One Halloween Night In Monsey
(Picture courtesy of hometowncandy.com)Excerpt from page 243 of Reb Yaakov:
Someone was visiting Reb Yaakov, shortly after he moved to Monsey, when someone Halloween trick-or-treating rang the bell. (Monsey was not yet the largely Jewish town that it is today.) The man assumed that Reb Yaakov would not be familiar with such a non-Jewish custom from his years living in Williamsburg and hastened to explain to him what the children wanted. But Reb Yaakov was not only familiar with Halloween, the Rebbetzin had already prepared bags of sweets for any child that might ring.
3 Comments:
It is truly wonderful how what we learn from the Torah mirrors poetry and other aspects of literature that we read in the Western world.
This story, along with most that one might read about true tzaddikim, baalei mussar, and gedolim only shows the sensitivity to the concept of kavod ha brios and darchai shalom. Great story.
Not to diminish the significance of the lesson in this post. In my humble opinion, there should be a strong emphasis in relating the instances where Gedolie Yisroel (especially of the misnagdishe circles) went out of their way to show sensitivity an respect towards other Gedolim and Rebbes not withstanding their different approach in Yiddishkeit.
In any case, this post is an important lesson on its own.
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