For almost a year, Chaim Rothman defied the odds and clung to life. But 49 weeks after confronting a terrorist’s meat cleaver in Har Nof’s Bnei Torah shul, he succumbed to his wounds, closing a cycle of worldwide prayer in the wake of a massacre that took the lives of another four kedoshim. For his wife Risa, it’s about holding on to Hashem’s Hand.
For almost a year, Chaim Rothman defied the odds and clung to life. But 49 weeks after confronting a terrorist’s meat cleaver in Har Nof’s Bnei Torah shul, he succumbed to his wounds, closing a cycle of worldwide prayer in the wake of a massacre that left Klal Yisrael stunned and took the lives of another four kedoshim. For his wife Risa, it’s about holding on to G-d’s Hand.
For the past 49 weeks, Jews around the world have been offering up heartfelt tefillos for Chaim Yechiel ben Malka — Chaim (Howie) Rothman — who absorbed lethal blows to his head by a terrorist’s meat cleaver last year in Har Nof’s Kehilas Bnei Torah shul. This past Motzaei Shabbos, a circle of sorts has been closed — one that began last 25 Cheshvan (November 18) with the horrific Shacharis murders of four kedoshim and ended with Chaim Rothman’s final earthly journey accompanied by thousands.
Four other rabbis and Torah pillars of the Har Nof community — Aryeh Kupinsky, Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, Rav Kalman Zev Levine, and Rav Moshe Twersky Hy”d — were slaughtered while wrapped in talleisim; those terrifying images continue to burn in the eyes and hearts of Jews everywhere.
For Reb Chaim’s widow Risa, who for the last year remained a constant presence at the side of her comatose husband while trying to maintain a level of normalcy for her large family, it was a year of pain and anguish, but also a year of uncovering hidden reserves of inner strength and untapped levels of emunah.
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