There is a pasuk in this week’s parsha that talks about how careful we need to be with widows and orphans: כל אלמנה ויתום לא תענון אם ענה תענה אתו כי אם צעק יצעק אלי שמע אשמע צעקתו - “You shall not persecute any widow or orphan. If you will persecute them, for if they will cry out to Me, I shall surely hear their cry.” (Shemos 22:21-22). In the past, We have said a famous vort from the Kotzker Rebbe that the threefold redundant appearance of verb forms in this pasuk (aneh/sa’aneh; tza’ok/yitzak; shamoa/eshma) indicates that any feeling of hurt that a widow or orphan senses is always compounded. They always feel “If my father/husband would still be alive, this would not be happening to me.” Therefore, the pain anyone inflicts on them is doubled. As a result, Hashem will “hear their cries” and impose a double punishment on the perpetrators.
I would to share an incident I heard involving Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, zt”l. Rav Nosson Tzvi passed away in November 2011. The number of hespedim [eulogies] that were offered in Yeshivas and Jewish communities all over the world for Rav Nosson Tzvi was unprecedented. This was because he was a person who had an incredible impact on Klal Yisroel. The reaction of the loss that people felt, and still feel, to his death was mind-boggling.
One of his talmidim gave a hesped [eulogy] for him in a certain yeshiva. In relating the incredible acts of kindness that Rav Nosson Tzvi engaged in, he told over the following story:
There was an avreich in the Mir—a man who was already married and had a family—who passed away at a relatively young age, leaving over a widow and orphans. Rav Nosson Tzvi was very close to this man and decided that he would try, in effect, to adopt this man’s sons. He invited them to treat him (Rav Nosson Tzvi) like they would treat a father. This was a family that lived in America, but Rav Nosson Tzvi told the boys that they should write to him—not only their Torah thoughts, but they should correspond with him and keep him abreast of all their personal affairs and activities. When the boys got older, they came to Eretz Yisroel and Rav Nosson Tzvi found each one an appropriate yeshiva. Over many years, he developed a strong relationship with these orphans and tried to act as a long-distance father to them.
This is what this former avreich of the Mir told over in his hesped for the Mir Rosh Yeshiva. After he spoke, a young man from the audience came over to him and told him “The story you related is correct. I can verify the facts. However, that is not the entire story. The rest of the story is that the man who passed away had four sons and he also had a daughter—a little girl at the time of her father’s death. She was the youngest member of the family. She felt left out. She was not going to write a “shtickle Torah” to Rav Nosson Tzvi. What can a young little girl discuss with a great Rosh Yeshiva? She felt neglected.
Rav Nosson Tzvi heard about this and he sent her a letter. But he did not merely send her a generic letter. He had someone draw a heart and, in the heart, he wrote her a note. The person told the Rav who was being maspid the Mir Rosh Yeshiva: “How do I know this story? It is because that little girl is now my wife.” This heart shaped message from Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel gave that young girl such inspiration and such a positive feeling that it rejuvenated her spirit.
Do you know another Rosh Yeshiva on the face of this earth who would send a message inscribed in a heart to a little girl? It is incredible! One of the biggest Rosh Yeshivas in the world sends a heart to a little girl! I have heard dozens of stories about Rav Nosson Tzvi over the
