“I wasn’t zocheh to have a family of my own,” he said. “If you have a son, would you name him after me?”

Living Higher

T

his past week, Rabbi Ezra Cohen of Brooklyn, a great talmid chacham and author of seforim, who enjoyed little fame and bore no progeny, passed away. Members of the chevra kaddisha were looking for someone to assist with the taharah, but all their regular volunteers were tied up. Searching through their contacts, they came across the name of Rabbi Ezra Netanel, a beloved melamed at Yeshivat Mekor Chaim who had helped in the past.

They called and explained that they needed help with a taharah, and Rabbi Netanel came right over. Only when he arrived did he learn the identity of the niftar. He was duly thunderstruck.

More than 40 years ago, Rabbi Ezra Cohen had approached Rabbi Netanel’s father, Reb Avraham Netanel, and issued a personal request.

“I wasn’t zocheh to have a family of my own,” he said. “If you have a son, would you name him after me?”

Rabbi Avraham agreed. He had a son and, in the Sephardic custom of naming after the living, named him Ezra, after Rabbi Ezra Cohen. And so the child was named Ezra Netanel.

Forty-five years later, that same child — now a rebbi himself — was the one chosen to perform this final act of chesed for the man whose name he carries.

Seizing the Moment

Mr. Shloime Werdiger, chairman of the board of trustees for Agudath Israel of America, flew to Columbus, Ohio, to be menachem avel Mr. Jay Schottenstein, who lost his mother.

During their conversation, Mr. Schottenstein mentioned that the family had merited to undertake the ArtScroll Shas project, which revolutionized limud haTorah around the globe, in the zechus of the insistence of his father, Jerome Schottenstein, that the family’s stores remain closed on Shabbos.

“It could be, but I have a different suggestion,” Mr. Werdiger countered, sharing an anecdote.

Years ago, while raising funds for an upcoming Siyum HaShas, he visited a very successful businessman man to solicit funds. During the conversation, the man told Mr. Werdiger that he was still living with the regret of the biggest mistake of his life. He showed Mr. Werdiger sample pages sent of what appeared to be early drafts of the ArtScroll Talmud.

“These were sent to me by Meir Zlotowitz,” he said. “He asked me to sponsor the Shas — but I passed on the opportunity. I’m going to die a billionaire, and no one will know my name.”

Mr. Werdiger looked Mr. Schottenstein in the eye. “Your father’s shemiras Shabbos was certainly a zechus. But the real merit is that when the opportunity came, he recognized what this could mean for limud haTorah would become — and he jumped on it. When a person recognizes an opportunity to be mekadesh Sheim Shamayim, and utilizes it — that’s a zechus that doesn’t come easily.”

The Lens

Rav Dovid Shustal visited the Phoenix community last week and made a stop at the Torah Day School to share divrei chizuk. As the Rosh Yeshivah entered the building, one four-year-old boy made a beeline for the gadol an proceeded to hand him… a candy. He expained that as his mother was driving him to school that morning, he saw a stray candy on the floor of their car — his favorite kind. The boy decided to make the most of it — by saving it for the visiting tzaddik.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1103)