MATZAV.COM Rav Avrohom Yaakov Hakohen Pam zt”l, On His Twelfth Yahrtzeit,

Some years ago, a highly regarded family was sitting shivah. One of those sitting was an elderly Reform rabbi, who had been estranged from his siblings. Rav Pam zt”l entered the room to be menachem aveil-and the Reform rabbi, who had probably never seen the Rosh Yeshivah, shuddered. “That is a holy man!” he said almost inaudibly. How did he know, this man to whom Torah and mitzvos were not a constant presence? How did he recognize the “holiness” of a total stranger? Surely it was not his physical appearance. Rav Pam was as unpretentious as a human being can be. He never donned the garb of a rosh yeshivah; indeed, those of us who were his talmidim more than half a century ago know that he never changed his simple style of dress. In the Bais Medrosh of Torah Vodaath, he continued to sit in the middle of the room, not at the mizrach where he belonged.