The man’s identity would remain a mystery until several years later
It was just a bit later when I received a call from Rabbi Moshe Kasirer ztz”l, who was extremely devoted to the Rosh Yeshivah and Rebbetzin and often ran errands for the Rebbetzin or took her to the doctor. (After the Rebbetzin’s passing, he told me that since he had lost his own mother in the Shoah when he was just in his early teens, he had decided to care for the Rebbetzin as he would have for his own mother.)
Reb Moshe told me the Rebbetzin needed antibiotics and asked if I could pick them up at the nearby pharmacy, as he wouldn’t get there before it closed. I agreed, figuring it would be okay to leave the Rosh Yeshivah alone for a short while.
As it turned out, there was quite a wait at the pharmacy, and the Rebbetzin returned home before I did. She was rather surprised and unhappy to find the Rosh Yeshivah sitting at the dining room table, attached to his IV pole, in deep conversation with a perfect stranger. When I returned with the medicine, I was also surprised to find a stranger in the house when I had only left a short while before. The Rebbetzin politely but firmly asked him to leave and to make an appointment to come back at a more appropriate time.
The man’s identity would remain a mystery until several years later, when I was learning in Eretz Yisrael. I received a call from the Rosh Yeshivah asking me for a favor. He told me the son of a very close confidant of his was learning in a yeshivah near Netanya and was having some difficulty there. He asked me to please visit that yeshivah to check on this student, and I made arrangements to spend a Shabbos there.
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