“The body is en route to be cremated. We can call and tell them to reroute”

Living Higher

S

arah was an elderly woman who lived in Toronto for the past several decades. Originally from Romania, Sarah would share how her non-Jewish neighbors would taunt her, saying, “Go to Palestina!” One day, she asked her mother, “What’s Palestina?” Her mother explained that it is the Jewish Land, where they all ought to be.

“Well, I want to go to Palestina!” Sarah declared. Pogroms were rampant in her neighborhood and the family ultimately succeeded in fleeing for their lives, boarding a ship to Palestina.

Many years later, Sarah and her husband relocated to Toronto. Sarah would often share how difficult it was to part from her mother and how much she regretted leaving Eretz Yisrael.

Last week, Sarah passed away. Shortly thereafter, Misaskim Canada’s Toronto branch was contacted by Sarah’s devoted friends. They had horrible news to share: Sarah was scheduled to be cremated.

Misaskim’s Avraham Aryeh Schur desperately tried to contact the executor, and finally succeeded. The conversation was difficult — Avraham Aryeh could not understand the insistence on cremation.

“Listen,” he pleaded, “all I want to do is honor Sarah through burial!”

“Honor her?!” the woman on the other end exclaimed. “You think it’s an honor for her to be buried in the frozen ground of Toronto? I want her ashes spread throughout Israel! That’s an honor!”

At last, Avraham Aryeh understood.

“What if,” he said slowly, “I would be able to arrange that she be buried in Israel?” There was a moment of silence and then, the woman burst into tears.

“You think you can do that?” she asked.

It was actually not so simple. Misaskim’s mandate did not cover burials in Eretz Yisrael. Avrohom Aryeh convened an emergency meeting. Misaskim’s rav made a swift decision: “This is our only chance at stopping a cremation. It’s thousands of dollars beyond our budget, but we must make this happen.” Avraham Aryeh immediately placed a call to Affordable Burial and Cremations to inform them of the development.

“Oh,” they said. “The body is en route to be cremated. We can call and tell them to reroute.”

And they did. Misaskim — who have still not raised the funds to cover these costs — paid for all the arrangements for the flight and burial. Sarah’s coffin arrived in Haifa where Sarah’s mother is buried. This particular cemetery allowed for the burial of two bodies in a single grave — with the halachically required amount of soil separating them. Sarah was laid to rest just a few inches from her beloved mother.

In another stroke of Hashgachah — Rabbi Zale Newman of Toronto, who knew Sarah well, “happened” to be in Eretz Yisrael at the time and was able to participate in the funeral and deliver divrei hesped. He shared how Sarah loved music, and one song in particular that she enjoyed was a set to the words, “Kol ha’olam kulo gesher tzar me’od — the whole entire world is a very narrow bridge.” The simple explanation for this phrase is that life is precarious; one wrong move can be fatal. But Sarah understood it differently. “She said that her take on the words is that ‘the world is a small bridge. We’re all just one step away from each other.’ ”

And that, Rabbi Newman said, is exactly what they had just witnessed.

So many miles apart, for so many years, Sarah was just one step away from her mother, and from the land of Palestina.

Heavenly Map

The Chofetz Chaim was known to have remarked that while the maps of common folk highlight the dominant political, economic, and cultural cities of the world, the map of the celestial bodies highlights entirely different series of cities. There, in Heaven, the important cities are the major centers of Torah, avodah, and gemilus chasadim. At the Ichud Hakollelim conference held this past Shabbos, a map was displayed with pins on the cities of the participating kollelim, giving participants a glimpse of what that map may look like.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

Over the past few weeks, an insight has been circulating on various online platforms. President Trump has issued an order halting the minting of pennies. While this seems to be purely an economic concern, the spiritually attentive sensed a note of divinity. After all, the Gemara in Sanhedrin (97a) states that, “Ein ben Dovid ba ad shetichleh perutah min hakis — ben Dovid (Mashiach) will not come until the perutah will cease from the purse.” While simply understood to mean that abject poverty will be rampant, there are deeper levels of intent.

Specifically, what is this “purse” that Chazal refer to? Perhaps, the suggestion goes, it refers to the Federal Reserve. When the perutah (penny) is no longer found in the Reserve, Mashiach will come.

But why? What is the messianic significance of the perutah no longer being found in the kis?

Perhaps the answer lies in an explanation of the Gemara presented by the Rashash. The Rashash says that the “kis” refers to the charity coffers. When the wealth is so plentiful that no one would think to deposit a mere penny — then Mashiach will come.

The mitzvah of tzedakah inspires the coming of Mashiach, as the pasuk in Yeshayahu says, “Tzion b’mishpat tipadeh, v’shavehah b’tzedakah — Tzion in judgment is redeemed, and those who return in charity.” What generation is more deserving of Mashiach’s arrival than one that would not conceive of giving mere pennies to tzedakah? Perhaps the United States government’s call to cancel the production of the penny is merely a reflection of this spiritual achievement — why mint the penny if it won’t be used for charity?

May we soon see the coming of Mashiach — amen, kein yehi ratzon.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1051)