I Buried a Jewish Man Alone — Or So I Thought

Rabbi Dov Muchnik, Director of Chabad of Oxnard in California, shared the following on social media:

Over the past 20 years as a Chabad Rabbi, I’ve officiated a lot of funerals. The number of participants ranged from hundreds to a lone brother burying his estranged sister. But never before have I had no one in attendance other than myself and a shovel.

The Oxnard Jew who just passed away was 92 years old and sadly succumbed to coronavirus. His out-of-town family could not attend in person due to Covid concerns and travel restrictions. I did all of the traditional rituals and said all of the prayers as usual with one exception; the Kaddish. It cannot be recited without the required quorum of 10 Jews in attendance. While I was sad about this, I took comfort in knowing that it was the best I could do under the current difficult circumstances.

As I got into my car to leave the cemetery, a thought popped into my head to drive in the complete opposite direction of the exit. It was onto a road that seemed to lead to a new section of the memorial park that was still under construction and clearly vacant.

As I turned a bend around a mountain, I see a few people on the other side standing near a gravesite looking distraught and confused.

I stopped, opened my window and asked if all was ok.

“We need 1 more for the minyan so we can say Kaddish for our dad who passed!”

Well, the rest is history.

Not only did I help them recite the prayers, they helped me to recite Kaddish for the man I had buried nearby just minutes prior.

“G-d directs the footsteps of man” says King David in Psalms. Nothing is by chance. Everything that happens, is for a reason.

May we see opened and revealed blessings in 2021 and beyond. With prayers for the true and complete redemption and a world free of illness, pain, suffering, death and war with the speedy arrival of Moshiach, Amen!