Stories Of Greatness

It was said about R’ Shaul Katzenellenbogen, zt”l, that he had a photographic memory; the “Angel of Forgetfulness” had no power over him. All his life, whatever he heard, read, or learned was firmly entrenched in his mind. There was only one thing, though, that he could never remember: When someone disparaged him or heaped insults upon his head, he never took it personally and never let it linger. This one thing he immediately forgot!

In 1927, Boruch Frankel left his wife and three children in Poland and made the transAtlantic journey by steamer to the New York harbor to try to earn a living and support his family. It was quite a sacrifice. Boruch was a scion of a great chasidic lineage, and his roots were firmly planted in the old country. Yet, he realized that there was greater financial opportunity in America, and together with a fellow immigrant he met in New York started an import business that did rather well. For three years, Boruch and his partner labored in the business and, with Hashem’s grace, they raised more than enough money for their families back home. Soon they would head home and be hailed as models of industrious success.

Chag HaPesach celebrates the birth of our nation, and it may offer us the key to its continued survival. The korban Pesach, the first sacrifice offered as a nation, underscores the need to create and nurture close familial relationships. Faith exists in the intellectual realm, but it comes alive in community, when families unite around common causes. Perhaps that is why one of the most important things families can do on Pesach night, both when the actual korban Pesach was offered as well as in our contemporary model of Pesach Seder, is come together.