KIDDUSH HASHEM
Rabbi Zev Smith shared the following beautiful story about Rav Moshe Shisgal (Reb Moshe, p. 219, ArtScroll, 1986), the son-in-law of Rav Moshe Feinstein. After Rav Shisgal’s passing, his rebbetzin received a letter from a neighbor whom she did not know at all.
“With tears flowing down my face, I must relate how your husband saved my family from much pain. We have a store on the Lower East Side. We are not religious, and neither is our son. But we were not prepared for the news when he came home one day and told us he was marrying a non-Jewish girl. We were devastated. Marrying out of the faith was inconceivable to us. But what could we do? We weren’t religious—how could we explain that he mustn’t throw away something that we ourselves had never emphasized? Right after we received the news, we were in the store, and your husband walked in. I told him the story. He said, ‘Let me speak to your son.’ We had nothing to lose, and I arranged a meeting. Luckily, our son agreed. He took a fifteen-minute walk with Rav Shisgal. When our son came home, he told us, ‘If we have such a man as part of our people, I cannot marry this girl.’ He broke off all ties with her! Not long after, he met and married a fine Jewish girl. Over the years, they have become more religious, and I am happy to tell you that they recently enrolled our little granddaughter in a religious school!”
The letter concluded: “With the rabbi’s passing, we have lost a great public relations man for Judaism.”
That is kulo Torah. His every action expressed the beauty of Torah. Rav Shisgal was the ultimate kiddush Hashem. The wayward son did not see the Torah knowledge that Rav Shisgal possessed, but he saw the ne’imus of Torah shining through him.
RABBI SHRAGA FREEDMAN
