“This is the task Hashem has entrusted me with,” I answered them simply. “To care for this precious soul”
Iwould like to share some wonderful news with you. I have just become a great-grandfather! I can hardly believe that your older brother, my bechor, is now a zeidy. It seems like yesterday that he was born.
It seems like yesterday that you were born, too, even though 29 years have passed since then, and 15 since you left us.
When you were born, we named you Yehosef Eliyahu. Yehosef is a unique name, and you were a unique child. Yosef Hatzaddik merited the addition of a hei from Hashem’s Name into his own because he exhibited supreme self-control in resisting the wiles of Potiphar’s wife. Only Hashem saw Yosef’s struggle; only Hashem knew of his hidden righteousness.
You, Yehosef, were hidden as well. You were born with a flat nose bridge and other facial abnormalities, and you refused to nurse. The doctors weren’t sure what was wrong with you, but they told us that it was serious and that you wouldn’t live past three months. Yet I knew that when the Gemara says that Hashem gives a doctor the power to heal, it means that this power is all the doctor is given. The power to say when a person will die is only in Hashem’s hands.
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