[COMMUNICATED]

“It’s hard for me to talk, it’s hard for me to eat.” Reb Avraham groaned, his words coming out with great difficulty, almost choking. “What am I going to do at home more than in the Beis Medrash? At least here I’m sitting and learning.”
He sits by his Gemara, his lungs completely shot, really blocked up, listening to his chavrusa and every so often throwing in a vort, but barely, with real effort. The Malach Hamaves is hovering over him, counting down the minutes.
And then, in the afternoon, he goes out with superhuman kochos to do school bus rides, to bring home some parnassah for medicine and food for a family of 15 kids, kein ayin hara.

How does a family of 17  live in such poverty, it’s just not normal, and yet with such shalom bayis and simple emunah? How do you raise 15 kinderlach without a dollar to their name – but with nachas and simcha, until the Tatty’s sickness came and turned everything upside down?
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*Dealing with Emunah*
“Before every birth, we’d think about where we’d put another child to sleep, and Baruch Hashem it always worked out,” says the mother simply. The 15th baby is in her arms,  “He who gives the children, also gives the parnassah for them…
Now, with Tatty being sick – it’s really a bit tough… But if Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought this – He already took care of everything, even the crowding in the apartment. I’m sure it’ll be okay and he’ll be back to himself soon.”
The gabbai tzedakah was left speechless.
He just asked how he could help and was curious how they manage with 15 kids in a two-room apartment, and he was just amazed by the quiet in the house. Where does this bitachon come from?
Nobody really knows them. A modest and quiet family, the Tatty is a ben Torah who sits and learns, does bus rides in the morning and afternoon for parnassah, the mother takes care of the house, and together they raise 15 good kids, really yerei Shamayim.
They never asked for help. Not from the neighborhood tzedakah fund, not from any organization or distribution. A happy and simple family, kids happy with their lot, don’t think they’re owed anything, always with hakaras hatov.
On the contrary – whenever they could, they were on the giving side. The Tatty with the big van would schlep furniture for shuls that were being built in the neighborhood, give rides to people who needed help, do chessed quietly and with tzniut. Hardly any of the neighbors knew them.
How can a Tatty of 15 kids be sick? How will such a house, a house of Torah, deal with chemo and surgeries, hospitalizations and fears, and with no money?
The Tatty goes to the oncologist and comes back, the tzadekes mother keeps running the house, and the kids are calm and taken care of as usual. Until the day he was niftar, they went to Talmud Torah every morning, with everything they needed, clean and pressed clothes!
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*Accepting the Gezeirah*
The Tatty finishes a round of treatments and says goodbye to the oncologist, goes back to a small and cramped apartment, 60 meters, in tough conditions for regular people, and especially for a cancer patient.
And only then, finally, they move to a slightly bigger apartment. So there would be a little more room and air for the Tatty who barely breathes. Another shelf for medicine.
They get to the new apartment with a lot of hope. A change of location – a change of mazel! Maybe here the Tatty will get better and go back to being healthy like before!
But the machalah comes back, big time. The Tatty gets strong treatments until the doctors tell him to go home. It’s a waste for him to suffer for nothing. Go, be with your family.
And even then, with a strong emunah that’s hard to describe – they accept the gezeirah with haskama. They understand what’s going to happen, they daven for a neis and believe that Hashem will do what’s best for them.
Two months ago, their fourth son got married, the last one who got to walk to the chuppah with the Tatty. Reb Avraham walked slowly with his son, the chassan, fighting for every breath and barely able to stand. His kids were there with him, dressed simply even though they’re the chassan’s brothers, surrounding him with love and appreciation. Good kids, real bnei Torah. Yeshiva bochurim who are used to being happy with little and have nothing besides Torah.
For the Sheva Brachos Shabbos, he only came for a few minutes. A whole Shabbos the mother and the kids celebrated alone, with simcha and sadness and fear together.
The Tatty stayed home until his last day. He insisted on learning another daf Gemara when his lungs were full of metastases. He insisted on working and bringing home parnassah for medicine.
On his last day, he couldn’t breathe anymore, and the mother called an ambulance. After a few hours he was niftar. Quietly, with hashlama.
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Thursday night of Chanukah. Lights burning in all the windows, lighting up the quiet levaya. A quick levaya without hespeidim – because you don’t give hespeidim on Chanukah, that’s it!
It’s hard to understand this. They’re crying and in pain, their Tatty just passed away after 6 years of sickness – and even in the hardest time in the world you can see on them the quiet that’s only for someone who trusts in Hashem. They cry and believe, mourn and rely on the Borei Olam.
The neighbors come into the apartment, setting up for shiva – and are just in shock from the terrible poverty in the house. There aren’t even enough beds for everyone, some of the kids sleep on mattresses! How did a sick Tatty live here? How?


For six years this house suffered from sickness. For six years a Tatty of fifteen children was sick – and they didn’t ask for help!
And even now they’re not asking,
But we’re asking for them –
It can’t be, it can’t be that we’ll leave a widow and 15 yesomim alone, only 4 of them are married. It can’t be that we’ll move on – when they have nothing!
What will they buy food with tomorrow? What will they pay for tuition and electric and water? How can we ignore it when they have nothing?
They need our tzedakah to live! For food in the pots, for socks and winter shoes, for 40 shekels for a sefer and water!
They need our tzedakah for a warm house, and for antibiotics for an ear infection!
They need our tzedakah to build a future, and there are so many kinderlach who need to get married in the coming years!
Therefore, we implore you to open your hearts and give generously. Your tzedakah will make a real difference, providing food, clothing, chinuch, and hope for a brighter future.
May Hashem repay you for your tremendous mitzvah of supporting this almanah and these yesomim. In the zechus of your chesed, may you be blessed with all the brachos in the Torah, with health, parnassah, and nachas from your own families.
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