We have before us a wonderful event that the man for whom G-d recorded in his book of rights the establishment of a Torah burnt offering in the city of Bnei Brak: the incident took place with Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahneman zt"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Ponoviz. One day, when the funeral of a certain Jew from Tel Aviv, unknown to the public, passed by the Ponoviz Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahneman zt"l, entered the yeshiva hall and asked the students to come down and pay their last respects to the deceased. He himself joined the escorts and followed the man's bed until he was close to the cemetery. Here, he took a break and asked to say a few things. It was not a eulogy in the usual sense; it was said only to get the yeshiva members to understand why he asked them to participate in this funeral. "In the very days of war and extermination," the rabbi began and recounted with trembling, "When the yeshiva was established, I urgently needed to send mail from Bnei Brak to friends in Johannesburg, South Africa, to take care of the sale of the property we had there and transfer the money to me for construction. For this purpose, I traveled from Bnei Brak to the telegram of the post office in Tel Aviv. But when I got there, after nearly an hour, I realized that I didn't have enough coins to pay for the telegram. So, I went to the Great Synagogue on Allenby Street to pray Mincha there. As I was walking, I was stopped by this man, the deceased, who asked me why I was so depressed. I explained to him all my sorrows, things as they were, and he was astonished: Are you out of your mind? Now to build a yeshiva? After all, everyone says that the Nazi enemy is about to invade here... Every merchant and financier is looking for and trying every possible way to get his money out of here, and you are thinking of bringing money here? For what? To purchase a hill of rocks? For a dream of a yeshiva?! If he hears my advice, get up and go to South Africa, if you really have money there." I believe with complete faith that the enemy will not set foot in our holy land, and that it is our duty at this fateful time to establish the Torah. And the man changed his mind and said to me: 'You have defeated me, Rabbi, you have convinced me of your firm faith. You are right. It is precisely now that a yeshiva must be built. And while he was still talking, he took out of his wallet and handed me the money needed to send the telegram. As a result of this delivery, the whole sequence of events developed later - the Ponoviz Yeshiva was established and also stood up. Well, out of a sense of gratitude to this man, who had a part in the "creation of the yeshiva," "when the earth was chaos," and now he has gone to his world. I felt a debt. May we all honor him to accompany him to his resting place."
