For 9 Months He Stayed Inside. In Just One Week, He Was Gone.

“Calculated risk:” It’s a phrase we’re all familiar with in 2020. In making their daily plans, each individual in the world has weighed needs and normalcy against the likelihood that they could catch the coronavirus. On top of that likelihood they have considered their own health, and how they can expect to be affected by the virus. Through this ever-changing moral dilemma families all over have set their own personal standard of ‘careful.’ Rabbi Tzvi Wallis’s standard was far beyond that of almost anyone.

Rav Wallis, a melamed in Yeshivas Eitz Chaim and father of 9, had suffered from health issues for much of his life. After losing an eye and undergoing a recent kidney transplant, he knew he was considered ‘high risk.’ And so, determined to stay alive for his family and talmidim, he had not left his home for anything that wasn’t a complete emergency, ever, since March. He did not even have his own married children over, a distance which pained him tremendously.

Tragically, his efforts were in vain. Last month, Rav Wallis contracted COVID. No one is sure how, considering how extremely careful he was. After just one week of severe illness, he was gone.

Last week, the Rav’s widow Rebbetzin Rochel Wallis and her 9 children wept behind their masks, watching as Rav Wallis was buried. “The levaya was like a nightmare,” says a Chesed Fund opened for the family.

Though they are overwhelmed by grief, the Wallises must start to think of logistics: Without their sole source of income, they are sinking, and fast. Son Shmuel Wallis is engaged to be married in a month, and making a wedding is an impossibility when his family cannot even afford groceries or rent.

Funds are being urgently collected to help the Wallis family heal from this devastating loss, and survive the weeks to come.