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Just a few days remain until the holiday of Shavuos, and the global community has begun to prepare. Many have prepared their grocery lists, planned where they will be ordering their flowers from, and even decided which seforim they will be learning. Rav Chaim Kanievsky will be dedicating some of his precious time on Shavuos to one particular cause, and recommends others do the same.
 

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Baruch Hashem, the hospitalizations and deaths R”l in our kehillah have been on a downward trend for weeks, but the Coronavirus crisis’ effects are felt stronger than ever by so many families. 
All too many of our friends and neighbors in the greater Lakewood area have not had a proper income – or, even worse, incurred steep losses – for some two months now. Two very expensive months. The debts are mounting. The tension is palpable. 

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Rebbetzin Kolodetsky, daughter of Rav Chaim Kanievsky and spiritual leader in her own right, released the following video address this week on behalf of members of her extended family. Her brother-in-law, Rav Yaakov Kolodetsky, was a talmid chacham who passed away due to COVID. He left behind 10 children, 3 of whom still live at home. Those close to the family have become extremely concerned for the wellbeing of the widow & 3 children.
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The world lost another giant last week, with the passing of 59-year-old father of 12 Rabbi Refael Schoenfeld. Schoenfeld was famous throughout Israel for his volunteer work with ZAKA and the Cheva Kadisha. He dedicated his life to giving others a proper Jewish burial. It was with tremendous pain that his colleagues buried him after his life was taken by COVID-19.
 
More pained than the countless families who had benefited from Rabbi Schoenfeld’s chesed, however, was his own widow and 12 children. They have anxiously awaited his return from the hospital since last month, and have now had to accept that their father is never coming home.
 

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No words can describe the pain that one family has been through in the last month. Rav Elimelech Biderman puts it beautifully and powerfully with this message, translated from Yiddish:
“Some people acquire the World to Come in one hour. 
I want to tell you about something that can split even a Jewish heart of stone.
Nebach, it’s a tragedy – a father and mother gone, only 2 days apart. 
We know what Chazal say about an orphan, especially one orphaned from both father and mother. 
“Chap arein” (Grab) this mitzvah! Acquire your portion in the World to Come in one hour. 
The Vilna Gaon writes that nothing protects from sorrow more than charity. 
Charity saves from death. 

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Menachem Blau may only be 4 years old, but he’s had more experience with hospitals than most have in a lifetime. That’s because he was born with a rare condition which causes cysts to grow in his throat. Thus began an exhausting cycle in which, every few months, his parents have needed to bring him in to have a surgery so that he can continue to breathe. He has since had a shocking 26 surgeries. His parents have heroically juggled this process together with raising 6 other children.
 

Life is full of surprises – good and bad.
“Hi, I’m Lani.* When I was a little girl, I imagined what my engagement and wedding day would look like. Just a few months ago, I think we all had our share of plans and expectations. None of us expected a pandemic to change our lives. I had been dating a great guy when it all began and as the world became more chaotic, we found a shining beacon of joy: he asked me to marry him. It was a dream come true.

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Can you fathom the pain of seeing your neighbor oxygen level drop to dangerously low levels?
Can you dream of seeing your friend go into cardiac arrest?
Can you imagine what it’s like to try and reassure a family that everything will be ok, when deep down you know that you may be taking their father, mother, husband, wife, son or daughter on the last trip of their life?
Probably not.
Lakewood’s dedicated Hatzolah members do the unimaginable every single day, but the last few weeks have brought about trauma like never before.