It is often said that the greatest individuals are handed the greatest challenges. One Jerusalem family is the personification of this, and a powerful video from Rav Nissan Kaplan tells their story.

Rebbetzin Chaya Pollack thought her life was over when she was hit in a horrific train accident. Her husband waited by her side while she lay in a hospital bed, unresponsive, for weeks. Not only did Rebbetzin Pollack live, she learned to walk and talk again, and even raised 9 cherished children.

That made it all the more devastating when she was diagnosed with cancer last year. By this time, she was a known tzaddekes, and a rebbetzin to many, including maggid shiur at the Mir Yeshiva Rav Kaplan himself. Rabbi Kaplan visited her in the hospital to sit by her side, and got chizuk from the Rebbetzin’s unbreakable emunah.

The family would be okay, the Rebbetzin said, because her eldest daughter Etty was doing a wonderful job of caring for her siblings. And when Rebbetzin Pollack passed away, Etty did become like a second mother to her siblings, sending them off with their lunches and tucking them into bed each night. 

Until she collapsed.

Rav Kaplan and others watched on in horror when, recently, Etty Pollack was diagnosed with a brain tumor and quickly passed away. This incredible family who had been an inspiration to all for their strength, was tested once again. “They lost mother number one, and mother number two.”

Rav Kaplan tells this heartbreaking story and more, in his appeal to the public to join him in having a sefer Torah written l’ilui nishmas the two very special women, as a comfort and inspiration to his family.

“[It’s] the biggest mitzvah in klal yisroel,” says the Rav emphatically in the video. Readers can join the effort and read more details here.