By Rabbi Michoel Oishie for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
An elderly Jew came to the office. He is one of the few residents with whom I can communicate in Yiddish. However, I rarely see him. And in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he appeared.
He told me that his father had told him several times, “You were born a Jew, and you will die a Jew.”
That is true, I said, “But between being born and dying as a Jew, we need to live as a Jew.”
“Rabbi, you are right,” he replied, “but my father never told me how to do it.”
Looking into his pained eyes, I told him, “That is why we are here.”
An excerpt from the new book In the Trenches: Stories from the Front Lines of Jewish Life in Russia, it can be ordered here. Find more of Hasidic Archives latest books on HasidicArchives.com. Hasidic Archives books are also available in bulk.
