HaGaon HaRav Meir Tzvi Bergman traveled from Bnei Brak to Jerusalem on Wednesday evening to pay a shiva visit to the Paley family.
During the visit, the elderly Rosh Yeshivah told the surviving Paley brothers how his only brother was murdered many years ago by an Arab in front of his family outside Kever Rochel. He added that despite his weakness, he made the effort to come in order to tell them his story.
“I want to tell you a story about myself from almost 90 years ago,” the Rosh Yeshivah said. “When I was a boy, I had a brother, his name was Nochum.”
“Before Rosh Hashanah, my parents took us to Kever Rochel, it was two days before Rosh Hashanah. We were at the kever and we davened and when we came out, we waited on the sidewalk for a car to take us back to Jerusalem.”
“Suddenly a car appeared with an Arab driver. He wasn’t driving fast, he was driving slow, and when he reached the sidewalk where we were standing, he turned the car around and ran over my brother, who was three. He then sped away.”
“My father took my little brother in his arms, he was full of blood. There was someone there with a small car who let my father put my brother in the car, with all the blood. My mother wanted to go in the car also but there wasn’t room. He closed the door and drove to Beit Lechem, where they said there was a hospital. So my mother went on foot to Beit Lechem. My brother was niftar.”
“People who witnessed the scene said that the Arab driver intentionally ran over my brother.”
“My sisters and aunts were also there and they took me back to Jerusalem. When we got to Jerusalem – it took a long time – my brother had already been placed on the ground with candles.”
“I remember that my father purchased a name for the shul, there was a shul there in Batei Ungarin in Jerusalem. He bought a type of electrical lamp and had my brother’s name engraved on it, and that he had been murdered by evildoers. I don’t know why but I remember that the lamp exploded shortly later, something went wrong with the electricity.”
“I don’t remember who but someone said that we don’t need to make a zicharon for my brother – he’s kodesh and we don’t need any zichronos.
“Why am I telling you this? For this reason – your brothers were killed by evildoers. They don’t need any tikkunim – they are kodesh elyon,” the Rosh Yeshivah tearfully said.
“And the parents and family members who are suffering, I remember that it’s said in the name of the Chazon Ish that yissurim bring us close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and through yissurim we’re zocheh to Torah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu should help that you’ll be zocheh to Torah and Yiras Shamayim. Hakadosh Baruch will be mechazeik you.”
“You were zocheh to be a place where kedoshei elyon were. I don’t feel so well but I felt that I must come especially to tell you the story – to tell you that I also experienced this.”
The Rosh Yeshiva also said a bracha for the refuah sheleimah of the father of the family, Avraham Noach ben Yehudis.
Before he left, the Rosh Yeshivah went to the ezras nashim to say words of tanchumim to the mother of the family, Devorah Paley, and tell her that she was zocheh to be the “achsania” for kedoshei elyon.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
it’s despicable & pathetic that after 75 years and thousands of yidden killed in terrorist attacks, the IL govt still hasn’t managed to kick out all the murderous שונאי ישראל Arabs, and that they continue to allow them to roam freely in the midst of it’s Jewish population that they have mandated themselves to ‘protect’