Rav Sholom Kaminker was named after his grandfather Rav Sholom HaLevi Rosenfeld son of Yechiel Eichel HaLevi whose yichus dated back to the Maharshal a descendant of Rashi, Rav Yochanan HaSandler and Dovid HaMelech. His grandfather was a wealthy man and nicknamed the Graf of Rava. Back in those days the railroad did not yet run past those environs and when Rav Sholom the Graf was ill his name was added to a larger list of petitioners on a large kvitel by the Chassidim who passed through town on their way to the Rebbe, the Chozeh of Lublin.

It took them weeks to arrive. When they handed the Chozeh the kvitel, the tzaddik began to run his finger down the names on the kvitel and pronounce his blessings and tefilos for them one by one. When he reached the Graf Rav Sholom Rosenfeld’s name, the tzaddik shook his head sadly, “I can no longer do anything for him. He has traded in his crown for another, instead of kesser Malchus he has donned the kesser Torah.” The Chassidim didn’t understand the Chozeh’s cryptic pronouncement, however they later learned that Rav Sholom had already passed away succumbing to his illness and in the meantime a grandson was born and named for him. Since he was known as the wealthy Graf they later understood the Chozeh to mean that he himself had left this world and the crown of malchus and wealth behind. His soul now descended into his new grandson, bearing his name, and was crowned with the kesser Torah as the tzaddik Rav Sholom Kaminker. (Nifla’os HaRebbe)

When Rav Sholom of Kaminka had just married and was still known as the young genius of Rava he met Rav Eliezer’el Dzhikover the son of the Ropshitzer Rav. Rav Eliezer’el was married to Rav Sholom’s cousin, her father Rav Yechiel Eichel was his uncle, his father Yaakov Yosef’s brother. Rav Eliezer’el convinced the young genius to meet his father the famed tzaddik Rav Naphtali of Ropshitz and Rav Sholom became a devoted chassid and follower. From then on he considered the Ropshitzer Rav as his rebbe muvhak. (Dor Deah p315)

It was at the Ropshizter’s court that Rav Sholom Kaminker became steadfast close friends with another famed gaon and tzaddik, Rav Chaim Halberstam, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. The two were inseparable and so when their rebbe the Ropshitzer distributed rolls on Shabbos he handed them two challah rolls stuck together as a sign of their own attachment to one another. There was once a disagreement between them and the Ropshitzer then handed each of them a separate challa roll. (Chemda Genuza p76)

It was the night of bedikas chametz right before Pesach and the holy tzaddik Rav Naphtali Ropshizter approached two of his favorite talmididm the inseparable Rav Chaim of Sanz and Rav Sholom of Kaminka. “I am assigning the two of you to a holy task,” the two tzaddikim proudly presented themselves to their master and found out that this holy task was none other than kitchen duty: to peel potatoes for the approaching YomTov Pesach. Off course when three such lofty individuals as the Rophsizter, the Sanzer and the Kaminker are involved, even peeling potatoes takes on a whole new meaning. It was during this seemingly mundane task that their rebbe was to reveal secrets to them the likes of which they never imagined. Here are a few such stories handed down through the generations of what transpired while preparing for Pesach by peeling potatoes:

Slowly the Ropshizter Rav stole his way into the kitchen and crept up to the silverware. The Sanzer Rav, the Divrei Chaim and Rav Sholom Kaminker were busy peeling potatoes and didn’t notice as the Ropshitzer quietly slipped one of the knives into his pocket. Afterwards he sauntered in nonchalantly and turning to the two potato peelers he asked innocently, “What are you two doing this whole time? How can I be sure you are watching everything that goes on, count the knives!” Sure enough one of the knives was missing. “You see,” continued the Ropshizter in his charade, “now you owe me a knife!”

Thus began a heated halachic discussion where the Kaminker and Sanzer defended themselves using the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim Siman 429 and the Taz’s commentary there: that thirty days before Pesach the Rav is obliged to teach his students the laws of Pesach, the Rav himself and his time is therefore considered as if on loan to his students and disciples. If during the course of these thirty days any of the students were then to borrow the Rav’s property they would be exempt from any obligation to repay such property if it was lost or stolen under duress. This law is known as She’ela BeBaalim.

Using this logic they applied the law to themselves and argued: “Since during these thirty days before Pesach the Ropshizter Rav is obliged to teach us the laws of Pesach, the Rav and his time are now in effect on loan to us,” they argued, “and therefore if we borrowed a knife and it was lost or stolen under duress we are exempt.” They argued the fine points of these laws back and forth all night long, while the potatoes sat unpeeled and this off course was the Rophhitzer’s entire intention with his trick.

The Stutchiner Rebbe once related how the two tzaddikim tried to spend Pesach together with the Ropshizter. The Rav declined and tried to send them home with the following explanation: “My servant girl works very hard to prepare for Pesach and it simply isn’t fair to her to add two more guests to her workload. Hearing this, the two tzaddikim readily agreed to help with any preparation needed for YomTov. As the Sanzer and the Kaminker sat down peeling potatoes the Ropshizter entered and began to say Torah. The Torah topics he discussed were so lofty and holy that the soon enough the kitchen dissolved away, the potatoes and the peelers vanished and the pot of water boiled away and the only vision left before them was the shining countenance of the holy Ropshizter Rebbe!

Later as the two colleagues sat side by side at their rebbe’s seder table the Ropshizter also delivered a Chassidic discourse in the midst of which he added: “The primary purpose of the rebbe’s Torah is to uplift his listeners to such a degree, to such heights that they reach the upper realms and supernal worlds when he says Torah!” They smiled and looked to one another and realized that their rebbe was referring to their previous journey from the potato peel filled kitchen to the supernal realms on High.

On a different occasion the Ropshizter pulled the following prank on his two potato peelers. While the Sanzer and the Kaminker were engrossed in their peeling, the Ropshitzer Rav grabbed a slippery spud and tossed the potato: Splunk! into one of the pots of water. The offending potato made a great splash. At the sound of the splash Rav Sholom instinctively jerked back, away from the shpritz, while the Sanzer Rav, the Divrei Chaim stood stock still and was deluged from head to toe with a cold wet wave of water.

Afterwards the Sanzer Rav remarked: “As the water rained down and soaked me, I felt as if the rebbe had dunked me into a cold pool, he removed my soul, immersed her, washing her of all stain and filth and returned her to me clean and pure!” When Rav Sholom heard this he was jealous and all his life he regretted his reaction, that he too had not been splashed and purified by the waters of the Ropshitzer Rav!

Rav Sholom of Kaminka once visited the Sar Sholom of Belz. “Prepare yourself and make ready for I wish to impart unto you a great and lofty secret!” commanded the Sar Sholom. The Kaminker prepared himself in sanctity and purity and the Sar Sholom revealed to him the secrets of the awesome yichud one should have in mind at the moment of death, when the soul leaves the body. When he departed the Sar Sholom’s room, the Belzer Rebitzen who was herself a lofty holy individual inquired of him, “And in Ropshitz did you also hear and learn such lofty things as this? Did the Ropshizter Rav also reveal to you such secrets and yichudim?”

“If you truly wish to know,” replied Rav Sholom Kaminker to the Belzer Rebitzen, “if in Ropshitz I heard such lofty and secret things let me tell the Rebitzen that once as I sat together with my good friend the holy Sanzer Rav and we peeled potatoes as preparation before Pesach the heilige Ropshizter himself entered. We didn’t notice him come in. He crept up behind us placed his holy hands on our shoulders and such a dread and fear seized us that we stood stock still petrified with awe. He then leaned in between us and whispered to us this very same yichud that I heard just now from the Sar Sholom!”

(based on: Eser Tzachtzachos, Ohel Naphtali, Dor Deah, Ohev Sholom pgs28-30, Rabbeinu HaKadosh MiSanz Vol 1 p51)

Rav Sholom of Kaminka had a unique custom before Pesach: he would inspect each matza individually to decide if it was fit for consumption. He accomplished this wondrous feat by taking each matza in hand and turning it round and round, inspecting every nook and cranny until he was either satisfied or dissatisfied. Before him stood two piles of matzos; onto the reject pile went each matza that Rav Sholom rejected with a cry of, “Rosha! – Wicked one!” and he would discard those matzos he had found unfit. Somehow, he had seen how it had been kneaded, rolled out and baked by someone whom he deemed a Rosha. Those matzos prepared and baked by someone whom Rav Sholom held in high regard were accepted and added to the pile of matzos known as Tzaddikim.

This wondrous work was watched by a throng of amazed Chassidim. But no one was as amazed as Rav Yehoshiele, Rav Sholom Kaminker’s son. This was because he knew who had in fact kneaded, rolled and baked the matzos that his holy father was even now inspecting, rejecting or accepting, and he was dumbfounded by his father’s obvious Ruach HaKodesh (divine insight). For he, Rav Yehoshiele, had marked those matzos that were baked by someone highly regarded in the community as a righteous figure, with a small triangular indentation. This man was held in high esteem by all and was known to be a man of stature who engaged in fasts, hisbodedus (seclusion and isolation) and was always taking upon himself some penance or stricture – in short he was well known as a frummer, a highly pious and religious individual, yet his matzos were summarily rejected as Rav Sholom pronounced on each of them, “Rosha!” and heaped them onto the pile of rejects.

Those matzos, however, baked by some happy-go-lucky friendly, smiling, congenial guy, who well known as a light-headed individual and a so-called good-for-nothing, always seen befriending everyone and “wasting his time” – those matzos Rav Yehoshiele had marked with a circular impression, and here his father pronounced each one a Tzaddik, and sorted them onto the pile of matzos he would personally eat during Pesach! This is how he saw his father’s true Ruach HaKodesh manifest and why his father rejected the so-called frummers, whose dark, depressed ways he despised over the simcha of the poshut Yidden whose derech he approved of.  (Ohev Sholom p. 114)