It started out feeling like a cold, and before I knew it, I was in critical condition with little hope for survival. Surely, the tefillos of the klal were the ropes that pulled me out of the abyss. Now, where does a person go once he’s experienced techiyas hameisim?
Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Zev Ginzberg is rav of the Chofetz Chaim Torah Center of Cedarhurst, the founding rabbi of Ohr Moshe Torah Institute in Hillcrest, Queens, and a popular author and lecturer. He and his wife are also the founders of Ohel Sarala — created as a zechus for the aliyas neshamah of their daughter Sarala a”h. After he was struck with COVID-19, doctors gave him a near-zero chance of survival. Here is his story.
This past Purim was a new kind of enjoyable for my wife and me. After years of carpooling the kids to their rebbeim and friends, and then after years of getting together with our own friends, we found ourselves alone.
A few days before Purim, when I realized we would be alone for the seudah and that my elderly mother (may she live until 120) would also be spending Purim alone in her apartment in Queens (she stopped joining us when my father a”h passed away), we decided to bring our seudah to her. Afterward, we stopped by each of our sons’ homes, where they were holding their own lively seudos with their kollel friends. We then returned home with enough time to prepare for our annual Simchas Purim with members of the shul, always a beautiful way to end this special day.
Little did I know that if not for a miraculous reprieve, this could have been my very last Yom Tov celebration.
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