For most, the story of pure chesed shel emes would end right there. But not for Rabbi Chill
This week marks the shloshim of Rabbi Michel Chill, a longtime rav in Monsey, New York. (He is also featured in this week’s installment of For the Record.) Among the various communal activities in which Rabbi Chill was involved was the local chevra kaddisha. He was the final word on complex halachic questions, and when there was a difficult taharah that needed to be attended to, Rabbi Chill would set aside both personal and professional obligations to attend to it himself.
Early Erev Pesach morning 13 years ago, Rabbi Chill received a call about a five-year-old boy from Eretz Yisrael who had been in New York for treatment. Tragically, the boy had passed away that morning.
But it was one of the busiest days on the Jewish calendar, and the chevra kaddisha in the city where the hospital was located simply didn’t have the requisite manpower. Instead, they called Rabbi Chill asking if the Monsey Chevra Kaddisha could get the taharah and kevurah done before Yom Tov. Without deliberating, Rabbi Chill immediately responded in the affirmative.
Rabbi Chill, a chaplain at the maximum-security Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate New York, drove to work early that morning, bringing the special Seder simanim his wife made each year for the Jewish inmates. After ensuring the prisoners had everything they needed for Pesach, he rushed back to Monsey for the taharah and kevurah. The taharah was a difficult one, and an exhausted Rabbi Chill got home just as Yom Tov began. Unfortunately, even the parents couldn’t attend the levayah, as it took place too close to Yom Tov.
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