A Tzantar from the world of truth

The author of the deed, Rabbi Eliyahu Keller shlita, recounts one of the most important Torah scholars in Givat Shaul in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Eliyahu Shlita was born in Argentina. His father, Rabbi Avraham Moshe, was born in Poland in 1933, and before the war his family moved from Poland to Argentina, where he lived for almost eighty years, and all their lives they grew up in Argentina, and although they raised their descendants in a foreign land, their dream was always to immigrate to the Holy Land, at least at the end of their lives. And indeed, three years ago, his father, Rabbi Avraham Moshe Keller zt"l, was privileged to immigrate to the United States from Argentina at an advanced After a short period of time, he settled in Neve Horim "Guardians of the Walls” in the city, where he managed his meticulous daily routine as he had done all these years.

One thing caught the attention of all who saw him: wherever he was, there was always the book "Short version of the Shulchan Aruch”, which he studied every day. He adhered to his Torah and even taught it to others all his life. All his acquaintances knew: Rabbi Avraham Moshe and the book ""Short version of the Shulchan Aruch " they were true friends. About a month and a half ago, on the night of the 27th of Nissan 5780, in the evening, Rabbi Avraham Moshe zt”l passed away at the age of 87. During the Corona crisis, as is well known, funerals are held quickly, without many acquaintances. The family members asked to observe the custom of Jerusalem and bury him that same night. Indeed, the funeral time was set for 1:00 p.m. and was supposed to leave the Shamgar Funeral Home. During the pandemic, only five people arrived in the MK's car. In order not to endanger the entire regular minyan, in case they need isolation, etc., the family is supposed to recruit five more family members to accompany the deceased to the burial, so that there will be a minyan at the time of burial. Here the son Rabbi Eliyahu recounts the astonishing sequence of events that he witnessed:

We were only a few people from our family, and I, as my only son and son-in-law, who is a Cohen, said goodbye to him with a few words of farewell, because of the month of Nissan, which is forbidden to eulogize, and then I said the Kaddish, and they put my father's bed in the MK's car on its way to the Mount of Olives, to the section of the people of Jerusalem. The members of the Knesset came to check that there was indeed a minyan that would come with them for burial, because burial is not held without a minyan. It turned out that there was no minyan. It was the custom in Jerusalem that those who came out of the loins of the deceased did not accompany him to the cemetery after the funeral, and so I, as an only child, remained in Shamgar until they traveled and I could return home. The grandchildren are also not accompanied, and my two sons-in-law are priests who could not accompany them to the cemetery either. The third groom is currently in closed Argentina, leaving only four members of my sister's and her sons-in-law's immediate family, who are now living in Israel. Missing a tenth of a minyan...The MK members who saw this told themselves that in this exceptional case they would deviate from their custom and would ask one of the MK members to organize to join them and pass through him to join them at this late night, but they hesitated if they found him available at such a late night. Suddenly, an elderly man who appeared to be about 70 years old, who was standing on the side at the funeral, appears, and says that he is joining them to go to the burial on the Mount of Olives. The MKs are not interested in who the escorts are, and when ten people join and come, they go on their way. But the family members were very surprised who the older man was who was willing to travel at one o'clock in the morning during the Corona period to the Mount of Olives. They were sure that he was wrong, and they said to him gently: "Rabbi Eid, you don't have to bother on this trip", they were sure that he was a passerby who passed by and wanted to do true kindness, so they kindly told him that there was no need for him to bother for them, they would already get a tenth person for a minyan...But the elderly Jew insists. He asks to accompany the deceased to the Mount of Olives until after the burial. Since our family did not know him, they asked him gently who he was and if he knew the deceased, and he replied that he was his 'relative'... The small family was surprised that there are hardly any family members here in Israel, and they do not know relatives in Israel except those who are here. They were sure that he had made a mistake in identifying the deceased; there were several funerals in Shamgar one after the other, and they explained to him in a pleasant way that there must have been a mistake in his understanding, that we have no family here in Israel other than those that exist here, and maybe he is looking for someone else. But he insisted that he wanted to go with them to the burial, saying he was close... Thus, without speaking, he got into the car of one of the grooms who had traveled with him to the Mount of Olives, and he was privileged to complete the minyan, and the MK calmly drove with my father's bed to the Mount of Olives.

After the burial, when the groom saw the Jew standing and felt close to the place, his surprise and curiosity increased, and he asked: What is your name? "Gentzfried,” replied the anonymous man. The groom could not hear the name accurately, but he immediately understood that such a name was not known in the family at all, and he was very surprised at its identity, and especially did not understand where it was from, a relative of theirs. The same guest came back with them in their car, and on the return trip another family member joined the same trip, so that the same guest sat in the back, and the whole trip they talked to each other, and the same guest did not say a word, and seemed to be absorbed in his thoughts. Only when he was dropped off in the center of Jerusalem did the groom ask the relative who was sitting next to him, "Do you know such a relative of ours named 'Gantzfried'?! When the family member heard the name, he almost fainted. "Is that the name he told you?" he asked in amazement, turning to look at him again and look for him where he had been dropped off a moment ago. But the man was not seen at all, and all their attempts to locate him were in vain...

The cousin, who knew the name "Gantzfried” as the name of the author of the abbreviation Shulchan Aruch, was completely excited. He remembered and connected the matter with the special connection that my father had all these years with R. S. Gentzfried's book – the abbreviation of the Shulchan Aruch, and came straight to my house to tell the whole story of the miraculous deed, saying that he did not doubt that a messenger from Heaven had come here to accompany him and complete a minyan for him in view of the great effort of the deceased all his life in his Torah. "When my parents came from Poland to Argentina, there were no Torah institutions in the city, and there was a wonderful Jew named Rabbi Ze'ev Greenberg, who was an emissary from Heaven to instill the atmosphere of Torah and Yiddishkeit among the great waves of immigration that came to Argentina, and thus bring hundreds and thousands into the bosom of Judaism, and when my late father came to the age of bar mitzvah, 74 years ago, it was Rabbi Greenberg who brought him closer and strengthened, and said to him Blessed are you that you have been privileged to accept the yoke of mitzvot, And I give him as a gift on the occasion of your arrival at the mitzvah of a holy book called " "Short version of the Shulchan Aruch ", the author of which is Rabbi Shlomo ben Rabbi Yosef Gantzfried, and it will accompany your ways all the time. He received the book and took it as his life's wish, and especially made sure to fulfill the request of his rabbi, who told him: Every day that you study in the holy book, you will merit to be a good Jew, and you will be able to fulfill its laws, which are easy and clear for the Jewish way of life in all halachic subjects, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will be happy with you. And I can testify that from that day they came to the mitzvot until his last day, the 26th of Nissan, Abba zt”l would study this holy book every day, and not a single day went by that he did not learn this abbreviation, and even when he immigrated to the United States, it was what he took with him in his backpack, and he took the book with him to the Guardians of the Walls Retirement Home, and it was placed next to his bedside."l can testify from my memories” – the son tells us in an emotional voice – "half a century ago I got married in Argentina, and before the wedding my father as usual was studying the laws of kiddushin and the other laws relating to the days of marriage in short, and when I saw how my father was studying with joy, we asked him, 'How many times have you already studied this holy book?' And he answered with a smile and humility, 'Maybe thirty times'... And that was half a century ago, and a few years ago, when he was celebrating his 80th birthday among the family members, they asked him to say a few words in honor of the occasion, and he said, 'I can't say much, I only know how to recite Psalms and learn the “Short version of the Shulchan Aruch”, so I'll tell you from these laws that I know, and he began to recite by heart laws from the book he loved so much all his life. He even taught many to know the special book."

Three years ago, when my parents decided to immigrate to the United States, we were surprised. They lived there all their lives, and raised a large family and a large community, but my father insisted and said that at the end of his life he wanted to establish the dust of Israel. When they were about to arrive in Israel, he took all the money he had bought in his lifetime, and took out his savings from the bank, in order to bring it with him and distribute it to his children. Then robbers came in the middle of the day dressed as "deportees” and robbed him of all the money he had saved all his life. And the jewelry that was in their house. Mother was frightened and asked him what to do, and he answered her quietly: "It is said in short that everything that God does is for the good, apparently God is giving us a gift, because of which we will surely merit to reach the Holy Land safely, like Yaakov our father, whose entire property from the land of the nations remained there, and did not come to the United States with the spoils. This is a time of desire, and we must pray that we will merit to immigrate to the Israel. And so he prayed during the robbery for redemption and salvation.

My mother testified that during their 65 years of marriage, she did not hear anything derogatory or slanderous from her husband, and when they said something bad, he pretended not to hear, and always said, "The Shulchan Aruch does not allow so," and what he could fulfil from the book was fulfilled with elegance and simplicity. Even the laws of the Shulchan Aruch that were not ruled in the previous poskim are fulfilled in elegance. "Anyone who knew my father,” the son concludes, "saw that a God-fearing person was not found. And once, frankly, he revealed to me the secret of the fear of Heaven that surrounded him all his life: "The first section of the Talmud begins with 'l have set the Lord before me always,' which is a great rule in the Torah and in the virtues of the righteous.” Therefore, for us, it is no wonder that if he lived like this every day, the miraculous event took place at his funeral...

We spoke with prominent teachers and asked whether to publish it, and they said that it is a mitzvah to publish, to teach us the extent of adherence to the book of the geniuses of the generations, which accompanies a person not only in his life but also in the world of the dead.