Hamodia - Chesed Shel Emes

C28
30 NISAN 5770
Community
HAMODIA
APRIL 14, 2010
Chesed Shel Emes at Work
Around the Globe
By Miriam Berger
The Chesed Shel Emes hotline rang at 10:30 a.m. on Erev
Pesach. It was a patient representative from Maimonides
Hospital, who related that an
ambulance brought in a patient
by the name of J. Weiss, who was
found unconscious on a street in
Boro Park. The paramedics were
unable to resuscitate him.
Chesed Shel Emes dispatched
several volunteers well trained
to deal with a situation like this.
They went to the emergency
room at Maimonides and began
working the phones. After several hours, they located the man’s
next of kin and collected enough
information to arrange a burial.
In a case like this, the medical
examiner usually assumes
responsibility, picking up the
deceased, doing an examination,
and issuing the paperwork.
However, Yom Tov was quickly
approaching, leaving too little
time for burial after the examination. The volunteers discussed
the case with the medical examiner, who agreed to release the
niftar without seeing him, as
there was no evidence of foul
play. The medical examiner then
ordered the ER physician to sign
the paperwork.
The niftar was promptly
removed to Shomrei Hadas
Chapel, where the chevrah kaddisha of Chesed Shel Emes was
waiting. After they performed
the taharah, a Chesed Shel Emes
volunteer drove the niftar to
New Jersey, where he was buried
next to his parents.
While this case was still in
progress, another call came in
about a family from Israel who
had arrived in New York with a
five-year-old child in need of
medical treatment; the child had
unfortunately passed away in
Montefiore Hospital in the
Bronx only a few minutes earlier.
The parents were standing at
the child’s bedside with no idea
what to do next. How would they
make a levayah, and could they
still sit shivah before Pesach?
Chesed Shel Emes immediately dispatched two volunteers
from Monsey. One picked up the
niftar, and the other picked up
the family and drove them to
Monsey, where the taharah was
performed by the Chesed Shel
Emes chevrah kaddisha. Chesed
Shel Emes also secured a burial
plot in a Monsey cemetery and
arranged the kevurah that afternoon. The parents sat shivah
until Yom Tov and took a flight
back to Israel on the first night
of Chol Hamoed so they could be
with their family for the rest of
Yom Tov.
That night, the phone rang
once again. The caller reported
that his brother had passed away
several weeks ago after being hit
by a bus, and Chesed Shel Emes
had handled the case. Now the
caller needed help with a relative in his forties who had gone
to a town called Wuppertal in
Germany to stay with relatives
for Pesach and had passed away
suddenly on the second day of
Yom Tov. The caller had no idea
how to go about bringing him
back to America for burial.
After several hours on the
phone, Chesed Shel Emes volunteers learned that the problem
was even more serious. It turned
out that the morgue where the
niftar was being held was going
to be closed for ten days, beginning Thursday afternoon, for the
observance of a holiday. If the
niftar was not released on
Thursday, he would remain there
another ten days.
Chesed Shel Emes contacted
the local Chabad shaliach, Rabbi
Chaim W., who lived only twenty
minutes from Wuppertal, where
the caller’s relative had died.
The shaliach drove over there,
spoke to the family, contacted
the local medical examiner, and
educated them about Jewish law
in such cases. Fortunately, he
was successful in preventing an
autopsy, and the niftar was
released and flown back to New
York, where he was buried
alongside other family members.
This is only a brief glimpse
into the daily activities of
Chesed Shel Emes, for whom the
day and time do not matter.
When duty calls, the volunteers
spring into action to prevent desecration of the deceased, and to
relieve the pain and suffering of
the mourning family by taking
care of all the technical details
— everything from having the
body released to arranging the
funeral and burial, and if necessary covering the costs as well.
May it be Hashem’s will that
the phones of Chesed Shel Emes
stop ringing forever, with the
coming of Moshiach.
Yeshiva Shaarey Yosher to Hold
Monsey Event
Yaakov Yisroel was born nineteen years ago. He learned in
cheder with all his friends, and
lived in a religious neighborhood.
He was successful in his studies
and a source of pride to his family, until he tragically began to
stray from his ancestors’ path.
But it didn’t happen in one
day. It was a long process, which
took place without his parents or
the yeshivah administration realizing what was transpiring.
One day, Yaakov Yisroel met a
non-religious youth who invited
him to his kibbutz. Yaakov Yisroel
was thrilled with the pastoral kibbutz life. He felt content living in
the lap of nature, and he enjoyed
being free of the many restrictions on his behavior. Yaakov
Yisroel thought he had found
paradise while his heartbroken
parents mourned his succumbing
to empty enticements.
The entire family mobilized to
bring him back. They quickly
reached the conclusion that only
people with experience in such
cases would be able to help. They
turned to the Shema Beni hotline, and one of the hotline
experts, a talmid chacham, took
the case.
The first thing the expert told
Yaakov Yisroel was, “I don’t want
to make you religious. All I want
to do is explain how one can live
a good life in this world.”
By the time they met, Yaakov
Yisroel had become better
acquainted with life in the kibbutz. He realized that the delightful atmosphere was just a camouflage for the ill behavior and corruption rife among the kibbutz
members.
The avreich exposed this
painful point and offered, “Let’s
see the good life instead.” He told
Yaakov Yisroel to stop thinking
that there is one absolute way
that everyone has to be. “Your
way,” he enlightened the confused youth, “is to live Yiddishkeit
in the way that fits you, that
makes you feel good.”
He took Yaakov Yisroel to a
party in Yeshiva Shaarey Yosher,
where boys like him sit and sing
shirei neshamah, listen to divrei
Torah, and feel good about themselves. Yaakov Yisroel didn’t
know why he was so attracted to
Shaarey Yosher: was it the special
music, the welcoming chevrah,
the inspiring divrei Torah…? Or
was it perhaps the hope that he
would find his way back? In the
depths of his heart, he was long-
ing for his family and home —
maybe Shaarey Yosher held the
key to return.
Yaakov Yisroel is one of hundreds of bachurim who have
passed through Yeshiva Shaarey
Yosher on their way to a successful resolution of their inner struggles.
The contemporary world is
blessed with many different
kinds of yeshivos, for students of
all backgrounds and on all levels.
What they all have in common is
that they cater to a specific group
in the religious Jewish world.
Yeshiva Shaarey Yosher, however,
does not have a quantifiable profile; the hanhalah recognizes that
each bachur is different and has
his own needs and doubts, and
thus each one has a program tailor-made to fit him.
Yeshiva Shaarey Yosher is
endorsed by Gedolei Yisrael and is
supported by Yidden from every
community.
On Sunday, April 25, at 8 p.m.,
an evening in honor of Shaarey
Yosher will be held in Monsey, at
the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Yochanan Herzog, 1 Bartlett
Road, featuring Hagaon Harav
Avrohom Shorr, shlita, as guest
speaker. All are invited to attend.