Jul 31, 2016

Not Just Yearning for Moshiach

In Ami magazine, Rabbi Yoel Gold of LA wrote about his grandmother who recently passed away.  She was a woman who said the entire Tehillim every day and she greatly anticipated the coming of Moshiach:

"Not in the vaguely hopeful way many of us do.  No, she waited for Moshiach with the anticipation and purity of a young child waiting to be picked up by Mommy at the end of the a school day.  When we grandchildren called her in the morning, the conversation would inevitably begin with, 'By the end of today, we may all be in Yerushalayim!' If we called in the evening, she would sigh, 'Oy, Moshiach didn't come today. When is he finally going to arrive?'"

When his grandparents became engaged in 1947, his grandfather gave her a beautiful gold bracelet. It appeared in the engagement pictures but never again, because she never wore it.

When asked why she didn't wear it, she didn't respond, which made them wonder whether it had gotten lost or stolen.

After she died, her house was cleared out and one of his sisters found an embroidered bag with the bracelet inside in a box.  There was a note which said: Parshas Chayei Sara 5772 (the week she was diagnosed with her illness), I received this bracelet from my chasan when we got engaged and it means very much to me.  Because it is so precious, I decided to set it aside to donate to the Beis Ha'Mikdash when it is rebuilt, may it be soon.

The same thing was written in her will.  Nobody was to wear the bracelet.  She had put it aside for the Beis Ha'Mikdash.

Such a special woman.  I'd love to know more about her like where she was born, her family, her Jewish education.

So I hesitate to express my reservations. I feel bad for her husband. He gave her a gift and he wanted to see her wear it and enjoy it.  I wish her desire to donate to the Beis Ha'Mikdash was expressed differently.

No comments:

Post a Comment