Reb Pinchas raced out the door and began to chase the man.

“Stop him!” His voice rang throughout the still night and woke the neighbors. “He kidnapped my baby! Please, stop him!”

Soon a crowd of people were chasing the tall figure who was racing through the streets with Eliezer clutched tightly to his chest. With each stride of his long legs, the man created a growing distance between himself and his pursuers.

“I’ll slow him down!” Yonah, the beggar who had come to Reb Pinchas’s aid earlier in the day, began to run with amazing speed after the kidnapper. It was amazing to see a man so large racing across the ground as if he were as light as a feather.

Before long, everyone had lost sight of the kidnapper and the only person who was still giving chase was Yonah.

Reb Pinchas followed the sounds of Yonah’s frantic yelling as he rushed through the dark, zigzagging around homes.

“Reb Pinchas, he’s gone!”

Reb Pinchas finally caught up with Yonah at the outskirts of the forest. Reb Pinchas did not hesitate and began to race into the dark unknown.

“No!” Yonah grabbed Reb Pinchas and held him tight. “You don’t understand! He didn’t escape into the forest!”

“Then where is he?” Reb Pinchas yelled, his heart bursting with panic.

“I caught up with him and was able to wrap my fist around the back of his cloak. Look, I ripped part of it off. But at that moment, he just disappeared entirely! I can’t explain it… I’m so sorry….”

Reb Pinchas sank onto his knees in shock. There was nothing he could do then but stare into the swaying trees as total grief shook his body.

*****

12 Years Later…

Reb Pinchas slowly wrapped up his tallis and tefillin as he recited his daily quota of Tehillim. As he placed the tefillin and tallis into his bag, a piece of fabric slipped out of it and floated onto the floor.

“Here, let me throw this out for the Rav.” A well-meaning congregant who was passing by bent down and picked up the tattered material. “It would be my kavod!”

“No!” Reb Pinchas grabbed the fabric back hurriedly. He placed it carefully back inside his bag and then turned to the congregant with an apologetic smile. “I appreciate your offer to help, but this item has a lot of sentimental value for me. You see, it reminds me of… something.”

“I understand,” the congregant replied, looking confused.

Reb Pinchas smiled but inside he thought, you don’t understand. No one in the shul could possibly understand what he and his wife Bracha had been through.

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 748)