For most, the story of pure chesed shel emes would end right there. But not for Rabbi Chill

Photo: S. Friedman

Living Higher

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his week marks the shloshim of Rabbi Michel Chill, a longtime rav in Monsey, New York. (He is also featured in this week’s installment of For the Record.) Among the various communal activities in which Rabbi Chill was involved was the local chevra kaddisha. He was the final word on complex halachic questions, and when there was a difficult taharah that needed to be attended to, Rabbi Chill would set aside both personal and professional obligations to attend to it himself.

Early Erev Pesach morning 13 years ago, Rabbi Chill received a call about a five-year-old boy from Eretz Yisrael who had been in New York for treatment. Tragically, the boy had passed away that morning.

But it was one of the busiest days on the Jewish calendar, and the chevra kaddisha in the city where the hospital was located simply didn’t have the requisite manpower. Instead, they called Rabbi Chill asking if the Monsey Chevra Kaddisha could get the taharah and kevurah done before Yom Tov. Without deliberating, Rabbi Chill immediately responded in the affirmative.

Rabbi Chill, a chaplain at the maximum-security Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate New York, drove to work early that morning, bringing the special Seder simanim his wife made each year for the Jewish inmates. After ensuring the prisoners had everything they needed for Pesach, he rushed back to Monsey for the taharah and kevurah. The taharah was a difficult one, and an exhausted Rabbi Chill got home just as Yom Tov began. Unfortunately, even the parents couldn’t attend the levayah, as it took place too close to Yom Tov.

For most, the story of pure chesed shel emes would end right there. But not for Rabbi Chill.

Each year on Erev Pesach afternoon, when most people are busy obtaining last minute items and putting the finishing touches on preparation for Yom Tov, Rabbi Chill and his wife, Yehudis, would slip out of their home and visit this little boy’s kever. They knew his family lived too far away, and they wanted to ensure that a precious little neshamah would be remembered.

Light Unto the Nations

Rabbi Eli Geller, a dedicated rebbi at Ezra Academy in Queens, New York, arranged for eight boxes of blow-up mattresses — 160 in all — to be sent to the IDF Chesed Center in Woodmere, where they would be packaged and shipped off to various army bases in Eretz Yisrael.

Rabbi Geller ordered an Uber to deliver the boxes to the Chesed Center and the driver, a woman named Preya, showed up at the warehouse, where she was met by a group of volunteers. When Preya learned that these boxes would be shipped to soldiers in Israel, she immediately offered to donate a bag of sweaters and winter clothing for the families of soldiers.

She explained that she had previously worked for an Orthodox Jew from Boro Park, a Holocaust survivor, and was impressed by how we come together to help each other. Preya then asked how else she could help and how she and her family could volunteer. The achdus of our people during this difficult time has inspired us but, apparently, it’s inspired the world around us as well.

Down Under

Australians are now enjoying summer vacation, and Olami Australia participants took advantage of their break to travel to Lakewood and join the Torah Links Lakewood Fellowship Program, basking in the warmth of Torah while ignoring the winter chill. As part of their itinerary, the group paid a visit to Rav Yerucham Olshin shlita. Learning that these young men hailed from Australia, Rav Yerucham shared a story.

“Rav Nosson Wachtfogel spent time in Australia upon escaping Europe during World War II,” he told them. “Rav Nosson felt a deep sense of gratitude toward Australia for granting him a safe haven, and he accepted upon himself to one day form a kollel there as an expression of hakaras hatov.”

Over time, Rav Yerucham concluded, the dream materialized, and Rav Nosson succeeded in establishing a kollel on the other side of the globe.

Upon hearing the story, the leader of the Olami group, Rabbi Myron Sachter, stepped forward.

“I learn in the kollel that Rav Nosson established,” he told Rav Yerucham.

From Lakewood to Australia and back to Lakewood, Torah is unbound by geographic limitations. It will continue to grow and to spread until, one day, very soon, the prophecy of u’malah ha’aretz dei’ah es Hashem (“and the land will be filled with knowledge of Hashem”) will come to fulfillment.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 995)