[COMMUNICATED]
A powerful video was released this morning of Rav Nissan Kaplan shlit”a, revered rosh yeshiva, gadol ba’Torah, and maggid shiur in the Mir Yeshiva.
In the video, Rav Kaplan emphatically tells over a powerful story about a family who he respects deeply. The following are excerpts from that story. The entire video can be seen here.
“I want to share with you a tragedy that happened recently in Eretz Yisroel to the family Pollack. Reb Tuvia Pollack… one of the gedolei ha’marbitzei Torah in Eretz Yisroel, his wife… Rebbetzin Chaya Varda was hit in a train accident. She was a vegetable. But she woke up and she managed to get back to life, and with her husband she brought 8 [more] kids into the world.
4 years ago, she got cancer all over her body. I met her in the hospital, she was my rebbetzin a”h, mamash mekabel ha’din b’ahava, davening for everyone… She passed away.
The one that took care of the family after that was the oldest daughter Etty. All of the years that the mother was sick, she was the mother of all of the kids.
Less than a year ago, half a year after her mother passed away, she came home with terrible headaches. To make the story short, they found a huge tumor in her brain. Before they managed to treat it, she went into a coma, and she passed…
The family was left without mother number one, without number number two, with no one left to take care of this family.
And now we’re trying to put together … a sefer torah that will be a zecher for the mother and the daughter. We started to write it, but we’re far… We need 60, maybe 80,000 dollars to finish the sefer Torah. A mehudar sefer Torah … so that the family will feel that they have a zecher.
I will ask everyone if you can open your hearts and [even give] something small. So if everyone will give a push, $1000, $500, we could get there. We could get there! Even $100!
It’s also writing a sefer Torah, the biggest mitzvah in klal yisroel, writing a sefer Torah!”
It is clear from the Rav’s delivery that this is a family, and a cause, which is close to his heart. Those who are moved by the story of this incredible family can join the Rav in doing “the biggest mitzvah in klal yisroel” via The Chesed Fund.
My heart goes out to this family, but whoever wrote this piece did an injustice. Firstly, he/she writes “The family was left without mother number one, without number number two.” We Jews are not numbers and that is why it is forbidden to count Jews directly. Furthermore, “she was a vegetable” is a horrible term to use for any human being, no matter how unresponsive he or she is. Every human being as a “chai” as opposed to a vegetable which is a “tzomay’ach.” As Jews we should never use these terms, even if secular society sees nothing wrong in using them. Please be more sensitive to the family and to your choice of words.
Even secular society frowns upon these terms, calling someone a “vegetable” gets people sacked, and during autopsies the human bodies are to be referred as “patient”. Let us be more sensitive.
However, to be fair, maybe the writer is not mother tongue english.
May the family know happiness only.
Whatever helps Matzav pay the bills, goes. Sad.
If they haven’t, this family must immediately move.
Radiation or EMF exposure can cause cancer and certain homes are more susceptible.
He is not in Mir anymore- he is the rosh yeshiva of his own place.