Hillel Fuld was preparing for Yom Kippur. Although he had heard the news about a terror attack in the neighborhood where his brother lived, he didn’t know that his brother was the victim. Because… well, these things only happen to other people. Except that sometimes they can happen to us. During this time, when our hearts are with our brothers in Eretz Yisrael, when we all need to work on our emunah and we wonder why the world hates us, Mr. Fuld reminds us that halachah b’yaduah she’Eisav sonei l’Yaakov.  We can’t change that. But we can recognize that wherever we may find ourselves, we n ..read more

  Rabbi Naftoli Kassorla, Speaker, Teacher and Rebbi in Yerushalayim Imagine getting an unexpected call informing you that your brother died.  Presumably, you would always remember it as one of the most difficult phone calls of your life. But what happens if you haven’t spoken to that brother or had any kind of real relationship with him in years? For valid reasons Rabbi Kassorla had found it simply impossible to maintain a relationship with him. In fact, Rabbi Kassorla was told that because of this history, he wasn’t even required to sit shivah. But his wife saw that perhaps it wasn ..read more

Mrs. Mindy Blumenfeld, LCSW Mrs. Mindy Blumenfeld is positive and upbeat. She is smiley, and she makes you smile. You would never know that she lost her youngest son Hillel to cancer. Although she has been profoundly impacted by her loss, she won’t let the pain bring her down into negativity. She started writing about Hillel as a means of finding comfort. But really, her journey with writing about her son began with the puppets she created when Hillel was first diagnosed at age six. Faced with the challenge of keeping him occupied during difficult treatments, she created cute little puppets ..read more

Mr. Broyde, who happens to be my first cousin, discusses his struggles and pain after losing an uncle, aunt and cousin who were an integral part of his family. He was part of the same tragedy that was my life. But as Mr. Aaron Broyde says repeatedly, it was from a seat further back. No one realized how much the loss of his relatives affected him because he was a nineteen-year-old bachur learning in yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael during that time. He had stomach problems. The Israeli water is easy to blame for that. He had sleeping issues. Whatever. But after living with these issues for many years ..read more

Mrs. Barbara Bensoussan Novelist and well-known contributor to frum publications The young mother checked in to the hospital to have a baby. Nothing out of the ordinary. But this time, nothing went as expected. Not many people die from childbirth today, but Mrs. Benssousan’s daughter Miriam did. When her birth experience went awry, the doctors worked all night, desperately trying to ensure a happy outcome. They saved the baby. But the mother remained in a coma for the next four months until she passed away. This precious newborn never got to know her mother. Her two older sisters have, at best ..read more

My Brother Tuli Mrs. Soroh Leah (Rickman) Cohen     The Getting Used to Having a Pebble in Your Shoe podcast with Rabbi Benjy Rickman has gotten many hundreds of views. If you listen, you will understand why. When his son Tuli passed away, his world ended. The pain was so intense, it seemed to him that life must have stopped for the whole world. How could life move forward when his beloved son had died? But life did move forward, and Rabbi Rickman learned how to move forward with his pain, role-modeling for his family how to do so as well.  And then Hashem blessed the family wi ..read more

My Brother Tuli Mrs. Soroh Leah (Rickman) Cohen     The Getting Used to Having a Pebble in Your Shoe podcast with Rabbi Benjy Rickman has gotten many hundreds of views. If you listen, you will understand why. When his son Tuli passed away, his world ended. The pain was so intense, it seemed to him that life must have stopped for the whole world. How could life move forward when his beloved son had died? But life did move forward, and Rabbi Rickman learned how to move forward with his pain, role-modeling for his family how to do so as well.  And then Hashem blessed the family wi ..read more

Rabbi Yitzchok Rubin Rav of Adas Aish Kodesh in Manchester England She was Rebbetzin Rubin, but she was known as Chaiky. She had a way with people. Everyone who knew her felt loved and embraced by her – because she loved life, and she loved the people in her life. Whether it was her congregants or the ladies from the exercise class she gave, they all felt how deeply she cared. Chaiky was a powerhouse of a person. She was always on the go, yet somehow had time for everyone.  She was on the phone with her grandson Pinny one day, but she needed to leave to be on time for her exercise class ..read more

Rabbi Henoch Plotnik Rosh Mesivta of Kesser Yonah, well-known speaker, actively involved with LINKS The Torah recognizes the pain of loss, and the Torah gives us guidelines for navigating loss with the laws of shivah and aveilus, many of which correspond to the state of the neshamah of the niftar. There is much that we deduce about loss from the Torah, whether from Avraham Avinu, Aharon HaKohen or Dovid HaMelech. Rabbi Plotnik talks to us about loss through the lens of the Torah, sharing stories past and present to give perspective. Rabbi Plotnik acknowledges that loss is so painful. A he talk ..read more

Mrs. Devorah Schendler, author of Compatible with Life Giving birth to a stillborn baby was so painful. Yet looking back, Mrs. Devorah Schendler saw how that experience strengthened her emunah muscle for the next great challenge – giving birth to a baby diagnosed with Trisomy-13, a syndrome that is incompatible with life. For seven-and-a-half weeks, the Schendlers threw themselves into taking care of their sick baby. At the same time, they had children at home who also needed their mommy; Mrs. Schendler found herself engaged in a balancing act that was confusing and sometimes very difficult. E ..read more