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Parshas Chayei Sarah 5785

כי אל ארצי ואל מולדתי תלך ולקחת אשה לבני ליצחק ... (כד-ד)

MASHAL:     Every year, R’ Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler zt”l, remained in Gateshead the week of his father’s yahrzeit so that he could spend the week immersed in Torah and lead the davening in the Kollel. This was a practice very dear to him as he put a lot of emotion and spiritual strength into this week.

One year, on the very evening of his father’s yahrzeit, he asked Rabbi Waltner, a close family friend, to accompany him to the train station. There were no cabs available, so they had to walk all the way to the Newcastle train station. All along the way, R’ Dessler refused to permit his younger friend to carry his bag despite the very long walk.

On the steps of the train, R’ Dessler finally explained why he was departing precisely at the moment when he should have taken the amud in the Kollel. He told Rabbi Waltner that he had received a call from a Rosh Yeshivah in London that a certain shidduch between a girl in Gateshead Seminary and a yeshivah bachur in London had run into difficulties, and that Rabbi Dessler might be able to save it. “I thought to myself,” said Rabbi Dessler, “What better Kaddish can I send my father than to help establish a house of Torah!”

NIMSHAL:     Each and every year, as we read this week’s parsha, we are invited to study the “Shidduch” of Yitzchok and Rivkah. The Torah goes through a very detailed narrative, and great unusual length when describing this shidduch story. The stress and importance of helping along a shidduch is thus quite apparent. One who succeeds in making a match carries the merit of all the offspring thereafter and even one who doesn’t succeed - but gave it a real try - carries the great merit of helping populate the world, which is the task of each and every individual on this world.

 
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