THIS WEEK’S DIVREI SIMCHA IS LONGER THAN USUAL, BUT THAT IS BECAUSE IT INCLUDES AN AMAZING STORY THAT HAPPENED TO ME LAST WEEK… enjoy…

You shall not leave his body on the pole overnight (Devarim 21:23)
This is a degradation to Hashem, the King, in Whose image man is created and Yisrael are His children (RASHI)

If a person commits a crime which requires the death penalty, his body is to be hanged for all to see. The Torah, though, tells us that his body may not hang overnight. He must be buried that day. The reason for this is because man is created in Hashem’s image and it is an embarrassment to Hashem to have someone who is in His image hanging.

There is a great lesson we can learn from this. This person is a criminal. He committed a terrible crime – so terrible that he was given the death penalty. Still, Hashem says this man is created in His image. This man is still special to Him. We can learn from this that every single Jewish person is special. This is true even if we do not think he is special.

Let me share with you one of the most amazing stories in my entire life that happened last week. Please note that all names in this story have been changed.

Last Tuesday night around 9pm, my phone started ringing. I looked at the CallerID and saw that Shimon Greenberg was calling. Shimon is one of my friends who I see every morning at the Neitz minyan but it is rare that he calls me. I picked up the phone and Shimon was crying. He said he had bad news. He took a deep breath and then said that Jack Weinstein passed away. I couldn’t believe it. Shimon said the funeral was tomorrow morning at 11am. I usually did not go to funerals because I needed to be at work, but I decided I needed to go to this one as Jack was one of my friends.

A little background regarding Jack. Jack is married with 4 children. He is about 50 years old. He used to live in our community, but about six years ago, moved to a different community a few hours away. He frequently came back to our community as he still had relatives in South Florida and for a while he was working down here (he would travel back to his family on the weekends). Shimon told me that Jack was in South Florida for a meeting last Tuesday and was at shul in one of the other neighborhoods when he collapsed and died.

On Tuesday night, my wife and I called a few of our friends who knew Jack and the next day I announced at the Neitz minyan that Jack’s funeral was going to be at 11am (because Jack would sometimes daven Neitz with us so the people from this minyan knew him).

In total, there were eight people from our community who dropped everything and went to the funeral on Wednesday morning. We arrived at the cemetery a few minutes early and everyone gathered in a office at the front of the cemetery. In the office, a stranger came over to one of my friends and me and asked if we knew Jack. I said yes. The man started to point out Jack’s family: this is his sister, this is mother. My friend then asked the man where Jack’s wife was. The man became very angry and said, “Jack was never married. Where did you get that idea from?” My friend and I stared at each other. Something very strange was going on.

I found the funeral director and asked him if this is Jack Weinstein’s funeral. He said yes. He then showed me a card with Jack’s information and I was confused. The birthplace was different. The age was different. The middle name was different. Wait a minute – there must be two Jack Weinsteins!

I ran out of the office and saw Shimon Greenberg walking towards me. He apologized immediately as moments before he realized what had happened. Shimon knew both Jacks and mixed them up. It turned out the person who passed away was not my friend.

I found someone who had Jack Weinstein’s phone number (the one who I knew) and I was given the task of calling him. It rang once. It rang twice. It rang three times. And then, it was answered by a familiar voice.

“Hello, Jack?”

“Yes.”

“Hi, it’s Yaakov Ephraim Seltzer. Umm… how are you?”

“I’m okay.”

“Umm… where are you?”

“I’m in my car.”

“Oh… well, I’m at a cemetery. I am at the funeral of Jack Weinstein and well, I thought it was yours…”

I let out a huge sigh of relief.

I turned to one of my friends and said, “well, what do we do now?” My friend said, “Of course, we stay. There is a reason Hashem sent us here.”

So, we stayed at the funeral and during the eulogies I learned a little about the Jack Weinstein who had passed away. He was a poor man. He had an anger problem, but worked on himself to overcome it. He became a Baal Tshuvah during the last year of his life and began learning 3 mornings a week. He started wearing tzitzis and tefillin. From the eulogies I realized that he was a very special person.

But I learned the real lesson on last Friday. I wanted to find out more about the Jack that passed away so I decided to Google him. I found a picture of him and I almost collapsed. I knew this man. He used to sit outside of the shul and beg for a dollar for food. This was one of poor people who most people just quickly gave him a dollar bill and walked by him. This is a person who most people ignored.

After that experience last week, I learned a great lesson. Every person is special to Hashem. This poor man, Jack Weinstein, was special to Hashem and that is why Hashem worked it out that eight strangers would show up to his funeral. By the way, Jack’s funeral was very tiny and without us being there, there probably was not a minyan of Shomer Shabbos Jews.

Hashem loves everyone and everyone is very important in His eyes, even the poor beggar who stands outside of the shul. Our job is to realize this and make them important in our eyes too.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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