The dynamic shaliach is gone, claimed by the dreaded virus — and eight orphans carry on the cry, Yisgadal veyiskadash Shemei Rabba

In an impassioned pre-shiur hesped, Rav Yitzchok Meir Sternbuch of Yeshivas Mir in Jerusalem remembered traveling to Hanover, Germany, before Purim to accompany a patient in need of surgery. It was a lonely place, devoid of Yiddishkeit — until he met the local Chabad shaliach, Rabbi Binyamin Wolff. Reb Binyamin welcomed him to a Chabad House pulsing with Jewish life, even though the local community was small. Rav Sternbuch recalled how it was a struggle to form a minyan for reading the Megillah, but Reb Binyomin managed to keep the atmosphere upbeat and holy.

Before returning to Eretz Yisrael, Rav Sternbuch asked the shaliach, “Help me understand this, Reb Binyamin — you are so dynamic and talented, so personable and so energetic. You could be successful in any area — why did you choose this life? And even if you opted to choose harbatzas Torah over business, why not open a yeshivah? You could do anything and accomplish!”

Reb Binyamin’s response was a cry. “Reb Itche Meir? Don’t you know that the point of life is ‘Yisgadal veyiskadash Shemei Rabba?’ ”

Now, the dynamic shaliach is gone, claimed by the dreaded virus — and eight orphans carry on the cry, Yisgadal veyiskadash Shemei Rabba.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 809)