There are people who do acts of chesed even many acts of chesed and there are those for whom doing kindnesses for others is so much part of who they are that it is completely natural. Rebbetzin Chaya Scherman a”h was of the latter group the ba’alei chesed.
When I first started to travel regularly to New York City from Israel in the early 90s I usually davened in Boro Park’s 16th Ave. Telshe minyan. Before davening I had the pleasure of a brisk early morning walk with Rabbi Nisson Wolpin on his way to Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz’s 6:00 a.m. daf yomi shiur. And after davening I looked forward to an invitation from Rabbi Nosson Scherman to join his wife and him for breakfast while Reb Nisson went off to teach at the Bais Yaakov Seminary.
Reb Nosson would enter the house announcing the arrival of a “chashuveh guest from Eretz Yisrael” and Rebbetzin Scherman would greet me warmly while describing the herbal teas available and the health benefits of the morning breakfast. I was not exactly a newlywed at the time but I witnessed in the Scherman home a level of marital harmony that left me filled with anticipation of the future. The communication was almost entirely unspoken; everything was just understood as if by telepathy.
In those days most of my time in America was spent in the ArtScroll offices. On the last day of one of my visits Rebbetzin Scherman made a rare appearance at the office to bring a special birthday cake (I think) to Reb Nosson. When I came into his office and she heard that I was flying home in a few hours she asked me what I was bringing home for my wife and children.
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