When someone says that they have “nothing” or “no one,” it is usually an exaggeration. But as neighbors filed into the tiny one-room apartment upstairs in Ramot last week to say shema with a dying widow, they felt that for once – the saying was literal.
Rivka Nissan’s home had been transformed by her two sons, Nosson & Yaakov, into a hospice since her cancer became terminal. “Like malachim,” the two young men stood by her side and cared for her every need until her final day. It was a small token in return for all the years she had raised them alone.
When the prayers and weeping subsided, however, the Nissan brothers were left with a terrifying dilemma: They literally did not have enough money to bury their mother. And so, to fulfill the mitzvah of kavod ha’meis, they gave up the one thing they still had: Their home. They laid their mother to rest and became homeless.
The timing hurts: Rivka a”h will miss her son Nosson’s chuppah, scheduled for two weeks from now. In his current poverty, it seems unlikely the simcha will be able to happen.
Nosson’s brother Yaakov has started a crowdfunding campaign with the dream that his brother can get help to afford the essentials and sow the seeds of a treasure they never had: A safe, blooming home & family.
The page also features an extremely emotional video of Rav Yehuda Shapira, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Ahavas Moshe in Ramot, praising the young man’s character & appealing to the public to help him.
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