Now we mourn; we cry over our loss, for we have lost our very soul
Maran Rav Chaim, the Sar HaTorah, was no longer with us.
I immediately switched gears and sent out a shul email announcing that the topic of the shiur had been changed to “Reflections on the Life of Rav Chaim Kanievsky ztz”l.” I went to my trusted old file cabinet of index cards and pulled out the sh’eilos that I’d asked Rav Chaim over the course of over 30 years and began to review his fascinating responses, trying to pick just a few to use for the shiur.
While we were all left with a terrible feeling of pain and loss, I really didn’t get it just yet. Even a little later, when I tore kri’ah along with so many other Yidden the world over, I still felt numb. It was early Shabbos morning, as I recited my daily Tehillim, that I finally felt it. Waves of overwhelming pain rolled over me.
It was then I understood. Klal Yisrael had lost its very neshamah.
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