A quarter of a million Jews paused in their celebration of Purim to accord final honor to R’ Moshe. R’ Sholom wanted very badly to participate, but his family insisted that he physically was not up to it. Bedridden and pitifully weak, he accepted their position and remained at home.
Later, he called his son to his bedside and said, “I would like you to gather a minyan, go the grave of R’ Moshe, and ask forgiveness for my not having participated in the funeral.”
“But why, Tatte?” asked his son. “Weren’t you exempt because of weakness?”
R’ Sholom replied, “As far as the obligation to attend the funeral of a gadol hador, I believe that I was exempt. But when I was hospitalized in New York, R’ Moshe, zt"l, visited me. Out of hakaras hatov, I should have attended his funeral — and I do not think that my illness freed me from that obligation.”
Only after his son carried out his wish and, in the presence of a minyan, asked forgiveness at R’ Moshe’s grave, was R’ Sholom Eisen at peace.
Reprinted from the Parshas Va’eira 5785 email of At the ArtScroll Shabbos Table.
