HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein on Thursday evening sent a letter of tanchumim to the Paley family.

The grandfather of the family, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Paley, lives in the Ramat Elchanan neighborhood of Bnei Brak, where HaRav Zilberstein serves as the Rav.

“Lichvod the dear and beloved Paley family, shalom and bracha,” Rav Zilberstein began.

“It’s known that the Belzer Rebbe, [HaRav Aharon, z’tl] fled from Galicia at the beginning of the Holocaust and moved from place to place for four years and arrived in Eretz Yisrael after he lost his entire extended family of 70 people, and he knew that most of his chassidim was murdered al Kiddush Hashem.

“The first Shabbos that he was in Eretz Yisrael was Parshas B’Shalach, Shabbos Shirah, which he spent in Haifa. On Friday night, he said a devar Torah on the passuk Az Yashir Moshe U’vnei Yisrael, and Rashi explains that Yashir is written in future tense because it hints at Techiyas Hameisim.

“And he asked, ‘Why davka in this passuk did the Torah hint at Techiyas Hameisim? And he answered, ‘Because several pessukim beforehand, Rashi wrote on the passuk ‘וחמושים עלו בני .ישראל מארץ מצרים’

“חמושים – one of out five left [Mitzrayim] and four-fifths died in the three days of darkness. Afterward, at Kriyas Yam Suf, when Bnei Yisrael needed to say shira, which can only be said b’simcha, Bnei Yisrael said to themselves: ‘How can we say shira and be happy when only one out of five left Mitzrayim, and four-fifths were buried there?’ And apparently, each one had many relatives who died during the three days of darkness.”

“So what did Bnei Yisrael do? They reminded themselves that soon techiyas hameisim will occur and they’ll be zocheh again to unite with their family members and then they’ll say shirah b’simcha. And apparently already then, their hearts filled with simcha and they were able to say shira b’simcha.”

“And so, we will say after the terrible tragedy in which the kedoshim, Asher Menachem, h’yd, and Yaakov Yisrael, h’yd, were killed al kiddush Hashem. The tzaar is very deep but we must remind ourselves that soon, mamash soon, techiyas hameisim will occur and you will quickly be zochech to be united with them again when Moshiach comes and at the building of our Beis Mikdash, bimheirah b’yameinu, Amen.”

HaRav Zilberstein ended with a bracha for a refuah sheleimah for the father of the family Avraham Noach ben Yehudis and words of tanchumim.

“והשי”ת ישלח רפואה שלימה מן השמים לאביכם הרב הגאון רבי אברהם נח בן יהודית שליט”א, והמקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים, ולא ישמע עוד שוד ושבר בגבולכם כל הימים. הכותב וחותם בדמע, אחיכם”. מקום החותם.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)