred Tennyson lost his closest friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, when the 22-year-old Hallam died suddenly. Hallam’s death shattered Tennyson’s world.

Every time that I have had the opportunity to meet one of the G’dolei Yisrael, it’s been an uplifting experience. The common denominator is that these great, busy people, who bear such immense responsibility and have to make such weighty decisions, somehow make time to make everyone feel special.

I was taught the stories of the Torah and of our greatest leaders when I was young and always felt the stories were fascinating and intriguing. But as I have gotten older, I increasingly wonder how it was possible for those heroes to have become as great as they were.