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ust a month ago in this column I told the story of the elderly Russian gentleman who’d kept Yom Kippur for two days straight.

There is a thrill to reading about truly great people with whom you share DNA an indicator of what lies inside of you. Readers appreciated the reminder and a generous friend shared another Erev Yom Kippur story with me.

It didn’t happen in Communist Russia or in a concentration camp. The hero didn’t know Sarah Schenirer and he never saw the face of the Chofetz Chaim.

It happened now Erev Yom Kippur of 2016 a new world in which it sometimes seems that so many Jewish instincts have become dulled.

The story is about a dedicated administrator who ran a network of mosdos in Eretz Yisrael. When the institutions were found guilty of circumventing tax laws the chairman took the fall. Now he sits in prison serving his sentence.

On Erev Yom Kippur this chassid was desperate to immerse himself in a mikveh. Permission for the half-hour leave was repeatedly denied and his lawyer had no recourse other than to request an emergency hearing with the district judge.

Early on the morning of Erev Yom Kippur the courtroom in the town of Natzeret saw the inmate pleading for a few minutes to purify himself before the holy day while representatives of Israel’s Prison Service maintained that there was no precedent for such a privilege.

A surprise participant in the proceedings was Rav Yitzchak David Grossman of nearby Migdal Ha’emek who assured the judge that he’d already seen to it that the mikveh was open and ready for use.

The judge asked the petitioner if he would be willing to forfeit his right to his official furlough — a 72-hour leave — in exchange for the half-hour break. “Yes” he replied enthusiastically “my grandfathers in Russia gave up much more than that for the chance to toivel in a mikveh.”

(I know. At this point in the story there are inevitably some who will frown and say “What a chillul Hashem to commit tax fraud and now he wants to go to the mikveh like some kind of tzaddik?” To them I say: Do you have no inconsistency in your life? Are you so sure that you would be found clean of any trace of chillul Hashem?)

The judge agreed that if Rav Grossman would serve as guarantor the inmate could go accompanied by the prison guards. Just as the elated prisoner prepared to go toivel an official from the prison system raised an issue. The law prohibits prisoners on leave to circulate in prison garb and in their haste to get to the courthouse no one had thought to bring civilian clothing for the inmate.

There was a moment of silence and then Rav Grossman stepped into a side room. He returned a moment later carrying his pants which he handed to the prisoner. “Here” said the Rav whose silk beketshe reaches well past his knees. “Now he has clothing.”

In an undershirt and tzitzis and the pants of Migdal Ha’emek’s beloved rav the prisoner went off to prepare himself for Yom Kippur.

That’s this year’s Erev Yom Kippur story.

Rav Grossman is a radiant man with luminous eyes and an imposing presence.

What is the source of that glow? Chochmas adam ta’ir panav it is man’s wisdom which causes his face to shine (Koheles 8:1).

 

Look at the photo (used with the express permission of both parties and approval of this magazine’s rabbinic board). See how the chacham the wise man glows even when the trappings are removed.

Both men are somewhat underdressed. Both are clothed with the light that comes with sacrificing for a mitzvah. One man has given away his pants for another Jew the second has forfeited his rights to future furloughs — the home-cooked meal the time with his family the change of scenery — for the chance to immerse in the purest waters in the world.

In hindsight Rav Grossman’s solution was fairly obvious but to instinctively react that way takes years of practice.

And perhaps it’s because of something Rav Grossman himself told me earlier this year on a visit he made to Montreal. The Rav had removed his hat and it was clear that he was wearing two yarmulkes. An observer noticed and assuming it was connected to halachah he inquired about the source. Rav Grossman explained that he travels often. “Sometimes I meet other Jews and we engage in conversation. I try to get them to make a brachah or recite Shema. If they agree I give them a yarmulke of course out of respect for the mitzvah. And one doesn’t take away a yarmulke from a Jew right? So this way I’m always prepared.”

The thing is Rav Grossman travels with two yarmulkes. He doesn’t travel with two pairs of pants.

But to someone trained in giving there’s not that much of a difference.