“I wasn’t zocheh to have a family of my own,” he said. “If you have a son, would you name him after me?”
T
his past week, Rabbi Ezra Cohen of Brooklyn, a great talmid chacham and author of seforim, who enjoyed little fame and bore no progeny, passed away. Members of the chevra kaddisha were looking for someone to assist with the taharah, but all their regular volunteers were tied up. Searching through their contacts, they came across the name of Rabbi Ezra Netanel, a beloved melamed at Yeshivat Mekor Chaim who had helped in the past.
They called and explained that they needed help with a taharah, and Rabbi Netanel came right over. Only when he arrived did he learn the identity of the niftar. He was duly thunderstruck.
More than 40 years ago, Rabbi Ezra Cohen had approached Rabbi Netanel’s father, Reb Avraham Netanel, and issued a personal request.
“I wasn’t zocheh to have a family of my own,” he said. “If you have a son, would you name him after me?”
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